Sean “Diddy” Combs’ former assistant, Capricorn Clark, launched the third week of testimony in the rap mogul’s sex-trafficking and racketeering trial in New York, dramatically recounting — and then, through tears, walking back or changing details on cross-examination — an alleged kidnapping at gunpoint that led to her calling her boss’ girlfriend to warn her of a break-in and imminent danger.
Clark has an extensive professional music and entertainment industry background, having worked for Def Jam and BET Films and, for years, as a personal assistant to Combs. Her testimony on Tuesday, as the trial resumed after four days off for Memorial Day weekend, included her version of the alleged break-in at rapper and Combs’ onetime romantic rival, the rapper Kid Cudi, whose real name is Scott Mescudi and who dated star witness for the prosecution, Cassie Ventura. Mescudi testified last week that he received a call from Clark in December 2011 that his home had been broken into by Combs and another man. Clark told her version of that night to the jury on Tuesday, explaining how she was kidnapped at gunpoint by Combs, her boss at the time.
Combs “got me with a gun and brought me to Mescudi’s house to kill him,” Clark told the court.
New details of what allegedly occurred that morning in December 2011 emerged with Clark’s testimony of events, mostly surrounding what she claims happened after she and Combs left Mescudi’s Hollywood Hills home. Clark told the court that as they drove off from the house in Combs’ Escalade, they saw Mescudi’s Porsche headed toward the house; they turned around and gave chase, Clark said, but split the scene when police sirens were noticed. Combs then drove to a nearby nightclub parking lot and then home. Clark said she went to pick up Ventura at the hotel where she’d been with Mescudi; Combs, she testified, then mercilessly beat Ventura outside his home, with the then-26-year-old curled into a fetal position in the street as Combs allegedly repeatedly kicked her.
Combs, the 55-year-old Bad Boy Records chief and fashion mogul, was charged with sex-trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution in September in what has expanded to a five-count indictment. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges; if convicted he could face 15 years to life in prison.
As the defense hammered Clark on cross-examination, it was questioned who she called first and why that December 2011 morning while she was inside the Escalade, looking on as Combs and a staffer entered Mescudi’s house. Whether she’d called another woman prior to phoning Ventura and Mescudi was a main point of contention. Combs, upon arriving home, told those with him that they had to convince his romantic rival that “it wasn’t me.”
“If you don’t convince him of that I’ll kill all you,” he said, punctuating his threat with an expletive, according to Clark. Clark said she and Cassie then went to Mescudi’s home, telling jurors: “We needed to talk to him. We needed to make sure he wasn’t going to make a police report about Puff.”
Clark’s relationship with Combs and Ventura over the years took up the entire day’s worth of testimony, and on cross-examination, her demeanor shifted sharply over the course of the day from curt and sometimes sassy answers to the defense’s questions to sobbing and choking back tears, apologizing to the judge, telling him she was determined to “get through” her time on the stand. Following the alleged Mescudi break-in and her alleged kidnapping, Clark was fired from her Bad Boy Records position for, as she claims, not informing Combs about Ventura dating Mescudi.
“I lost everything,” she told the court. “He said I would never work again, and all these people weren’t my friends, and he would make me kill myself.”
But as the defense pointed out throughout its questioning — which often involved repeatedly asking Clark if she was sure about things she said or did at the time — in 2016, she went back to work for him. Emails that she sent to Combs asking if he’d forgiven her yet were read aloud; Clark told jurors she had no choice but to seek employment with Combs again, and needed to tell her that she “was valuable and not disposable.”
“He holds all the power as it relates to me,” she told the court, at a point evoking her son, who she said has autism, “I just want to work and provide for my son.”
Clark’s middling opinion of Ventura’s talent was also drawn out before the court. Clark discussed how from 2007-2010, the lion’s share of Bad Boy’s resources went into promoting Cassie. This dwindled over time; as the singer’s relationship with Combs grew stronger, Ventura was no longer a sweet young artist and more of a “demanding girlfriend.” The two worked on her image and a short film upon Clark’s eventual return to working for Combs as a creative director.
