Former Sean Combs worker Capricorn Clark says he kidnapped her : NPR

Advisory: This report contains descriptions of bodily violence.

On Tuesday, federal legal professionals prosecuting Sean Combs continued widening their case towards the hip-hop mogul. The only witness on the stand for the day was a girl named Capricorn Clark, who rose from being Combs’ private assistant to heading advertising for his Sean John style firm. Clark testified that through the years she labored for him — on and off between 2004 and 2018 — he repeatedly threatened her, and kidnapped her in December 2011.

A lot of Clark’s testimony, together with numerous claims of bodily threats and intimidation allegedly made by Combs and a few of his associates, was aimed to bolster the racketeering fees towards Combs. However a few of her most vivid statements had been associated to Combs’ admittedly tumultuous and violent relationship along with his then-girlfriend, the singer and mannequin Casandra “Cassie” Ventura. Combs has pleaded not responsible to all the fees, which additionally embody intercourse trafficking and transportation to commit prostitution.

When testifying concerning the alleged 2011 kidnapping, Clark described occasions that the jury had heard about final week, this time from her perspective. She stated that it befell after Combs discovered that Ventura, with whom he had an on-and-off once more relationship, had begun courting rapper Scott Mescudi, also called Child Cudi.

Clark, who wept repeatedly on the stand, testified that Combs got here to her Los Angeles condo door early on that December morning in a state of rage and armed with a gun. Based on Clark, Combs ordered her to dress and accompany him to Mescudi’s dwelling within the Hollywood Hills, saying: “We’ll go kill” the musician. (Combs had discovered that Clark was conscious that Ventura was courting Mescudi, however had not knowledgeable him of Ventura’s new relationship.) She stated she was made to attend in Combs’ automobile as he and certainly one of his safety staff went inside in quest of Mescudi

After a chaotic automobile chase, Clark testified, Combs threatened to kill her if she went to the authorities, and that he would “kill all” three of them — Mescudi, Ventura and Clark — if Mescudi notified the police that Combs had been in his dwelling. Later that afternoon, she stated, she witnessed Combs battering Ventura, kicking her repeatedly within the legs, again and bottom as Ventura crouched “in a fetal place.”

Final Thursday, Mescudi testified to the jury concerning the break-in and his automobile being set on hearth weeks after this alleged incident involving Clark. Combs’ legal professionals have denied that the tycoon had something to do with the arson. Whereas on the stand earlier this month, Ventura testified at size about bodily and sexual abuse.

Combs’ first menace towards her, Clark alleged, got here on her very first day of labor in 2004. Combs, who knew that Clark had beforehand labored as an intern for a rival producer and file label govt, Suge Knight, allegedly knowledgeable Clark that if she had something additional to do with Knight, “He must kill me.”

Clark additionally testified about an earlier occasion during which she was allegedly held towards her will. Later that first 12 months, Clark testified, associates of Combs locked her right into a dilapidated and locked constructing in Midtown Manhattan for 5 days, so as to topic her to many lie detector checks. The alleged incident occurred after the disappearance of three items of high-end diamond jewellery that had been loaned to Combs and which Clark had been entrusted to take care of. The person testing her, Clark alleged, repeatedly informed her she can be “thrown into the East River” if she failed. Clark stated she endured the testing to show her innocence. “I used to be petrified,” she stated. One in every of Combs’ safety staff allegedly took her dwelling every evening, and in addition searched her condo for the lacking jewels.

The checks had been repeatedly inconclusive, and he or she was fired for “three to 4 weeks,” after which she was rehired to work on Combs’ thirty fifth party. She stated Combs by no means talked about the lacking diamonds to her once more, nor did he query her about the place she had been throughout these 5 days she was absent from the workplace through the time she was allegedly held for the lie detector checks.

Clark stated she left Combs’ make use of in 2006, after Combs allegedly pushed her repeatedly, to take a job at one other file group, Jive/Zomba, however that she ultimately returned. She was fired in early 2012, after reporting the alleged 2011 kidnapping to executives at Dangerous Boy Information, the recording label co-founded by Combs. She was informed it was attributable to an improperly taken trip, and he or she testified that Combs informed her she would “by no means work once more.” She later obtained a settlement from Combs over accusations of wrongful termination. Combs’ protection crew repeatedly objected to prosecutorial questions over the quantity of that settlement, which had been sustained.

Throughout cross-examination, Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo repeatedly focused inconsistencies in Clark’s accounts, together with a earlier declare to prosecutors that Combs had allegedly pointed the gun at her in 2011. From the stand, Clark stated that as an alternative Combs had been “waving it round.”

Agnifilo additionally requested Clark why she had returned to work for Combs repeatedly, given her allegations. She stated that it was as a result of she had been unable to get employed for another job within the music trade. Her final place in Combs’ make use of, she stated, was as Ventura’s “inventive director” in 2016. She stated that each determination associated to Ventura — from her hair and clothes to her schedule — needed to be personally authorized by Combs.