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Bad Boy Records artist Dawn Richard was called the fifth witness of the Sean Combs’ sex trafficking and blackmail trial on Friday, with prosecutors trying to confirm that Music Mogul brutally defeated his long-time ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura.
Richard Make a band Later joined Bad Boys’ all-female group Danity Kane and R&B Trio Diddy – Dirdy-Dixty-Dixty-Dixty-Dixty-Dixty, who confidently strided toward the court to avoid eye contact with her former record label owner. When Richard mistakenly said the comb's sweater (white instead of cream), he pointed out that the comb was in court, he laughed at his hands raising his hands to identify himself.
From earlier in the day, as Ventura's testimony remained in the juror's mind, a southern prosecutor in New York quickly became the center of Richard's testimony about Ventura. Richard testified
The “never seen” thing resembles an example of alleged physical violence, where the comb allegedly attacked Ventura with a batch of eggs in 2009.
"He screamed downstairs, belligerent, asked where his food was, and then knocked her on the head, kicked her and beat her on the ground in front of us," Richard told the juror. (Richard said that her fellow countryman Diddy Diddy-Dicty's currency teammate Kalenna Harper was present in the alleged attack.)
Richard tells a scene she previously outlined in a civil lawsuit against combs, saying she was in the kitchen of a Los Angeles mansion in Combs that night while Ventura was cooking eggs for combs. She said the comb went downstairs and asked to know where his food was.
“He continued to walk up to her, took the skillet with eggs, tried to hit his head on, and then fell to the floor,” she testified.
"It doesn't seem to hit her completely," she continued. "She enters the position of the fetus...I'm afraid of her."
Richard is in the beginning of his testimony, the incident that followed - the Comb convened a lockdown meeting with her and Richard and allegedly threatened them - when the Comb's chief attorney, Marc Agnifilo, made an objection. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian believes this is a great place to end the day. Richard will continue his testimony on Monday
Richard's dramatic account was delivered in a federal court in Lower Manhattan, and then spent four days in Ventura testifying about the violence she allegedly suffered.
Richard claimed in a civil lawsuit last September that the billionaire businessman harassed and abused her in a working relationship and then threatened her life after she witnessed him savagely defeating Ventura. According to her lawsuit, Richard was in the room when he first met Ventura about 20 years ago. At that time, Ventura was an aspiring singer of 19 years old, and Combs was a "predatory" record owner in her thirties. Richard also described the events of 2009. "I've been asking you my shit. I can't stand your bitch, you'll never do it right!" she quoted the comb, and he said "drugs are high."
"The comb pushed Ms. Ventura against the wall, choked her, and then picked up the egg hot pan of the egg and threw it at her, causing her to fall in the fetal position," Richard's lawsuit said. "Curse and scream, Mr. Combs dragged Ms. Ventura onto the stairs."
According to her complaint, Richard was “feared” by the attack and received cold news from the comb during the recording the next day. "If you say anything, that's going to have consequences," Combs said to Richard and other bandmate Harper. "People eventually went missing."
Richard said in the lawsuit that the comb also suffered years of physical, psychological and financial abuse. She claimed that he regularly groped her hips and breasts without permission, and she had tried to beat her when she dared to take a break from the rehearsal to eat and rest. She said the comb swung her fists on her face, but the bodyguard grabbed her and locked her in a frozen cold, company-owned Bentley. She said the comb left her there for hours because the compartment she was in had no interior door handles.
Richard noted in another harmful account that she had seen once in 2005 when she saw Combs’ ex-partner and his mother of three, Kim Porter, tearfully poured Combs’ Manhattan studio, “with visible facial injuries on lips.” (Potter later died of Lobar pneumonia in 2018.)
Prosecutors apparently hope Richards’ allegations strengthen their case, that the comb uses his corporate resources and his identity as an industry gatekeeper to get what he wants and cover his tracks. According to his prosecution, Combs directed a criminal enterprise between 2004 and 2024 and covered up a range of crimes including sex trafficking, forced labour, kidnapping, arson, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice. Combs strongly denied the allegations. Since Cassie filed a bombshell trafficking complaint filed in November 2023, his lawyers have also rejected many sexual abuse lawsuits filed against him.
“No matter how many lawsuits are filed, Mr. Combs has never been sexually assaulted or trafficked by anyone – the fact that men or women, adults or minors are,” Combs’ legal team previously told Rolling stones. “Luckily, there is a just and impartial judicial process to find the truth and Mr. Combs is confident that he will prevail in the court.”
In her live testimony in a courtroom in downtown Manhattan – at eight months pregnant with her husband, Alex Fine, Ventura described her 11-year relationship with the comb as a start, but later highly abusive and exploitative, such as “work,” which makes her feel “trapped” and “fear” and “fear”. She said the comb hopes she can maintain continuous treatment to satisfy his sexual desire. If she dares to resist his request, the comb will suffer physical violence and threats, and he will release intimate videos to humiliate and “destroy” her, she testifies.
Combs, 55, pleaded not guilty to allegations of trafficking, prostitution and extortion. If charged, he can spend the rest of his life in jail.
According to prosecutors, the core function of Combs’ so-called criminal enterprise is to fulfill and cover up his appetite for a drug-driven, well-planned sex marathon called “Freaks” and “Night of the Wild Kings.” Ventura testified that she participated in hundreds of such encounters, with the comb instructing her to have sex with her male escorts while masturbating and recording interactions.
According to his lawyer, Comms is just a "shaking" and he is addicted to his weird sexual tendencies along with other adults who fully agree. They acknowledged that Ventura was the victim of the last episode of domestic violence at the InterContinental Hotel in 2016, but they denied that the comb was trafficked.
So far, a jury of eight men and four women saw photos of Ventura’s alleged injuries, including a comb, including bruises, dark eyes, burrs on eyebrows and fat lips. They also repeatedly watched videos of kicking and dragging Ventura in the intercontinental corridor. Prosecutors used their first witness to introduce the distressing video in this case, which was first obtained by CNN last year.
The video is considered key evidence in the case and was also played repeatedly when Ventura testified. She told jurors that the combs became violent “often” often during freak discounts. She testified: "He will grab me, push me down, hit me on the side of the head, kick me, just like you did."