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

Advisory: This report contains descriptions of bodily violence.

On Tuesday, federal attorneys prosecuting Sean Combs continued widening their case in opposition to 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 and marketing for his Sean John vogue firm. Clark testified that in the course of 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 varied claims of bodily threats and intimidation allegedly made by Combs and a few of his associates, was aimed to bolster the racketeering expenses in opposition to 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 embrace 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 occurred after Combs realized that Ventura, with whom he had an on-and-off once more relationship, had begun courting rapper Scott Mescudi, also referred to as Child Cudi.

Clark, who wept repeatedly on the stand, testified that Combs got here to her Los Angeles house door early on that December morning in a state of rage and armed with a gun. In response to Clark, Combs ordered her to dress and accompany him to Mescudi’s residence within the Hollywood Hills, saying: “We will go kill” the musician. (Combs had realized 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 workers went inside searching for 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 residence. 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’ attorneys 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 in opposition to 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 document label government, 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 by which she was allegedly held in opposition to her will. Later that first yr, Clark testified, associates of Combs locked her right into a dilapidated and locked constructing in Midtown Manhattan for 5 days, with a purpose to topic her to many lie detector assessments. 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 advised 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 workers allegedly took her residence every night time, and likewise searched her house for the lacking jewels.

The assessments 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 birthday celebration. 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 in the course of the time she was allegedly held for the lie detector assessments.

Clark stated she left Combs’ make use of in 2006, after Combs allegedly pushed her repeatedly, to take a job at one other document 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 Data, the recording label co-founded by Combs. She was advised it was on account of an improperly taken trip, and he or she testified that Combs advised her she would “by no means work once more.” She later acquired 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 some other 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 permitted by Combs.