Week three of the Sean “Diddy” Combs sex trafficking trial brought more explosive testimony when the music mogul’s former personal assistant, Capricorn Clark, took the stand.
During testimony on Tuesday, May 27, the ex-Bad Boy Entertainment staffer alleged the mogul threatened to take her life multiple times, showed up at her home with a gun, and held her against her will.
In court transcripts obtained by Urban Hollywood 411, the California native said she worked for Combs on-and-off from 2004 to 2018. She described the mogul as violent, jealous, and threatening.
Related: Kid Cudi Issues Statement on ‘Stressful’ Diddy Situation
Death Threats
Clark said on her first day of work, Combs and someone named “Uncle Paulie” took her to Central Park late at night.
According to Clark, Combs told her he had concerns because she had previously worked for his nemesis, Death Row Records founder Suge Knight. She said Combs told her if anything happened, he would kill her.
Clark also told jurors Combs was obsessed with his rivals, including rappers 50 Cent and Kid Cudi.
Alleged Kidnapping
Kid Cudi, born Scott Mescudi, testified last week that he got a phone call from Clark in 2011, saying Combs and an associate were in his house and had “forced” Clark to come with them.
Cudi said Combs was furious after finding out the “Day ‘n’ Nite” rapper was dating the mogul’s on-off girlfriend Cassie Ventura.
“She sounded near tears,” Cudi said about Clark during his May 22 testimony. The rapper said he called police.
Clark got emotional as she detailed the incident in court on Tuesday.
She explained how she found out Cassie and Cudi were dating, and said she warned Cassie that Combs would hit the roof, even though she said the mogul was juggling multiple women. She knew because she would set up the hotel rooms.
Clark said Cassie “brought [Cudi] to my apartment,” adding that the “Me & U” singer texted her saying she planned to go on a public date with the rapper.
“I told her it was a bad idea, and to delete the text… If Mr. Combs learned about Mr. Mescudi — I mean, Mr. Combs paid for my phone, and hers,” Clark testified.
Clark said she came up with a solution for Cassie to communicate with Cudi without Diddy knowing. She said she put her plan in motion while the mogul was out of town.
“I took Cassie to Best Buy to get a burner phone,” Clark said.
Earlier this month, Cassie testified that Combs discovered the burner phone during a “freak off,” went through it and found out about her relationship with Kid Cudi.
Clark said the mogul was seething and showed up at her home with something in his hand.
“December 22, 2011, between 5:30 and 6 am. There was banging at my door,” she testified.
A prosecutor asked what she saw through her peephole.
“A furious Puff,” Clark responded, referring to Combs.
She opened the door and let him in.
“He was holding a gun. He came into my apartment and said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me? Who is Scott?’ I said, ‘I don’t know any Scott,'” she continued.
“Where was the gun?” the prosecutor asked.
“In his hand. I said I didn’t want to go. He said, ‘I don’t give a f–k what you want. Get dressed. We’re going to kill that N-word,” Clark alleged the mogul told her.
She said she got in a black Escalade with Combs and a driver/bodyguard named Ruben [sic].
“I got in the backseat… Mr. Combs was in the left, next to me… Gun was in his lap,” Clark testified.
She waited in the car while the men allegedly broke into Kid Cudi’s house in the Hollywood Hills. She called Cassie’s burner phone.
“I told her Puff was at Cudi’s house… and they wouldn’t let me go,” she testified.
According to reporting by the Associated Press, Clark said she heard Cudi ask in the background: “He’s in my house?”
Clark warned Cassie: “Stop him, he’s going to get himself killed.”
Combs returned to the SUV, grabbed Clark’s phone and dialed the last number, she said. Then suddenly, they heard Kid Cudi’s vehicle driving up the road.
Combs, 55, is charged with five felony counts including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty to all five counts.
Cross-Examination
Under cross-examination by defense attorney Marc Agnifilo, Clark said the SUV chased Cudi.
“Cudi is in the black Porsche. He stops next to us then speeds off. We chase him,” she told the court. “He loses us, we turn away.”
Clark said the SUV broke away when police cruisers headed up the street.
Agnifilo grilled Clark about her account of what happened at Kid Cudi’s house. He asked her, “You said Combs had a gun, 100%?” According to USA Today, Judge Arun Subramanian seemingly mocked the attorney and quipped, “You gonna ask that again?”
The defense attorney reminded Clark that she had changed the order of who she called and when on the day of the break-in at Kid Cudi’s house.
Agnifilo said Clark previously told prosecutors she made a three-way call to Cassie and her good friend, actress Lauren London, that day. But on the witness stand, she testified that she called London first, then Cassie.
“I just needed someone to know where I was in case something went bad,” Clark responded. “I was just scared and needed to talk to someone to get my head on straight.”
Clark told jurors the Kid Cudi incident was one of several times she feared for her life while working for Combs.
She alleged that she was once held against her will for five days after diamond jewelry went missing. She said a very large man forced her to take polygraph tests multiple times while she was held in a “dilapidated” building and the doors were locked from the outside.
“He said: ‘If you fail this test they’re going to throw you in the East River,’” she recalled.
She said the results were inconclusive because she was so nervous.
Despite what she described as horrific working conditions, Clark admitted Combs “broke that glass ceiling for us Black people in the business world.”
She said she rose through the ranks to become global brand director for Bad Boy Entertainment and managed Cassie’s brand.
Agnifilo suggested Clark was jealous of Cassie and had a romantic interest in Combs. Clark said she wasn’t interested. She added that as a singer and performer, Cassie had no talent.
Clark alleged she witnessed Combs securing illicit drugs and beating Cassie.
She said she took her concerns to Bad Boy Records President Harve Pierre. He told her it was “crazy but it’s going to be okay.” She was fired a few months later.
Clark said Combs warned her she’d never work again and “he’d make me kill myself.” She told the court she later received a settlement and signed an NDA. Prosecutors asked how much money she had gotten, but the defense objected.
Shocking Suge Knight Statements
In comments on a November 2023 episode of his “Collect Call” podcast from prison, where he’s serving 28 years on a manslaughter conviction, Suge Knight alleged that Combs had physically assaulted Clark over the Cassie, Kid Cudi love triangle.
“Same time he beat the s–t outta muthaf–ing Cassie, he had an assistant by the name of Capricorn,” Knight said, as reported by Hip Hop Wired. “He felt Cap was keepin’ this s–t on the low about if she was messin’ with Cudi or not. Puffy beat the s–t out that b–h.”
“Not only did he beat the s–t out of her, it was an Interscope [Records] person, an Interscope check, that paid her to settle so he wouldn’t go to jail,” Knight alleged.
Clark’s testimony ties in the racketeering conspiracy charge from the federal indictment, which alleged Combs and his associates “engaged in, and attempted to engage in, among other crimes, sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and obstruction of justice.”
Kid Cudi testified that his Porsche erupted in flames while it was parked in his driveway, although Diddy’s attorneys said the mogul had nothing to do with it, and have moved to have that portion of his testimony removed from court records.
The attorneys have previously denied all of the allegations against the mogul.
“Mr. Combs and his legal team have full confidence in the facts, their legal defenses, and the integrity of the judicial process. In court, the truth will prevail: that Mr. Combs has never sexually assaulted anyone—adult or minor, man or woman,” the defense statement read.
Suge Knight’s 2023 interview about Capricorn Clark is below:
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