Sean “Diddy” Combs’s lawyers on Wednesday morning called for a mistrial in the hip-hop mogul’s federal racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking trial, alleging misconduct by prosecutors in the case – but their request was quickly denied by the judge.
Defense lawyers moved to have the case declared a mistrial by arguing that prosecutors had improperly suggested and implied through questioning that Combs was involved in the destruction of evidence tied to the investigation into rapper Scott Mescudi’s (also known as Kid Cudi) car being firebombed.
Judge Arun Subramanian quickly denied the motion for a mistrial. “There was absolutely no testimony from the witness that was prejudicial in any way, shape or form,” he said.
Although such mistrial requests are common during lengthy federal trials involving hundreds of pieces of evidence and dozens of witnesses, this was the first request at Combs’s trial.
The abrupt development came shortly after testimony had resumed in court in New York on Wednesday morning.
Combs, 55, faces federal charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. Arrested in September 2024, Combs has pleaded not guilty to all five counts.
The government’s first witness on Wednesday was Los Angeles police officer Christopher Ignacio, who responded to Mescudi’s call on 22 December 2011, the day Mescudi alleged Combs broke into his home after discovering that Mescudi had been dating Combs’s on-again, off-again girlfriend, singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura.
Ignacio said he and his partner responded to a radio call for a possible burglary at Mescudi’s home around 8.20am that morning. When they arrived, Ignacio said, he noticed a black Cadillac Escalade in front of the house that sped off as their patrol car pulled up.
Ignacio told the court that he noted the license plate, and when he later ran the plate, he found that the car was registered to Bad Boy Productions Inc, one of Combs’s companies.
Ignacio testified that the front door was unlocked and nothing was reported stolen. Mescudi later arrived at the house and filed a trespassing report, Ignacio said. Under cross-examination, Ignacio agreed with Combs’s attorney that the incident amounted to trespassing, not burglary.
Last week, Mescudi testified that a few weeks later, his car was firebombed with a molotov cocktail. He said he suspected Combs was involved.
After Ignacio’s testimony Wednesday morning, the prosecution called up Lance Jimenez, an arson investigator with the Los Angeles fire department who responded to Mescudi’s home in January 2012 to investigate the fire set to Mescudi’s Porsche.
Jimenez said that the Porsche had a canvas roof that had been cut and burn patterns throughout the interior, and that he saw a bottle and a burned “designer” handkerchief inside the car.
The damage was “severe”, Jimenez said, but added that it was less extensive than it could have been as the molotov cocktail didn’t shatter as the cloth fell out.
Jimenez described the fire set inside Mescudi’s car as a “targeted” crime.
Arson is one of the acts listed in the racketeering conspiracy allegations against Combs.
The third witness to testify on Wednesday was celebrity stylist Deonte Nash, who worked with Combs and Ventura from 2008 to 2018 and befriended Ventura.
Nash testified that he saw Combs beat Ventura multiple times, and recounted an incident that occurred in 2013 or 2014 where he said that he witnessed Combs attack Ventura, causing her head to bleed. Nash testified that he, along with “Mia”, a former assistant to Combs, tried to intervene and jump on Combs’s back but were thrown off and Ventura hit her head on a bed frame.
Nash told the court that Combs would threaten Ventura’s music career, telling her he wouldn’t release her music if she behaved in a way he didn’t like. Nash also said that he witnessed Combs threaten to release explicit videos of Ventura online and to her parents’ workplaces.
Nash also told the court that Ventura confided in him about not wanting to participate in the so-called “freak offs”, drug-fueled sex performances with male sex workers that Ventura testified Combs directed.
When she was on the stand two weeks ago, Ventura testified that she was coerced and blackmailed into participating in the “freak offs”. During cross examination, Combs’s lawyers sought to portray Ventura as a willing and consenting participant in the “freak offs” and have argued that the sexual encounters were part of a “swingers lifestyle”.
Earlier this week, one of Combs’s former employees, Capricorn Clark, gave a full day of testimony, telling jurors that in 2011 Combs kidnapped her and forced her to accompany him to Mescudi’s home the morning of the alleged break-in in December 2011. According to Clark, Combs said that he was going “to kill” Mescudi.
Clark told the court that Combs, accompanied by one of his security guards, entered Mescudi’s home with a gun, while she remained in the car.
Clark also testified that she witnessed Combs violently assault Ventura upon learning of her brief relationship with Mescudi.
During her time working for Combs, Clark said that Combs repeatedly threatened her life, subjected her to lie detector tests, and once pushed her in 2006 at his Miami home, among other things.
Since the trial began on 12 May, more than 15 witnesses have testified, including Ventura, Mescudi, singer Dawn Richard, two of Combs’s former assistants, Ventura’s former best friend and her mother, an exotic dancer, a male revue manager, a hotel security officer, a special agent from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), a forensic psychologist, a makeup artist, the general manager of a Beverly Hills hotel and a computer forensics agent from HSI.
The trial is expected to continue for about six more weeks. If convicted on all counts, Combs could face up to life in prison.
Reuters contributed reporting
• Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organizations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
