After a really temporary stint on the stand on Might 16 at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex-trafficking trial, Making the Band vet Daybreak Richard returned as we speak with extra testimony of abuse and assault — each noticed and skilled.
“He would punch her, choke her, drag her, slap her within the mouth,” Richard advised the jury as we speak of the violence she personally witnessed Combs “incessantly” unleash towards then girlfriend Cassie Ventura. “I noticed him kick her, punch her within the abdomen,” the previous Danity Kane singer advised the Dangerous Boy Information founder’s sex-trafficking trial in the beginning of its second week. Richard was on the stand for about 2.5 hours Monday.
Requested by Assistant U.S. Lawyer Mitzi Steiner what she did in regards to the abuse towards Ventura by her then boyfriend and file label boss, Richard fairly quietly admitted Monday morning not a lot.
“I decided that it will be greatest for the protection of myself to not intervene, as a result of I don’t assume that she was actually able to do something,” Richard responded earlier than Decide Arun Subramanian and the jury within the decrease Manhattan courtroom, noting that the ‘Me & U’ singer to not subtly advised Richard that this was the worth of doing enterprise with Diddy.
Nonetheless, in a pivotal function as an precise witness to Combs’ alleged violence and abuse, Richard recollected to the jury as we speak of a 2010 incident in an LA restaurant the place the defendant “popped” Ventura straight within the face after the singer spoke in regards to the beatings he delivered. After the punch, Combs advised Ventura to “shut the f*ck up!” Richard mentioned that the beatings continued within the automotive on the best way dwelling after the dinner.
Richard additionally advised the courtroom that together with herself, Ventura and Combs, others on the dinner had been Usher, rapper Ne-Yo after which Interscope Geffen A&M Information CEO Jimmy Iovine. Below a brief cross-examination, protection lawyer Nicole Westmoreland went after Ricard for by no means convey up such high-profile individuals on the dinner earlier than. It was additionally exhausting to inform from Richard’s testimony if the trio of Usher, Ne-Yo and Iovine truly noticed the violence the witness says occurred.
“You’ll agree with me that as time progresses your story adjustments,” Westmoreland requested Richard this morning rhetorically. “Sure,” mentioned the witness. “As time progresses, I get higher at understanding what went on as a result of it was fairly a very long time in the past.” Later, below re-direct from prosecutors, Richard added that a part of the explanation she was typically unsure on occasions was that in her time with Combs the “surroundings was unstable and it was very exhausting to work in, so I attempted to erase these issues.”
“On daily basis it will get simpler to recollect sure issues. I strive my greatest to do it to one of the best of my capacity.”
Having secured a contract with Combs by way of her participation on MTV’s Making the Band present in 2004, Richard first was with Danity Kane after which the trio Diddy – Soiled Cash. She exited working with the ‘All In regards to the Benjamins’ performer in 2011. Right this moment within the witness field, Richard mentioned she had reached out to Combs subsequently about getting Soiled A refund collectively, nevertheless it was for fellow singer Kalenna Harper, who had fallen on tough occasions.
(L-R) Daybreak Richard, Sean Combs (Getty)
Getty
Richard filed an ongoing civil lawsuit of her personal towards Combs late final 12 months. Within the go well with, which has confirmed a complication throughout this legal trial, Richard claims sexually assaulted her, disadvantaged her of meals and sleep and refused to pay her pretty over years. As Ventura and others have additionally alleged in their very own authorized actions, Richard alleges that the mogul threatened to destroy her profession if she didn’t comply along with his calls for and wishes.
“You felt like Combs ruined your profession, not as soon as, however twice?” the protection’s Westmoreland queried Richard as we speak. “Sure,” Richard replied, conceding her profession hasn’t been as robust since Diddy pulled the plug on Danity Kane and Diddy – Soiled Cash. With regard to her personal lawsuit, Ricard tried to refute teh protection’s rivalry that she wished “some huge cash,” because the efficient Westmoreland termed it. Richard mentioned she wasn’t in it for the cash, however did admit she felt she deserved to be “compensated” for what she went by with Combs professionally and personally over the time she was signed to his label.
Predicted to final eight weeks, the legal trial of the much-accused Diddy follows his arrest final September on prices of racketeering, intercourse trafficking, transportation to have interaction in prostitution and extra. Incarcerated on the Metropolitan Detention Middle in Brooklyn since his arrest, after a trio of failed $50 million bail makes an attempt, Combs has at all times insisted he’s harmless. He has taken the identical stance within the dozens of civil fits of abuse and assault which have hit the courtroom dockets over the previous a number of months. Rejecting a plea deal from the federal government, Diddy might face life behind bars if discovered responsible on this legal trial.
Dealt with in lower than an hour by the prosecution and handed over to protection lawyer Westmoreland, the testimony from Richard comes after a gap week that noticed typically grueling and incessantly harrowing testimony from a really very pregnant Ventura.
Over 4 days, the star witness went time and again textual content messages and sealed photographs detailing the drug pushed and wicked “freak-off’ intercourse marathons Ventura claims Combs coercedher into with male escorts. Typically filmed, the “freak-offs” grew to become the thrust of the couple’s greater than a decade lengthy relationship, with Combs allegedly utilizing the threats of constructing the footage public as one of many many strategies he used to regulate and manipulate Ventura. The extent of that predatory conduct grew to become starkly evident when Ventura described how Combs allegedly raped her in the lounge of her LA residence in 2018. Stating how Combs’ eyes went “black” through the horrific assault, Ventura mentioned the rape adopted what she thought on the time was a stunning “closure dialog” the then ex-couple had over dinner in Malibu over their break-out.
With the feds and protection meticulously going by the couple’s relationship, plenty of time was spent by each side analyzing the now notorious LA lodge safety footage of Combs attacked and brutally kicking Ventura in 2016 as she tried to flee a “freak-off.”
Within the story of two realities, the prosecution has primarily handled the footage, parts of which had been solely aired on CNN again within the spring of 2024, as a smokin gun. Having declared that Combs was a heavy drug person and a resorted to home violence of their opening assertion on Might 12, the protection are inclined to deal with the damning footage for instance of a consensual entanglement, noting that Combs did finally let Ventura depart the Intercontinental lodge.
Have already got secured a $20 million settlement in her rapidly resolved abuse and assault civil go well with towards Combs in November 2023, a reluctant Ventura was skillfully cornered proper close to the top of her final day on the stand by protection lawyer Anna Estevao into admitting she has additionally reached a $10 million settlement with the house owners of the Intercontinental. The revelation, which introduced gasps within the courtroom, performed proper into the protection’s narrative that Ventura received quite a bit out of being with Combs and that she is has develop into a possible gold digger because the couple broke up.
Having by no means introduced up the $10 million settlement earlier than, Ventura and the prosecution walked proper into the protection’s entice. Actually, the witness’ passionate exclamation was undermined that she’d “give it again (the $20 million settlement from Combs) if I by no means needed to have ‘freak-offs’” and “If I by no means had ‘freak-offs,’ I might have had company and autonomy, I wouldn’t have needed to work so exhausting to get it again.”
All the time a contentious witness because of her personal ongoing civil go well with towards Combs, Richard did rating a win for the feds very first thing this morning.
In a session Monday earlier than the jury was introduced in, Decide Arun Subramanian took the protection’s objections into consideration and trimmed a number of the prosecution’s upcoming witnesses. Nonetheless, when it got here to Richard, the decide allowed her testimony on the finish of Might 16 the place the singer detailed a 2009 violent assault on a cooking Ventura by Combs that she says she was actually standing proper there when it occurred.
Whether or not this involves bit the prosecution in the long term stays to be seen, however definitely Richard’s presence is an addition to any continuance or attraction transfer the protection choses to make down the road.
Right this moment, as they did to some extent with Ventura, the protection spend time contesting Richard’s sense of the sequence of occasions of that 2009 occasion saying at one level she advised investigators that it was eggs not a frying pan that Combs threw at Ventura within the assault the Soiled Cash singer says she noticed. “Would you agree with me that it’s been exhausting to maintain your story the identical in reference to this egg incident?” protection legal professional Westmoreland virtually mocked. In one other occasion of obvious inconsistency, Westmoreland mentioned that Richard by no means talked about a verbal menace from Diddy of “the place he comes from, folks go lacking” beforehand, however all of a sudden is saying it now.
Ruffled, Richard advised the courtroom as soon as once more she was attempting to recollect issues as greatest as presumably contemplating how way back they occurred.
In its personal response to Ventura’s days of testimony, the Marc Agnifilo, Teny Geragos and Brian Metal-led authorized crew this weekend dropped a swath of protection reveals on-line. Primarily extra of the flood of texts, emails and photographs from Combs and Ventura’s unstable 2007 – 2018 relationship, the reveals try to strengthen the protection’s core declare that the couple had a violent, and unconventional sexual “poisonous relationship,” nevertheless it was at all times consenting, and nobody broke the regulation.
The remainder of this second week of Combs’ legal trial will see Cassie Ventura’s mom and former greatest buddy additionally referred to as as witnesses. Numerous Combs ex-staffers are anticipated to take the stand too.
