Sean Combs threatened witness after beating Cassie Ventura, saying 'people go missing,' according to testimony in racketeering, sex trafficking trial

Sean "Diddy" Combs warned alternative R&B singer Dawn Richard to stay silent a day after she saw him beating his longtime girlfriend Casandra Ventura in his Los Angeles mansion in 2009, telling her that "people go missing," she testified Friday in Manhattan federal court.

Richard, 42, once a member of Combs’ trio Diddy Dirty Money, took the witness stand in the afternoon on the fifth day of testimony in the racketeering and money laundering case against the Bad Boy Records founder.

Prosecutors charge that Combs, the creator of a multimillion-dollar music, liquor and fashion empire, coerced women to have sex with male prostitutes during highly produced sexual benders that he called "freak-offs" and then threatened them with violence and blackmail if they refused to participate.

Combs, 55, has denied the charges and his defense lawyers have argued that while he could be physically abusive and demanding to lovers and staff, his actions do not rise to the level of federal crimes.

Richard, who has filed a lawsuit against Combs for a sexual attack, said that she saw the record producer attack Ventura with a frying pan because he was impatient for her to make him eggs.

"He took the skillet with eggs in it and tried to hit her with it and she fell to the ground," Richard told the court.

She said that she was stunned as, she said, Combs beat and kicked the girlfriend and then dragged her upstairs and continued to beat her.

"I was scared for her and scared to do anything for fear of what it would mean for me, too," she said.

The next day, Combs invited Richard and another witness into his home recording studio and locked the door behind them, she said.

"He said what we saw was passion and it was what lovers in a relationship do. She was OK and it was best if we didn’t say anything. That people go missing and he was trying to take us to the top," Richard told the court. "Then he gave us flowers."

Combs' lawyer called her account of the incident "a drop-dead lie" and noted that Ventura had not mentioned it during her four days of testimony.

The jury, consisting of eight men and four women, has been hearing dueling narratives about Combs' relationship with Ventura, 38, his former girlfriend of 11 years, who said that she led the life of a "sex worker" during their relationship — spending most of her time preparing for, participating in or recovering from "freak-offs."

She met Combs when she was a 19-year-old aspiring singer and he, then 37, was already a towering figure in the music business in 2006.

She landed a 10-album recording contract with his label, but within a few years the two became romantically involved and, she told the court, afterward her career stalled.

Defense attorney Anna Estevao noted during Ventura's cross-examination that she put on some poor performances when she was starting out, and was given rare opportunities to work with some of the most talented musicians in the world.

Ventura said she put out singles with rappers Rick Ross and Pusha T and worked with performers Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne and Kid Cudi. Combs paid for her rent and took her to the Cannes Film Festival in the south of France, escorted her on the red carpet at the Met Gala and lavished her with vacations to Ibiza, Spain, Ventura admitted to Estevao.

"Being his girlfriend meant that opportunities were available to you?" the lawyer asked, with Ventura agreeing.

But Ventura testified that the freak-offs became too frequent, too humiliating and too taxing on her physically and emotionally. In 2016, a video surveillance camera caught Combs pulling Ventura to the floor in the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles, then kicking her and pulling her by her hoodie back to his hotel room. Prosecutors showed several photographs of bruises on Ventura’s face, back and legs taken during the years of the couple’s relationship.

She said that when she tried to break off the relationship in 2018, he raped her on the floor of her living room. Combs has denied that he sexually assaulted her.

Ventura, who settled a civil suit against Combs for $20 million, claimed in court papers that the alleged sex attack took place in September 2018, but Estevao showed text messages that put the alleged rape in mid-August.

Messages read in court show that she continued to communicate with Combs and she acknowledged in court that she had consensual sex with him again a short time later.

Prosecutor Emily Johnson noted that Ventura’s civil case against Combs had been settled and she had no financial motivation to testify against him.

The defense attorney brought up another suit filed against the Intercontinental Hotel which, Ventura told the court, is currently being settled for $10 million.

The hotel did not respond to a request for comment.