Diddy's longtime employee took the stand with her version of a story previously relayed by Cassie Ventura and Kid Cudi. She says she was kidnapped from her home by a gun-toting Combs, who told her they were going to kill Kid Cudi, and she watched as Combs "gained access" to the pop star's house. Plus, she says, years before that she was subjected to five days of lie detector tests conducted by a man who said, "If you fail these tests, they're going to throw you in the East River." But the defense showed Clark proof she asked for Combs's forgiveness -- and another job. Combs's team denies all her allegations and disputes even use of the words "kidnapping" or "break in."If you want to read NBC's coverage of the trial, check out our newsletter, “Diddy On Trial”: NBCNews.com/Diddy
Chapter 1: What is the Sean Combs trial about?
This is On Trial, a special series from Dateline True Crime Weekly, bringing you daily coverage from the Sean Combs racketeering trial. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him. I'm Andrea Canning, and it's Tuesday, May 27th. Just a heads up in this episode, we're going to be talking about some graphic details and harrowing subject matter.
Chapter 2: Who is Capricorn Clark and what did she witness?
Week three at the federal courthouse began with one of the most dramatic prosecution witnesses so far. Her name is Capricorn Clark. She worked on and off for Sean Combs for about 14 years. Clark struggled to find the words as she described what she said she witnessed Combs do to Cassie Ventura and what she claimed he did to her.
NBC News correspondent Chloe Malas was in the courtroom for this dramatic testimony, and she's now out to tell us what she heard. Hey, Chloe. Hello. Hey, Andrea. Let's start. Just tell us more about who Capricorn Clark is and what she did for Sean Combs.
So she is somebody who was friends with Diddy before she actually started to work for him. They met around 2002. She says it might have been 2001. But in 2004, she officially joined Bad Boy, and her first role was being Diddy's personal assistant.
Chapter 3: What threats did Combs allegedly make to Capricorn Clark?
And she said that Combs threatened her pretty early on in this role?
Yeah, so she says that on the first day of working for him, that Diddy actually took her on a walk through Central Park with a member of his security team, and he threatened her because she was close with Suge Knight, who we've talked about before and is a major rival of his, and that he said to her, if something happens, I'm going to have to kill you.
Oh, my gosh. And she is saying this that— As though Combs is being serious, right?
He's not joking around here, according to her. No, she said that he was completely serious, straight-faced, and she took it as a real threat to her life, but that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work for Diddy, and she just tried to maintain the peace.
Oh, my goodness. Okay, and just like we heard from the assistant last week— She also said she learned so much from Combs. So there's a positive side to this as well, right, Chloe?
Yes. I mean, she had all sorts of different roles. At one point, she was the director of marketing for Sean John Women's. Then she went on to become the global brand director for several years for Sean Combs. So, I mean, she held some massive titles within the company.
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Chapter 4: How did Capricorn Clark assist Cassie in her relationship with Kid Cudi?
So we actually heard Capricorn Clark's name for the first time last week. She was brought up during Kid Cudi's testimony. And just a reminder, Kid Cudi is Combs' romantic rival with Cassie.
Basically, Cassie was cheating on Diddy with Kid Cudi. Diddy found out because Cassie had a burner phone. She had a separate phone that she was using to communicate with And we heard this not only in Cassie's testimony, but we also heard this in Kid Cudi's testimony last week.
But today is really the first time that I had learned that Capricorn Clark is the one that actually took Cassie to Best Buy to buy her this burner phone so that she could essentially live this double life. Or another way to look at it is to get out from the clutches of Diddy and live her authentic life. with someone that she was falling in love with, which was Kid Cudi.
Yeah, this is almost like a soap opera, but it's real life. Capricorn knew about the relationship between Cassie and Cudi.
Not only did she know about it, she actually thought that Cassie was putting their lives in danger. She actually said she thought that they were going to get killed because Cassie was being just kind of so nonchalant and not really hiding the relationship because she was texting about Kid Cudi and to Kid Cudi on a phone that was paid for by Diddy.
But it wasn't long, Andrea, before Diddy found out about that burner phone because Cassie spent the night with Diddy in a hotel room and he found the phone. And this is, of course, according to Capricorn's testimony.
What did Capricorn say happened on the day Combs went over to Cuddy's house?
Diddy, at like 5 in the morning, goes to Capricorn's apartment and starts banging on her door with a gun and is like, let's go, get dressed, we're going to go kill Kid Cuddy.
This all sounds just so unbelievable. What does she say happened next?
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Chapter 5: What allegations did Capricorn make about Combs's actions?
She says that she got dressed and she didn't want to go, but that she went. She was worried. He had a gun. He was furious. And she jumped into this black Escalade that was waiting in her parking garage. And they started the 20-minute drive to Kid Cudi's house. She actually on the stand characterized it as a kidnapping. Is that correct? Yes, she did.
But it's not like she was bound her feet in her hands and like thrown into the trunk of a car. Like someone might think that's what a kidnapping looks like. But he had a gun. and she felt like she was being forced against her will. Have we heard Combs' side to the kidnapping allegation? Does he deny it?
Not only does he deny it, Mark Agnifilo, one of Combs' defense attorneys, said on cross-examination today, he said to Capricorn, didn't you willingly go with him because you wanted to make sure he didn't do something stupid? So see, there are two sides to every story.
Yes, yes. All right, so Capricorn testified that she stayed in the car when they got to Cuddy's house, and that she saw Combs and two members of his security team go into Cuddy's house. What happened next?
She says that she called Cassie on her burner phone and was like, you need to know what is going on right now. I'm in front of Kid Cuddy's house. And Kid Cuddy was in the background and could hear this conversation and was like, what do you mean he's inside my house? And that's when Kid Cuddy jumped in his Porsche to confront Diddy. Meanwhile, she changes Cassie's name in her phone
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Chapter 6: What was the nature of the incident at Kid Cudi's house?
to a friend of hers because she was so worried that Diddy was going to find out that she called her. And lo and behold, when he got back into the Escalade, what did he do? He said, who were you on the phone with? I mean, it's like he's omnipresent. How did he know? And then he finds out that Kid Cudi is on the way. And now a twist, a plot twist.
Kid Cudi had said that he went to his house, didn't find Combs, got in his car to look for Combs, and never found him. But today, Capricorn Clark says Kid Cudi actually rolled up on them in his car, made eye contact with them, and then he sped off, and then they actually chased him. And there was a car chase for several minutes, and then Kid Cudi, I guess in his Porsche, he outran the Escalade.
And then all of a sudden they saw these sirens because remember Kid Cudi testified last week that he had called 911 because he was worried about what Combs could do. And so when Diddy saw the sirens, that's when he got really calm, according to Capricorn, and they left.
So Diddy's attorneys, and Diddy, he denies the alleged kidnapping. Did they have something to say about this whole story, about the chase situation?
So they're not calling it a kidnapping. They're also saying that this didn't happen. They're also not calling it a break-in. They're calling it a trespassing because there's no signs of forced entry. But they're also saying there's no proof. There's nothing on Kid Cudi's surveillance cameras.
There were no signs of forced entry. And we should be clear as well that Kid Cudi did not talk about this car chase on the stand. So this is just coming from her.
Correct. Lots of new information today when Capricorn started to talk. So the next...
part of Capricorn's testimony, got really emotional. She said that Combs refused to let her go unless Cassie came back to him.
Yeah, so she tells Cassie, look, he's not going to let me leave unless you meet up with him. And so Cassie agrees, and Capricorn actually gets into a staff car of Diddy's and goes to pick up Cassie.
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Chapter 7: How did the confrontation between Combs and Kid Cudi unfold?
And so as she's leaving, she calls Cassie's mom, Regina Ventura, and is like, your daughter is being beaten within an inch of her life. You need to call 911.
Sean Combs has denied all of this. Everything that you're talking about, he's saying that... This didn't happen? Yes. He's denying it all. Did Capricorn ever tell anyone about this incident that she says she witnessed between Combs and Cassie?
She says that she told Harv Pierre, the president of Bad Boy, in March of 2012. And she says that he just said to her, that's crazy, but it's all going to be okay.
Capricorn had another incident to talk about on the stand. She talked about being locked in a room in one of Combs' office buildings after some jewelry went missing. This is a wild story.
So this is shortly after she starts working for Diddy. They were on their way to Miami when a bunch of jewelry from Jacob Bejeweler. If you know Jacob Bejeweler, he is a big-time celebrity jeweler. He's known for his, like, big flashy diamond pieces, these very expensive items that were on loan. Yeah. went missing, and she was the last person to have them.
And when they couldn't find the jewelry, that's when she was taken to this building that was under renovation, and they take her to the sixth floor of this building. They lock the door, she claims, to the front of the building behind her.
And when she goes inside, there's this, like, huge man sitting at a table that he's so large that he doesn't even stand up, and that he's chain-smoking cigarettes and drinking black coffee. It was such a great visual description, Andrea. And that he... proceeds to give her a lie detector test for five days.
So she does go home in the evening, but that she is subjected to just repeatedly answering questions about the jewelry and that it was inconclusive like every single time. What does she say about the jewelry? Does she deny that she took the jewelry?
Yeah, I mean, she repeatedly denies that she had anything to do with it, but she actually said that this heavyset man, whose name she doesn't know, said to her, if you fail this test, they, meaning Combs, is going to throw you into the East River, meaning that she could lose her life. Wow.
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Chapter 8: What is Combs's defense regarding the kidnapping allegations?
I feel like the prosecution is laying the groundwork for these individuals to, to take the stand. And I feel like one or some of them have flipped and that they have gotten immunity because they have been mentioned and their photos have been shown so many times. But again, Diddy denies all of this. Chloe, the way you're describing it, it sounds like a mob movie. It sounds like Goodfellas. Yeah.
We're going to leave that there for now. When we come back, Capricorn faces a very tough cross-examination as the defense confronts her with her own emails. Welcome back, everyone. On cross-examination, the defense asked the question I think a lot of us are asking is, why did Capricorn keep working for Combs if she says these horrible things were happening?
Well, I think a lot of it comes down to money, right? And access. When you're working for someone like Diddy, I mean, everyone who has worked for him so far says that they learned so much from him. And on the other hand, she also says that she tried to get other jobs and she couldn't.
So she kept coming back to work for Diddy because she just couldn't find a job that either paid as well or really gave her the opportunities that Diddy did. And also after the Kid Cudi incident, she was fired for allegedly putting in vacation days wrong. She says that she lost everything. She was really crying while she talked about this, losing her 401k, her credit card, losing her car.
And Diddy was even actually like paying for her home. So everything was tied. to Diddy in working at Bad Boy. And Capricorn did go back to work for Bad Boy in 2016 as Cassie's creative director. She says she needed the money, she couldn't get another job, that Diddy had actually blacklisted her from getting other jobs in 2012.
So she went back and she worked as Cassie's creative director and was really trying to turn her into this star that she wanted to be.
The defense showed emails where Capricorn asks Combs to forgive her. What's that about?
As recently as last year, she approached Diddy's legal team and asked to be his chief of staff amid this criminal investigation.
Chloe, thank you so much for, again, all of your incredible insight from the courthouse. Thanks for having me. Thanks, everyone, for listening. We'll be back with a new episode tomorrow. If you want to read the latest developments and analysis from inside the courtroom, check out the NBC newsletter, Diddy on Trial. Go to NBCNews.com slash Diddy to find that.
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