Singer Dawn Richard told jurors at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex-trafficking trial on Monday that the hip-hop mogul threatened to kill her if she told anyone she saw him physically abusing his long-time girlfriend.
Richard testified that Combs made the threat the day after she witnessed the Bad Boy Records founder punch and kick Casandra “Cassie” Ventura after taking a swing at her with a skillet. Richard said he told her and another woman who saw the attack that “we could go missing” if they did not stay quiet.
Assistant US Attorney Mitzi Steiner asked Richard what she took “we could go missing” to mean.
“That we could die,” Richard responded, saying she was shocked because all of this happened just as she was beginning to record with Diddy – Dirty Money, a musical trio with Combs and another R&B singer.
Richard disclosed the alleged threat as she returned to the witness box to kick off the second week of testimony in Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering trial in Manhattan federal court.
Combs, 55, is accused of exploiting his entertainment power-broker status to abuse women, including Cassie, through threats and violence for two decades from 2004 until his arrest last September. He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argue that prosecutors compiled proof of domestic violence, but not the federal crimes he is charged with.
