Rapper Child Cudi is testifying on the New York intercourse trafficking trial of Sean (Diddy) Combs and was anticipated to testify about his temporary relationship 14 years in the past with Combs’s ex-girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie.
Cudi, whose authorized title is Scott Mescudi, wasn’t anticipated to testify for lengthy, a prosecutor mentioned. The Grammy award-winning rapper, who is thought for his different hip-hop type, arrived on the courthouse in a black SUV and was escorted inside.
Prosecutor Emily Johnson started her questioning by displaying Cudi a photograph of Cassie and asking him if he is aware of her.
“We had been mates and we dated briefly,” he replied, noting they met in 2008 and recorded some music collectively, after which dated in 2011.
Requested if he knew who else Cassie was concerned with across the time they dated, Cudi replied: Sean Combs.
Cassie testified final week that Combs threatened to explode Cudi’s automobile and damage him after he discovered she was courting Cudi.
Combs pleads not responsible
Combs, 55, has pleaded not responsible to intercourse trafficking and racketeering expenses after he was arrested in September at a Manhattan lodge. He denies allegations that he used threats and his highly effective place within the hip-hop world to abuse girls and others, and drive Cassie to participate in drug-fuelled sexual performances known as “freak-offs” with different males that she mentioned left her too drained to pursue her singing profession.
The federal investigation of Combs started in November 2023, a day after Cassie sued him in Manhattan federal court docket alleging years of sexual and bodily abuse. The lawsuit was settled by Combs for $20 million US the subsequent day.
In 4 days of testimony final week, Cassie, whose authorized title is Casandra Ventura, mentioned Combs subjected her to abuse by means of many of the almost 11 years she was with him from 2007 by means of 2018.
She mentioned she developed a relationship with Cudi in late 2011 that she ended inside weeks after Combs discovered about it when he checked out her telephone throughout a freak-off — one in every of a whole lot she mentioned she endured over time.
Combs’s former private assistant George Kaplan arrives at Combs’s trial in New York on Thursday. (Richard Drew/The Related Press)
Private assistant noticed Combs turn into violent
George Kaplan, Combs’s private assistant from 2013 to 2015, testified Thursday that he noticed Combs be violent with Cassie solely as soon as, on a 2015 journey to Las Vegas aboard Combs’s non-public jet. He mentioned he heard glass breaking behind him and regarded over his shoulder to see Combs standing with a whiskey glass in his hand.
“There was great commotion and a scuffle, after which after the glass crashed, Cassie screamed, ‘Is not anyone seeing this?'” Kaplan testified, including that neither he nor any of the safety employees or Dangerous Boy Data employees on the aircraft responded to her name for assist.
Kaplan mentioned he did not intervene as a result of he did not need to lose his dream job. He mentioned he determined to stop after that assault and a later incident wherein he noticed Cassie sitting in a bed room with a black eye earlier than Combs despatched him to choose up anti-inflammatory drugs at a retailer to deal with the harm.
Kaplan additionally mentioned he noticed Combs turn into violent with one other girlfriend, whom he referred to solely as Gina, when the rapper threw inexperienced apples at her at his Florida dwelling.
Kaplan advised jurors that his tenure with Combs has “confirmed to be one of the sophisticated items of my life.”
“I am a younger man and it is a god amongst males speaking to me,” he mentioned.
Regardless of seeing Combs abuse Cassie, Kaplan mentioned he nonetheless thinks fondly of many facets of their work collectively.
Kaplan testified in response to a authorities subpoena and solely after the choose gave him immunity from any potential legal legal responsibility he would possibly face on account of his testimony.
