Another key witness took the stand this week in the ongoing criminal trial against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, who faces charges of sex trafficking and racketeering.
A former assistant of Combs, testifying anonymously and referred to in court as Mia, claimed that she was sexually assaulted multiple times during the eight years that she worked for the musician. She also described how, during that time, she lived in constant fear of Combs’ “violent rages”.
According to the BBC, Mia explained how she began working for Combs in a PA role in 2009 when she was in her mid-20s, joining a “chaotic” and “toxic” work environment. When you worked at the centre of Combs’ business empire, she said, “the highs were really high and the lows were really, really low”.
Mia found herself working and living in a very controlled and erratic environment. She was often required to stay at Combs’ homes, she said, where she was not allowed to leave without his permission. And she would constantly have to anticipate her employer’s “needs, whims and moods”, aware that a mood swing could result in violence.
She described one incident when Combs threw a spaghetti bowl in anger, narrowly missing her head, and another when he threw his computer in her direction because she had told him that the WiFi in the building they were in was still being fixed.
She also told the court about the multiples occasions when Combs allegedly sexually assaulted her, including one harrowing occasion when she woke to find the musician trying to rape her. “I just froze”, she told the court, adding, “It was very quick but it felt like forever”.
Mia also described how she witnessed Combs violently attacking his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, another key witness in the criminal case who testified at the start of the trial.
Despite Combs’ frequent physical and sexual assaults, against both her and Ventura, Mia says she never reported any of the incidents to the authorities because she genuinely believed that the musician’s “authority” was “above the police”. Pressed on this by the prosecution, she added, “I knew his power - I knew his control over me and I didn’t want to lose everything I worked so hard for”.
As direct victims of Combs, Ventura and Mia have provided some of the most powerful testimonies in the trial so far. The fact Mia was an employee is also important, as it’s crucial to the prosecution’s racketeering case to prove that Combs used his businesses to facilitate and cover up his criminal acts.
As the trial continues, it’s thought the prosecution will now call fewer witnesses than originally planned. That might result in the proceedings being over sooner than expected, although - in response - the defence may well choose to call more people to the witness stand. Judge Arun Subramanian has let it be known that he wants the trial to be completed by no later than the 4 Jul holiday.