Diddy Recap Week 2
Let's face it... a lot of what's happening in that courtroom is NSF...TV
We wrapped another crazy week Thursday in Sean Combs’ trial— hearing from an ex-best friend, Cassie’s mom, a makeup artist, an escort, a member of Danity Kane, former personal assistants, special agents, a hotel manager and of course, a celebrity ex-boyfriend.
When I’ve only got four minutes on TV to tell you about hours and hours of testimony, I often leave thinking there was SO much more to say. A lot of it though, isn’t relevant for the TV story as a whole, but wow is it interesting.
I’m going to make these posts more regularly after this — but figured I’d need to get you caught up— including some of the photo evidence we’ve seen this week from the Department of Justice.
Here we go…
SHARAY HAYES- ESCORT
This is the testimony that made me start this Substack. SO much to share here.
WHAT YOU SAW:
WHAT ELSE HAPPENED:
This man had one liners for DAYS. Especially on cross examination — the banter with Diddy’s defense attorney was like nothing I’ve seen in a courtroom.
Sharay is now a co-owner of Hunk-O-Mania, where he first started his career. He also owns getpunished.com, where you can rent strippers, AND he’s an author…more on that later.
We know from other testimony that Diddy liked to sit in the corner during the Freak-Offs… but now we know that he got involved twice…sort of. He threw money on the bed once, and condoms on the couch as Sharay was in the middle of performing oral sex on Cassie.
We’ve also heard many times he directed the scenes. No different here. He’d have them reposition their bodies, or move props like the candles in the room.
Sharay said he did not like performing in front of Diddy and it sometimes gave him Erectile Dysfunction. But Diddy wanted to see them together. “I’m ready to see you fuck her,” he once told her. When Sharay had issues with his ED he was worried he wouldn’t be called back…and he wasn’t.
Enter Sharay’s newest title: author. He wrote a book about his ED and his eventual success in curing it through a penis pump, and he did it through a “comical framework.” It’s relevant to the case because he talked about the Cassie/Diddy experience through the lens of his anxiety over the situation. He didn’t name them, but it was brought up during questioning. The book is called, “In Search of Freezer Meat.”
I thought I heard wrong when he said this, and everyone was…confused. When the defense jumped up, it’s pretty much the first thing they asked him about. Why would you name your book that? He dead panned…and repeated his title adding, “what’s harder than freezer meat?” Couldn’t help but laugh. The defense finished cross examination by quipping, “wish you success on your book.” It felt like a comical mic drop moment and I’m not totally sure why.
During questioning, he told us he started stripping on Labor Day 1995, or as he called it a “professional dry hump,” and added “I’m coming up on a big anniversary.”
When he got into the detail of sleeping with Cassie, Diddy was leaning forward and listening pretty intently.
Sharay thought he was the “chosen one.” The only one they were doing this with. He said he felt special. Ouch to finding out that he wasn’t.
Now, a huge part of this case is around the narrative that Diddy controlled Cassie and she was not a willing participant. Sharay testified he never sensed any discomfort from her. He also said he didn’t believe Cassie was ever under the influence (though conceded as a non-drug user, he doesn’t know much about what that would look like).
Prosecutors also asked Sharay if he used drugs and he said he was offered but never did drugs or drank alcohol… but he told the jury he did a “Bill Clinton” and didn’t inhale. You can imagine the chuckles in the overflow room. He also said Diddy never used drugs and never appeared intoxicated. A bit of a blow for the prosecution.
They got into the granular details about how these freak-offs would go. He testified it was Cassie who told him where to ejaculate, not Diddy. She apparently told him to do so near her vagina area.
But arguably the most important part of all this testimony came on redirect and recross. How did he know Cassie was enjoying herself? He testified HE had had orgasms, but could only assume hers. So— he told a story of the first time they slept together. He used his arms to kind of mimic her legs and was explaining that when he finished performing oral sex on Cassie, she scooted closer to him towards the edge of the bed. To him— that meant she wanted to sleep with him. She apparently looked at Diddy for his consent quickly (at least from Sharay’s perception) and Diddy essentially said “enjoy yourself.”
KID CUDI
Kid Cudi did not seem like he wanted to be in that hot seat. He spoke in a somewhat hushed tone, a little bit hunched in his seat. We got to see a little bit of a timeline of the end of his relationship with Cassie — starting with the December 2011 break in to his house (though his front door was unlocked, so the defense is calling it trespassing), where he found family gifts opened and his dog locked up in the bathroom.
Cudi testified that the morning of the break in, Cassie told him she had given Diddy Cudi’s address.
He said he called Diddy and said “Motherfucker, you in my house?” Diddy’s response was apparently completely calm. Cudi did end up calling the police and filed a report, but nothing came of it.
Shortly after, Cudi flew to Connecticut with Cassie to be with her family for Christmas for a few days. He did say he knew about the physical abuse from Diddy, but nothing about sexual abuse. This is the same trip where Cassie’s mom took photos of her bruising, so it was a bit confusing that prosecutors didn’t ask him about seeing those bruises, which likely did as her boyfriend. This was also the time where Diddy was allegedly threatening to release sex tapes around Christmas. Not sure why prosecutors didn’t ask about the distress at Cassie’s house during that time.
He and Cassie split quietly in January, and despite the breakup, Cudi alleges Diddy set his car on fire. Cudi was not home (at his ex-gf’s sister’s house) and got a call from his dog sitter that his car was on fire in his driveway.
This is what it looked like:
Cudi made a report, and police found a molotov cocktail bottle on the ground near the car. Diddy’s security D-Roc arranged for a meeting at Soho House in LA the next day. Cudi said D-Roc brought him into a meeting room that had one small window, where Diddy was “standing there staring out the window with his hands behind his back like a marvel villan.” Cassie wasn’t there yet, so they talked about their relationship. Seems like Diddy was extra upset because he said they were “homies,” and Cudi responded by saying he thought they were broken up. Diddy told Cudi he was confused about the whole situation and hadn’t known until then Cassie was seeing him. Cassie comes in to the room and she tells Cudi that she’s back with Diddy and they fell in love.
As they stood up to leave, Cudi said he asked Diddy what he was going to do about his car, and Diddy responded by saying “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He said he wanted to ask as they were shaking hands so he could look him in the eye, but of course, he didn’t believe him. Cudi testified a few years later Diddy pulled him aside at that same Soho House and apologized for “everything.” Unclear what exactly that meant.
The defense framed the whole thing as both of these guys were getting two-timed by Cassie, and they got a couple one liners out of Cudi on this.
DEF: Cassie was living two different lives that neither man knew about.
CUDI: True.
DEF: The person who played you is the same person who played Sean, Ms. Ventura.
CUDI: True.
It was a quick hour and a half(ish) on the stand.
FREDERIC ZEMMOUR - HOTEL MANAGER
Did you know that if you stay at hotel regularly, they keep a profile about you? I didn’t. Prosecutors pulled up Diddy’s profile, under a different name, Ryan Lopez. They had his birthday in there, but other than that, each entry was warning after warning about his hotel room.
One entry says “ALWAYS spills candle wax on everything, uses excessive amounts of oil, place the room out of order for deep cleaning.”
Another authorizes an extra $1,000 cost for the room to cover damages.
Housekeeping also got involved noting “large deposits of candle wax on carpets, and nightstands.” They charged him $500 for that.
Hotel staff also urged each other to monitor outside the room from down the hall, and to spray with air freshener. They noted Diddy likes the room “HOT” and it had a “strong scent,” with multiple candles burning.
eek.
KERRY MORGAN
WHAT YOU SAW:
WHAT ELSE HAPPENED:
She laid it all out there. Kerry told the jury about Combs’ wild jealousy and the impact it had on her, too. He was jealous of everyone, apparently. Of Cassie dancing with Chris Brown, of chatting with Michael B. Jordan, despite the fact that Combs always had other women in the picture.
The incident in question- that did make it to air- was when Combs apparently choked Kerry and hit her with a wooden hanger. Kerry told the jury she “draws the line at physical abuse,” and never spoke to Cassie after the two met up at a pizza parlor and Cassie offered her $30k to sign an NDA. She also told Kerry she was over reacting,
Kerry did strike me as a loyal friend, though, despite the fact that she hasn’t spoken to Cassie in seven years. When the prosecutors asked about this woman “Gina” who appears to be another longtime girlfriend that we’ve been hearing about over the course of last two weeks, Kerry seemed to quickly recall not liking her on behalf of her ex-bestie. She told us, “She was a big problem. She wouldn’t going away. He was having a full on relationship with this little girl and she wouldn’t go away.” The prosecutors tried to clean up quickly that Gina was not underage, but Kerry persisted saying she “acted like a little girl,” and it was hurtful to Cassie. She even slipped in there that she thought Diddy got Gina pregnant.
But back to Diddy’s outbursts… after that infamous hotel tape, Kerry met Cassie at her apartment and Diddy came to her place banging on her door with a hanger. Someone (neither of the women) called the police but they didn’t come for three hours. Cassie refused to even give them her name.
She was there for a lot of the abuse. Apparently Diddy didn’t mind her as a spectator. She said in Jamaica he dragged Cassie down a 50 yeard hallway by her hair and then took her outside and threw her down where she hit her head on a brick. All because, according to Kerry, she was taking to long in the bathroom.
Kerry got rid of all the friendships in this circle when she dropped Cassie. You could sense the bitterness when she was asked over and over again why they hadn’t talked in all these years and she finally said “She hasn’t called me either.”
DAVID JAMES
David James did NOT want to be there. The government had to subpoena him…twice. He worked for Diddy for about two years, but honestly the interview process seemed to lay the loyalty to him out for all to see almost immediately. Vashta, the head of HR had a photo on her wall of Diddy and told him “This is Mr. Combs’ kingdom. We’re all here to serve him.” Pretty foreshadowing. Also notable he said Diddy went through a lot of personal assistants… some were dehydrated and needed to go to the hospital from being overworked. They essentially had the feeling that if you were tired, you were going to get fired.
The schedule was GRUELING. He had to be AT Diddy’s house with his documents, business schedule and press clippings ready to go BEFORE Diddy woke up. The chef needed to be instructed on his breakfast and the TV turned to Diddy’s preferred channel. Sign me up for that. He’d then spend the day with him and then go to the studio until 3-4AM.
He sort of level set the question of Diddy’s girlfriends. He said Kim Porter was the main girl the whole time, and the others were named Sarah, Tara, Yana and Cassie. Thought it was interesting Cassie’s name was last.
James said when he saw weapons with Diddy and his security, he tried to bring it up a couple times but was told many times, “stay in your lane.” Eventually he became part of it though during an incident with Suge Knight. He had to sit with three guns on his lap and said he felt like he was in danger and resigned shortly after that.
Some other notable moments:
Cassie’s Mom: Regina Ventura testified that Diddy extorted $20,000 out of her. She and her husband took out home equity loan after he demanded the money because he was upset about the Kid Cudi relationship. She paid him and he returned the money five days later.
She also took these photos of Cassie to memoralize the abuse in December 2011 (the same trip with Kid Cudi).
Dawn Richard: The Danity Kane singer testified she saw Diddy physically assault Cassie on multiple occasions, including when he was upset about his breakfast being made. She recalled him coming into the kitchen screaming at Cassie “where the fuck was his eggs” and trying to hit her in the head with a frying pan.
Myah Morales: Cassie’s makeup artist testified to being in a hotel room during the 2010 Grammy awards weekend when Combs allegedly beat Cassie up. She had a swollen eye, busted lip and knots on her head. She was seen by one of Morales’ friends who is a doctor who told Cassie needed to go to the ER, but she never did.
Gerard Gannon: The special agent testified about the scene at Diddy’s Miami home raid. They brought an extra 25 special agents because they were worried about what they might encounter. The jury saw photos of his master closet which had lingerie, heels, baby oil, Astroglide and sex toys situated right next to broken down AR-15s which had the serial number cut out on it.
WHEW. That was a lot. Promise these will be shorter next time.