Former Diddy Assistant Capricorn Clark Sobs Through Cross Examination
It was a long day on the stand for Capricorn Clark- definitely longer than she expected. Prosecutors had planned to get to two other witnesses, neither of which happened.
She worked for Diddy on three separate occasions: first as his personal assistant (2004-2006), Then as Director of Marketing/Global Brand Director for Sean Jean’s Women (2007-2012), and finally as Cassie’s creative director (2016-2018).
Prosecutors are hoping her testimony props up the their racketeering charge and explains the arson allegations and gives detail to Diddy overworking employees.
Diddy was dressed in a black sweater with white collared shirt, and his mom and sister were in court today.
THREATS
Clark said the threats began the very day she started working for Diddy in 2006. On day one, Diddy brought her in to Central Park late at night (she said after 9PM), and told her he didn’t know she had worked for rival Suge Knight, and he’d kill her if anything happened.
He also accused Clark of stealing diamond jewelry that was on loan to him. She was assigned to hold it and realized it had gone missing as they were on the way to the airport. He made her stay behind, and let security take over while he flew to Miami. They questioned her, searched her apartment and then brought her to a vacant office five days in a row for lie detector testing, relaying the massage that she’d be thrown in the East River if she failed.
“I couldn’t calm down,” she said. The lie detector administrator told her she needed to relax because her results were inconclusive. She says she didn’t call the police because of her NDA.
In 2006, Diddy brought Clark to his Miami home and forbid her to leave. He told her “Your problem is you want a life, and you can’t have that here.” She ended up telling the chef “I hate it here,” and he relayed the message to Diddy himself, who was pissed to say the least. He charged at her pushing her 30 yards using about 75% of his force. A security guard got involved (something that sounds like it almost never happened), but she ended up quitting anyway.
OVERWORKED… AND UNDERPAID
Clark told the jury she regularly worked from 9AM-4AM with no meal breaks for $65,000/year. She testified she was told if she failed to complete the dasks, she’d be fired. On a good night, she said she got about four hours of sleep. Clark was entitled to overtime, but when HR handed Diddy a note showing he owed her $80,000 for three months of OT, he ripped up the paper.
She says she had stressed induced alopecia from working for him.
Clark said she came back to work for Sean Jean Women’s in 2007 (just about a year after she quit as his personal assistant) because she knew she didn’t have to work in close proximity with him.
FREAKOFFS
Clark was responsible for unpacking the hotel rooms for Diddy. She said he traveled with drugs, a camera box with four cameras, small bottles of baby oil and lube. And of course, candles. She’d sweep the room when he left, one time pointing out there were handprints left in oil.
She says he did ecstacy and molly at least once a week in addition to prescription medication, and helped procure the drugs he demanded. Sometimes they were delivered to Clark herself by the drug dealer, sometimes prescriptions for him were made out to her.
CASSIE
It’s clear Clark has VERY mixed feelings about Cassie Ventura. The backhanded comments were everywhere. She said “Cassie had talent,” but was not “talented.”
Clark testified that Diddy had total control over everything Cassie did- from work engagements to her appearance. It all went through him.
She says they didn’t always get along, and once she started dating Diddy, she went from a sweet model to a feisty girlfriend with expectations. She did say Cassie’s drug use eventually hindered her opportunities.
But even with all those opinions, she would hang out with Cassie and Kid Cudi (2011) privately. Cassie once texted her about picking up Kid Cudi, and Clark freaked out because Diddy paid for both of their phones. That’s when she bought Cassie a burner phone.
Cassie would often stay with her when she was in LA before she moved full time.
She came back into Diddy’s world to work for Cassie in 2016 and sobbed as prosecutors asked her about this. She hadn’t been able to find work since she was fired in 2012, and her way back in was through Cassie. Clark said it was painful that it was Cassie who wanted her back and not Diddy.
CUDI
Kid Cudi was the main focus Tuesday afternoon as the defense tried to pick apart the story she had told in the morning.
Clark said she heard a banging at her door between 5-6AM and when she looked through the peephole, she said she saw a furious Diddy standing at her door with his pants ripped all the way through the crotch so she could see his underwear. When she opened the door, she saw Diddy had a gun in his hand. He entered, yelling at her “Why didn’t you tell me? Get dressed we’re going to kill him.” Diddy had never been to her house, and she had never seen him with a gun. When she protested, he said “I don’t give a fuck what you want to do, go get dressed.”
They both got into the back seat of a car driven by security, and once they got to Cudi’s house, Diddy and the security guard went inside. Clark’s voice was trembling as she talked about how scared she was. This is the kidnapping mentioned in the indictment.
Diddy kept coming outside to check that she was there. In between, she quickly called her friend- something the defense really went after her for. She sobbed as she told the jury she just wanted someone to know where she was. There’s a bit of a discrepancy as to whether that friend was still on the phone when Clark called Cassie on her burner phone. But regardless, it was Clark who gave Cassie (and Cudi because he was with her) the heads up that Diddy was in his house. That’s the reason Clark’s relationship with Diddy fell apart completely. He came outside, took her phone and called back the last contact, which had been changed to “Stormy”.
Once Cudi got back to his house and they had a brief car chase, Diddy left and took Clark to an old nightclub where he made her call Cassie and tell her that Diddy was holding her and wouldn’t let Clark go until she got Cassie for him. She did, and Diddy began to beat Cassie — and threatened Clark if she intervened.
He was so mad Clark didn’t tell him about Cudi, he told her “I should kill you both, and cut her [Cassie’s] face.”
She was fired in August of 2012 while on vacation with Rihanna for taking unapproved time off. He told her she’d never work again and he’d make her kill herself. She later settled with Diddy for wrongful termination.
THE SOFT SPOT
It really is incredible to see witness after witness get on the stand with traumatic experiences with Diddy, I’m talking life and death, and still have love for the man—or at the very least, have nice things to say about him.
Clark is no different. She sobbed through the entire cross examination as she talked about working in Diddy’s world and wanting to be part of it even after that traumatic end to their working (and personal) relationship in 2012.
Take a look at some of these email exchanges:
Clark’s testimony made it seem like Diddy got in the way of every opportunity when she was fired, and even brought up a connection to Diddy’s rivalry with fellow rapper 50 Cent.
Clark testified that she was hired to work as 50 Cent’s day to day manager by Chris Lighty. A day before she signed the contract, Lighty died by suicide.
As she explained the emails above on the stand, she told the jury “I was really looking out for him,” and she just wanted to tell him re: Cudi, “Dude, let it go.” At times, you couldn’t understand her because she was crying so hard.
She sobbed as she told the jury “I have no parents, my son has autism and he’s non-verbal, this is my life.” There was a real pain in her face as she spoke.
As part of her settlement in 2012, Diddy was supposed to give her a recommendation. She never got one.
It appears any time she was close to getting a job, it was taken away from her. One time, she was set to have a meeting with Interscope Chairman Jimmy Iovine and VP Larry Jackson about job opportunities, and instead when she arrived, they warned her to “leave Puff alone.”
She had a meeting at CAA, and told the jury that Diddy and music exec Andre Hall (an early mentor, father like figure to Diddy), followed her around the building.
She said she was looking for work in that time for three years and was blacklisted until Diddy picked her back up.
The defense asked her why she would go back to work for a man who had caused her such turmoil.
The pain in her voice at this point was excruciating. “I wanted to take the opportunity so other people could see that I was a valuable person,” she sobbed.
She was eventually rehired to work for Cassie in 2016, but by November 2018, she was no longer working for them, but still working to have Diddy forgive her.
In June 2021, she asked for a reference letter via text so she could take care of her son.
“I wanted my life back,” she said. “I wanted to work in the music industry.”
He never gave her that letter, either.