Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial recap day 14: Former assistant says she was kidnapped, forced to take lie detector tests

The third week of testimony in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial resumed on Tuesday with emotional testimony from the rap mogul’s former personal assistant, who testified about the violence and threats she said she witnessed on the job.

Crying at points on the witness stand, Capricorn Clark told jurors that she was told she would be “thrown into the East River” if she failed a lie detector test about the theft of Combs’ jewelry, that she was forced to accompany Combs to confront rival musician Kid Cudi, and how she witnessed Combs beat his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura.

The intense testimony was complicated by an emotional cross-examination, as defense attorneys questioned Clark about her desire to reconcile with Combs and continue working with him.

“You want to work with him again?” defense attorney Marc Agnifilo pressed after showing messages where Clark sought to reconcile with Combs.

“I wanted to work in the music industry,” Clark replied.

Combs faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted on sex-trafficking and racketeering charges. Prosecutors allege he used his music empire — including his vast wealth and control over his employees — to run a criminal enterprise that used violence and threats to coerce women into sex and then enforce their silence. The trial has already seen the onetime cultural tastemaker and music industry titan reduced to a drug-addled abuser who led a sex life replete with voyeurism, orgies and prostitutes.

Combs has pleaded not guilty, and his lawyers have argued that Combs’ actions, while outside the mainstream, were a private matter and not criminal in nature.

“If you don’t convince him, I’m going to kill all you m————-.”

Last week, rapper and actor Kid Cudi — whose legal name is Scott Mescudi — told jurors that he believed Combs broke into his home in a spasm of jealousy after he learned Mescudi had been dating Combs’ ex-girlfriend, Ventura.

Mescudi offered few details about the alleged break-in, telling jurors he rushed over to his home after being tipped off by Clark. Once there, he testified he only found traces of Combs’ alleged actions, including finding Christmas gifts tampered with and his dog locked in his bathroom.

Taking the stand on Tuesday, Clark testified about that episode, which she said began in the early morning hours of Dec. 22, 2011, when a furious Combs arrived at her apartment with a handgun.

“He said, ‘Why didn’t you tell me?’ I said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ He said, ‘Who is Scott?’ I said, ‘I don’t know Scott.’ He said, ‘Kid Cudi,'” Clark recalled.

When she protested, Clark testified Combs, gun allegedly in hand, told her, “I don’t give a f— what you want to do, go get dressed.”

Clark said she was forced to join Combs and a bodyguard named Ruben to drive to Mescudi’s home. While Combs and Ruben allegedly entered the house, Clark said she called Ventura to tell her about the break-in, warning Mescudi that he might “get himself killed” if he tried to intervene.

Later that day, Clark testified that Combs ordered her and the bodyguard to pick up Cassie and convince Mescudi not to tell police Combs was involved in the break-in at the house.

“If you don’t convince him, I’m going to kill all you m————-” Clark recalled Combs telling her. When she returned with Ventura, Clark said Combs, standing in his robe and underwear, began kicking Ventura.

She testified that Combs kicked Ventura repeatedly, “and each kick she would crouch into more and more a fetal position” until she was all the way to the street.

Asked why she did not intervene, Clark responded that Combs told her, “If I jump in, he was going to f— me up too.”

Breaking down on the witness stand, Clark told jurors she later called Ventura’s mother and urged her to report Combs to the police. “He’s beating the s— out of your daughter. Please help her. I can’t call the police, but you can,” she recounted to the jury.

Ventura’s mother testified last week that after she learned about Combs’ threat to release two sex tapes of her daughter, she took out a home equity loan to pay Combs $20,000, which was eventually returned to her.

Cross-examining Clark, Combs’ attorneys tried to cast doubt on the former assistant’s recollection of the events and suggested she accompanied Combs and Ruben willingly.

“You went because you were afraid he was going to do something stupid?” Agnifilo asked. “I went because he told me he didn’t care that I didn’t want to go,” Clark responded. “I did not want to go and it was not my choice, sir.”

“They’re going to throw you in the East River.”

Clark told jurors that working for Combs was fast-paced, intense and required loyalty. Within her first year working for Combs, she said she was forced to take a series of lie detector tests to prove she was not involved with the disappearance of three pieces of high-end jewelry Combs had given her.

After she reported the jewelry missing, Clark testified that she was locked inside the unfinished corporate headquarters of Combs’ Bad Boy Entertainment by a bodyguard nicknamed “Uncle Paulie.” Taken to the sixth floor of the building, Clark said she found “a heavy-set gentleman who was chain-smoking cigarettes and drinking black coffee.” She said the man told her, “I had been brought to the building to take a lie detector test to figure out what happened to this jewelry.”

If she flunked the test, she testified that the man told her, “They’re going to throw you in the East River.”

“I was petrified,” Clark said.

Clark said “Uncle Paulie” took her five days in a row to the same deserted location inside 1710 Broadway in Manhattan, near New York’s famous Carnegie Hall, for lie-detector tests.

“I wanted to prove my innocence. I didn’t like the threats,” Clark testified.

When she was allowed to return to work, Clark told the jury that Combs never mentioned the lie detector tests or inquired where she had been.

During a cross-examination that hopscotched from time period to time period, Capricorn Clark testified she did not know the connection between Sean Combs and the large man she remembered repeatedly administering the lie-detector test. She testified that Combs suspected her of stealing the jewelry, which had been loaned to Combs for his famous annual July 4 white party in the Hamptons.

“You don’t know what relationship he has to Mr. Combs?” defense attorney Marc Agnifilo asked. Clark responded that she did not know.

“I felt that I was somewhat of a protector for Puff.”

While prosecutors sought to use Clark’s testimony to highlight how Combs used his wealth, power, and employees to lead a criminal enterprise, defense attorneys attempted to undercut that narrative by highlighting messages that suggested Clark was eager to work for a man who held a singular position atop the worlds of music and culture.

Clark again broke down in tears and sobs when confronted by several emails she had sent to Combs. One, in 2014, said, “Hopefully you’ll forgive me soon. It’s been long enough. I feel like you’ve forgiven everyone else but me.”

A second one, in early 2015, said, “Sending you blessings and love for a new year.”

More tears flowed when Agnifilo showed Clark an email she sent to Combs on his birthday, Nov. 4, 2015. “My hope for this year is that you make good on your promise to get over things and actually be my friend again.”

Defense attorney Agnifilo kept asking why she wanted to work with Combs again.

“I wanted my life back, sir,” Clark explained.

“You want to work with him again?” Agnifilo asked.

“I wanted to work in the music industry,” Clark replied.

Federal prosecutors, resuming their questioning after the cross-examination, suggested Clark returned to work for Combs because he stymied her attempts to work elsewhere in the music industry.

“He held all the power as it related to me,” Clark testified through sobs.