Singer Dawn Richard saw Sean “Diddy” Combs beat his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura “often” — including once coming at her with a skillet, knocking her to the ground, a Manhattan court heard Friday.
Richard — a former singer in the Combs-founded girl group Danity Kane — told jurors she first witnessed the music mogul attack Ventura in 2009, apparently in a rage over his breakfast.
“He came downstairs angry and was saying ‘where the f–k was his eggs,’” Richard recalled at Combs’ federal sex-trafficking trial.
The singer and the other Danity Kane members were recording in the studio of Combs’ Los Angeles mansion, when they witnessed the incident — in which he was “screaming, belligerent, asking where his food was.”
The Bad Boy Records founder then took a skillet with eggs inside and tried to hit Ventura over the head with the pan, Richard recounted.
Ventura managed to partially deflect the blow from the pan by balling up into the fetal position on the floor — but Combs continued his vicious beating, Richard said.
“He started to punch and kick her … body and her head,” Richard testified.
Combs then put his arm around Ventura’s neck and his hand on her head and dragged her up the stairs, Richard told the court.
“I was scared for her and scared to do anything,” she said, adding that she didn’t step in or call the cops, partly because “I had never seen anything like that before.”
The next day, Combs allegedly summoned her and the other artists back to his home, where he locked them in the recording studio and threatened them, Richard said.
“He said what we saw was passion and what lovers in passionate relationships do,” Richard recalled. “He said [Ventura] was OK and it would be in our best interests if we didn’t say anything.”
Combs told them he was trying to take them to the top of the industry before menacingly saying, “where he was from, people go missing if they talk,” Richard testified.
Then Combs gave them flowers, Richard said.
She said she understood he was threatening “death.”
Follow the latest on Sean “Diddy” Combs’ federal sex-trafficking trial:
- Cassie recounts Diddy’s first attack on her — and the beating was so bad he refused to let her leave hotel: ‘Stomping on my face’
- Inside the twisted world of Sean Combs’ assistants who ‘facilitated’ freak-offs — including his ‘Ghislaine Maxwell’
- Never-before-seen photos reveal aftermath, broken vase Diddy threw at Cassie Ventura during 2016 hotel beating
- Diddy’s twisted Cassie texts about leaked sex video revealed, mogul told her to have ‘proper’ freak-off without drugs
- Watch the full video of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ attack on ex Cassie Ventura shown in sex-trafficking trial
Richard filed a sexual assault lawsuit against Combs in September alleging he once broke into her dressing room and groped her breasts and butt.”
Another time he invited her to his Miami home and welcomed her wearing nothing but his underwear, according to her suit.
When she asked him to put on clothes he became enraged, yelling: “This is my f–king house!” the suit claimed.
Richard is expected to continue testifying on Monday.
Combs is on trial for charges of sex-trafficking, racketeering and prostitution. He’s pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors claim he ran a decade-long criminal enterprise that included forcing women to have sex with male escorts while he recorded and pleasured himself.
His lawyers claim his alleged victims were his girlfriends who willingly participated in his kinky sex-life.