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Sean “Diddy” Combs brought three handguns to a famous diner after learning that his record executive rival Suge Knight would be there, the music mogul’s former personal assistant testified.
David James, who worked for Diddy from May 2007 through May 2009, told a New York federal court Tuesday about an incident from November 2008 at Mel’s Drive-in, a famous diner chain in Los Angeles. James was on the witness stand Tuesday in the sex trafficking trial for Diddy. He is facing accusation he abused and coerced women for years to fulfill his sexual desires. His trial has featured explosive testimony detailing his alleged anger, jealously, drug use and sexual habits all to further his efforts.
On the November 2008 night, James and D-Roc, Diddy’s security guard, drove to get their boss cheeseburgers around 3 a.m. one morning. When they arrived at the diner’s parking lot, D-Roc noticed just three parking spots away was Knight, then-CEO of Death Row Records and one of Diddy’s “competitors,” James testified.
D-Roc got out of the car, approached Knight at his car window and introduced himself as “Biggie’s boy,” referring to rapper Biggie Smalls. They “dapped” each other up and then all of a sudden four SUVs pulled up to the parking lot, James told the court.
James saw a man from Knight’s car pass a gun to the Death Row Records boss. “We have to go,” D-Roc told James.
The pair then drove to Diddy’s home, where they saw Diddy and his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura fighting in the road. That’s when Diddy told James to take his black Escalade and drive him and D-Roc back to the diner, the assistant testified. When James turned around, he spotted three handguns on the rapper’s lap. “Motherf***ing go,” he recalled Diddy telling him.
The seventh day of Diddy’s sex trafficking trial was filled with other bombshell moments.
- After previously testifying about his 20-hour-long work days, James revealed that one of Diddy’s assistants went to the hospital due to dehydration after working for 24 hours.
- James told the court about having to take two lie detector tests went some of Diddy’s items “went missing.”
- The assistant also discussed “advancing” rooms for Diddy’s arrival, which included hotel rooms. He was asked to drop off Diddy’s medicine bag filled with 30 pill bottles, his Louis Vuitton bag carrying $10,000 in cash and bring personal items such as applesauce, condoms and baby oil.
- Of all the hotels Diddy went to in New York, the Trump International Hotel was his favorite, James told the jury. The music mogul booked rooms under the alias Frank Black, he said.
- Regina Ventura, Cassie’s mother, recalled receiving an email from Diddy’s bookkeeper in December 2011 asking to “recoup” $20,000 that he had allegedly spent on her daughter because he was “angry” that she was dating someone else: Scott Mescudi, better known as Kid Cudi. She took out a home equity loan to pay the sum. Cassie had also emailed her mother warning that Diddy had recently threatened to release “two explicit sex tapes” of her and had threatened to “hurt” her and Mescudi. Diddy returned the money four or five days later without explanation, the mother said.
- Prosecutors said Tuesday that Mescudi would take the stand later this week.
- A male escort known as “The Punisher” testified about his “Freak Offs” with Ventura and Diddy. He sometimes experienced erectile dysfunction during these encounters — performance issues he alluded to in his book In Search of Frozen Meat.
On the November encounter with Knight, after driving the 10 minutes back to Mel’s, the SUVs with the Death Row Records mogul were gone. Diddy then instructed James to drive around the block, he told the court.
“I was really shook up by [the incident],” James said on the stand. “It was the first time in the job I realized my life was in danger.”
He left the company six months later.
During cross-examination, Diddy’s attorney Marc Agnifilo questioned the accuracy of James’ retelling, pointing out a few inconsistencies between Tuesday’s testimony and his previous interviews with the government.
Agnifilo pressed what James was going to the diner to do, suggesting there was going to be a potential shooting, James said: “I was there to drive the car.” He added that refusing to drive his boss wasn’t an option: “Respectfully, sir, there was somebody with three guns in close proximity. I didn’t think that was an option.”
Diddy, wearing a light blue sweater over a white collared shirt, frequently gave notes to his lawyers throughout the day and whipped his head between the attorneys and witnesses, seemingly paying close attention.
English (US) ·