A former personal assistant for Sean Combs is expected to testify Thursday that the Bad Boy founder forced her into sexual acts throughout her employment.
The woman, sing the pseudonym Mia, was called Victim-4 in the Southern District of New York’s criminal indictment against Combs, with her allegations tied to the racketeering charge against the Bad Boy founder. (Combs has pleaded not guilty to the five felony counts against him.)
Prosecutors allege that Combs used his billion-dollar empire as a criminal enterprise fueled by the hip-hop mogul’s sexual desires. He allegedly forced his sleep-deprived employees to do his bidding through the use of physical force, threats, and financial and reputational harm.
As Combs’ personal assistant, prosecutors allege he worked her “to the bone” and sexually assaulted her. During her tenure, “the defendant forced himself on her sexually, putting his hand up her dress, unzipping his pants and forcing her to perform oral sex, and sneaking into her bed to penetrate her against her will,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily A. Johnson said during opening statements.
During a vacation in the islands of Turks and Caicos, Combs allegedly dragged a sleeping Mia from her bed and attempted to grab her phone, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura testified during the first week of the trial.
Mia is one of two witnesses who the court is allowing to use a pseudonym after she declared that testifying about “extremely sensitive” details under her real name would result in “humiliating and retraumatizing publicity.” Mia’s lawyers also noted she was fearful of reprisal and harassment from Combs and his supporters.
Before Mia’s testimony, not much was known about the employee, although her name was mentioned a handful of times during testimony from Ventura. The women were friends, Ventura said, hanging out socially, with Mia spending a week in South Africa with Ventura while she filmed a movie in 2015.
During her four days on the witness stand, Ventura testified that Mia was physically present on several occasions when Combs attacked her, including the August 2013 beating that resulted in Ventura needing stitches.
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A few years earlier, during Grammy weekend in 2010, Ventura said she and Mia fled a party at Prince’s home after attending the event without Combs’ permission. Combs suddenly turned up, and Ventura “could tell he was angry” by his facial expressions. “I caught a glimpse of him, so I ran out as fast as I could to the front yard,” Ventura said, adding that Mia left the house with her.
“It’s a little fuzzy, but the most distinct memory I have is running and falling into the bushes in the front yard,” Ventura added. “I don’t know if, at that point, he was over me. I have no idea. I just remember falling in the bushes and then getting up quickly and getting in the car to get back to the hotel.”
Back at her hotel, Combs barged inside the room and beat Ventura, leaving her with a black eye, knots in her head, and a busted lisp, Ventura and her friend, celebrity makeup artist Mylah Morales, testified.
On Wednesday, Ventura’s close friend, celebrity stylist Deonte Nash also referred to Mia, detailing an alleged incident where both he and Mia jumped on Combs’ back in a failed effort to try and stop Combs from beating a sleeping Ventura in August 2013. Combs allegedly threw both Nash and Mia onto the floor, before shoving Ventura into the side of her bed frame, resulting in a deep gash in her eyebrow that required stitches.
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The government has already established that several of Combs’ employees and people on his payroll saw the mogul physically abusing Ventura over the course of their relationship. Former assistants George Kaplan and Capricorn Clark, Bad Boy artist Dawn Richard, Morales and Nash all testified they had been present when Combs brutally attacked Ventura.
Mia is the fourth former personal assistant to testify against her former boss. Her testimony is expected to mirror that of Kaplan, David James, and Clark’s who all claimed they worked around the clock for Combs and were expected to be available at any second.
Clark alleged that she averaged between two and four hours of sleep a night while working as Combs’ assistant in 2004 and 2006. During a three-month period, Clark said she was owed $80,000 in overtime pay. When Combs was presented with the paperwork, he ripped it up, Clark testified.
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In her own opening address, Combs’ attorney, Teny Geragos, told jurors to consider Mia’s motive. “What are the reasons she is saying what she might be saying now, what she never said before?” Geragos questioned. “And certainly never said when she first started cooperating with the government?”
However, prosecutors stated that Mia took years to “grapple” with her experience. “Mia will tell you how she could not talk about what happened to her until recently, how she wanted to take the secret of what the defendant did to her to her grave,” prosecutor Emily A. Johnson said.
