Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Neither folks did. Is Friday, May thirtieth, the third week
of testimony in the Ditty trial is wrapping up today.
Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ MTJ Holmes
alongside my partner Amy Roboch and we continue to be
your one stop shop to get you caught up on
everything going on in the Ditty trial day in and
day out and robes. I don't know how to keep
(00:25):
being surprised, shocked, horrified by what we hear. We've heard
so much already, but then another day now is in
the books. Were very important witness and here we go again.
We can't believe what we heard.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
I know this witness in particular actually testified anonymously. She
went under the name or the pseudonym of Mia, but
she was one of Ditty's personal assistants who claims and
testified that she was raped and sexually assaulted by Ditty.
And she was up there weeping on the stand. And yeah,
(00:59):
to your point, you think you've heard it all. And
these witnesses are consistent the picture that they are painting,
the stories that are telling are all consistent with this
theme of Diddy being a horrifically violent and angry man
who did whatever he wanted to whommeever he wanted, when
(01:21):
he wanted, and it's just appalling if you're believing what
each of these witnesses are testifying to. They are painting
the picture of an evil, maniacal tyrant.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
And we do have to give your heads up. Some
of the stuff you're going to hear in this episode
here quite disturbing and probably farther than we have gone
before in some of the stuff. But it's important for
to get the story across for what they were saying
on the stand. But rose to your point about we
have heard so much about freak coughs. You think you've
heard it all. This witness offered some more extra detail
(01:54):
that we were still like, Eh, we've heard so much.
And they're telling almost the same but they're coming from
different perspectives, they have different details, and each time they're
adding something to the story. But to your point, it's consistent.
The stories line up.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
They really do, and they're all like each witness that
gets on the stand is corroborating what the witness before
them said and before them said, and then making it
feel and seem and appear to be even worse than
we originally thought so.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah, yesterday, the day started with Deontae Nash on the
stand celebrity stylists who had been up on the stand
the day before, testifying to all kind of horrific things
he saw. But we were looking I say looking forward
to not in a pleasant way, but a lot of
people were highly anticipating the next witness that was going
to come up. We just mentioned her name, Mia, that's
all we know. But she's the former assistant to Ditty,
(02:45):
also a close friend to Cassie Ventura. Fine, this is
some of the most compelling stuff I have heard. It's
not just compelling robes in what she said, but how
a lot of court room observers described her demeanor and
how she talked up there. Yes, the crying and so
but they said she barely was able at times to
get above a whisper as she talked on the stand.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
I saw that too, that that just spoke to It
was almost like it was hard to say it out loud,
so she had to say it softly in order to
get it out because it's powerful.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
That's exactly when she did, is when she had to
describe yes, being allegedly raped by Sean Combs or get
into some of those details. But before they started this
was we told her like how she possibly testifying in
court anonymously, so she was sitting there everybody in the
court could see her. But the judge made pretty clear
(03:36):
early on how this was going to go, and he
gave them strict gave the court strict instructions.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
At a time, there were to be no descriptions of
what Mia actually looked like. In fact, the courtroom sketch
artist drew a blank face. Now, the jurors did get
to know her name, so I think that's important to know.
She did put her name out there in the courtroom
and stood by what she was saying. But the entire
courtroom was instructed to not obviously repeat her name or
(04:03):
describe her in any way.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
And she is critical. She is one of the ones
that the prosecution has built almost this entire case on.
She is an alleged victim of Sean Ditty Combs. She
spent some really robes intimate time with him. It sounds like, yes,
she said she kept an apartment here in New York,
but as his assistant and being someone he needed all
(04:26):
the time, she stayed at his homes with him, is
what she explained, and that is where I mean she
I think she even used countless times that assaults or
violence that she saw, but she described in particular robes
being at his house, a place where she said she
wasn't allowed to lock her door when she stayed there,
(04:46):
but she described an incident one day she was sleeping
there and she was awakened.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
That's right. She says that Diddy, of course, yes forbade
her to lock her door in his home. So she
says he came into the room, climbed on top of her,
penetrated her, and she said that she was quietly just
(05:11):
taking it and just let him do what he was
going to do, because she said she felt like she
was unable to say no. She said she feared retaliation.
This quote that she said, or this testimony that she gave,
was jarring to me. Even though she's describing the rape,
she's describing what happened. When she said this, it made
me feel sick. She said, I couldn't tell him no
about a sandwich. I couldn't tell him no about anything.
(05:35):
There was no way I could tell him no, because
then he would know that I thought what he was
doing was wrong. And then I would be a target.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
I mean, some books will try to I mean, it's
tough to get your hand around. It's tough to understand.
We've done stories and many people, most people in this country,
are familiar or know someone in some way form of
fashion who's been probably a victim in some way of
sexual assault, sexual violence.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
In some way.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
It's always complex and to understand, well, why didn't she
just run, or why she didn't she just scream and
all these things. And this woman was explaining so much
of what was happening to her where she was asleep
in his house. The thing that woke her up, she said,
was the weight of someone on top of her. That
is how she woke up. And in that moment, she said,
she froze. He didn't say much of anything to her. Instead,
(06:23):
she said, he said, sh is how he was telling
her to behave. She said, she completely froze. He put
his hand down, took his mands off with one hand,
and put himself inside her. And she said she just
lay there and froze and didn't move. That's tough to hear,
and it's also tough to understand. But when she starts
to explain more of her story and that there is
(06:44):
fear that you must do what this man says. Are
you going to lose your job, You're going to lose
your career, You're gonna lose your future, and in some
cases you might lose your life. Is what these folks
describe being around this guy was.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
I don't think it's hard to understand it all because
human beings either you either fight. You either fight or
you freeze. And the freezing thing I get as a woman,
I totally absolutely relate to that. And she described it
so chillingly, and she also talked about how that wasn't
the only time. I think she said it began in
(07:20):
her mid twenties when she started to work for him.
During one of his birthday parties, his fortieth birthday party
at the Plaza Hotel here in New York City, she
says Combs kissed her and put his hand up her
dress at the party, and she said she thought it
would never happen again, But then, of course, that incident
happened in that bedroom that she was staying at at
Ditty's house. But then she said another time she was
(07:43):
packing a back for him in his closet and he
came into the closet. She said, his penis was exposed.
She said, he grabbed her head and forced her to
give him oral sex um.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
She described, And again, I don't know if you up
in front of you there, I kind of remember on
the top of my head how long she worked for him.
I think it was a matter of several years, if
I have this right. But she said every time there
was an assault, she saw it thought it was the
last time. It was interesting to hear her say when
any assault was over, alleged assault was over, she just
(08:19):
went back to business as usual, just went back to
doing her job, and everybody just went about doing things
the way they were. But it was crazy to hear
every time it happened. She said, Okay, it's not gonna
happen again. If it does happen again, I'm going to
be ready. I'm going to be prepared. But there was
so much time in between them, there was no rhyme
or reason. They were completely random. So the next time
what happened comes out of nowhere. She said. There was
(08:40):
just so much time and distance between the incidents that
you never knew when a way.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
She would let her guard down. And by the way
she worked for Diddy for eight years, beginning in two
thousand and nine, and she said the highs were really
high and the lows were really low. And we've heard
that almost exact same sentiment repeated by other and says
who have taken the stand who have worked for Diddy.
But not only did she testify to sexual assaults, she
(09:06):
talked about what he physically assaulted her with. She said
he'd thrown her against the wall, he threw her into
a pool, he threw an ice bucket over her head,
He slammed her arm into a door. She talks about
how he threw a bowl of spaghetti at her head,
a computer at her head, WiFi went out right exactly
like for almost seemingly insignificant things or things she had
(09:29):
absolutely no control over. She would be suddenly the subject
of violence if he got pissed off. Basically, she also
said this, which I thought was just such an interesting thing,
and just get your head around where his head was.
She said, he could ask you to do seventeen thousand
things at one time that would range from cracking his
knuckles to writing his next movie to doing his taxes,
(09:52):
and he was all on a whim. You never knew
when a request was coming, but if you couldn't figure
out how to do it, you might be in trouble.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
I think it was a prosecut that said, talk about
how difficult things were and how tough the environment was,
and asked her directly, well, what determined what the mood
was going to be like on a particular day. She said,
puff's mood that you just okay, let's see how he is.
And I think you and I have both worked with
people in this industry before, in news where every day
everybody is waiting to see what that person's mood is,
(10:20):
and then everybody in the studio has to walk on
eggshells depending on that person's mood. To think that this
is the person that you depend on for your life,
your money, your career, your everything. You're tiptoeing around just
to see what the mood is. They describe a horrific
experience going on, and this young lady look I talking
about the experience of what she had. She actually she's testifying, Yes, sure,
(10:43):
she's compelled to testify. She says she wanted to die
with this information. She didn't want to ever have to
She was so ashamed and humiliated by what she had
gone through and what she had done and allowed to
happen to her to a certain degree that she did
not she had the plan of going to her grave
with never telling somebody else.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
You know, the shame and guilt, And anyone who has
faced any sort of sexual assault or any kind of
abuse understands that shame and guilt are a part of it,
because you think to yourself, I could have done more,
I should have done more, I should have done this,
And not that you believe you deserved it, but you
believe that you could have done something to stop it
or change it. And that's part of the reason why
(11:22):
so many women and so many abuse victims never come forward.
So to even see her on the stand and admit
that and talk about these unthinkable, unspeakable acts, I really
have to give her and so many of the other
people who've gotten up on that witness stand and said
what they didn't want to say, and said what they
never intended to ever tell anyone else, and had to
do it in front of the world, with Ditty just
(11:43):
a few feet in front of them. I cannot imagine
what that was like. But she also described that part
of her job was to clean up and we've heard
this from other assistants who worked for him, either to
set up or to clean up hotel rooms after some
of these freak offs, and she describes the scenes, and
it was just jarring to hear what she said. She
(12:04):
had to clean up.
Speaker 1 (12:15):
This is we've been hearing a lot about freak off,
to the point I don't want to hear anything else
about a freak off. But she's still giving this information.
She described what did she say, a nightmare? The rooms
looked like a nightmare when they were done. So we
talked previously about the hotel staff out in California. They
had a profile on Ditty, right, so when he was
(12:36):
staying there, they knew, all right, we're going to have
to close the whole place down for a little while
to clean. And that so places knew they'd have to
clean this. Mia came in to clean before the other
folks cleaned, because she had to pick up the little
things that need to be left behind any signs of
actual ditty, but oil and blood stains on the damn furniture.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Yeah, the melted wax candles, you heard about that too,
But yet she just described just wet towels and blood
and urine and just fluids. I just I can't even
imagine being tasked with that.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Mister job, official job. This is part of her responsibility
and duties as an assistant to this guy is to
do that, according to her. So we I say, and
again the freak calls became the headline baby oil and
all this stuff. But we are hearing that's just nothing
about them. I mean that, you can't I don't want
to hear anybody crack another joke about baby oil and frankliness.
(13:35):
People even cracking jokes about this hearing this now, these
were horror shows for folks. Ugh, and this line came
out of it. Everybody it was understood. We always talking,
we've been talking ropes with when everybody say, it was
kind of an open secret. Yeah, everybody in the environment
knew what was going on. They knew it to a
point that they even had a common phrase they use
(13:55):
when they had to recover. When they knew that Diddy
and Cassie were in recovery after a freak off, they
just said, man down. And everybody understood those two are
going to need a couple of days. So all of
us are going to have to keep things running because
those two are recovering, just man down.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
Get your head around that. Wow, that is really insane
to even think about. And then she also Mia also
testified about being with Cassie being on vacation in Turks
and Caicos, I believe, and Cassie came running out of
the hotel room begging Mia to help her, saying, you've
(14:32):
got to help me. He's going to kill me.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
We've heard right in relation to Cassie, several accounts of
where this young lady feared for her life repeatedly, in
some cases where it sounded like she didn't care if
she lived or died, she just wanted to get out.
This is at least one scenario where a story we're
hearing where she was desperately trying to survive him night,
(15:00):
but they blockade. I mean, I see this. I've never
done this in real life, but they did it. They
she came into MIA's hotel room, she testified. Cazie comes
in there yelling scream, he's gonna kill me. Comes in
her home to close the door, and the two ladies
started barricading the door with furniture to try to I've
only seen a swear in horror movies. I swear the
(15:22):
only time I've seen that. I've never seen anybody or
heard him by doing that in real life to escape
a mad man that you think is gonna kill you.
This happens in real life in Turks and Kikos.
Speaker 2 (15:32):
That you spend years with, that you continue to go
back to. That's just it. It's hard to get your
head around it.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Again.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I know, I keep saying that, but this is all,
like you said, like a horror movie. It doesn't feel
like this could possibly have actually happened. But yet we
have witness after witness testifying to the same sort of thing.
So yeah, they were able to run out the back,
I believe, and they actually were like looking for a
place to go to get away from him. They found paddleboards,
and they actually took the palace boards and went way
(16:02):
out into the ocean to get away from Ditty. According
to Mia, so they could barely even see the land
or the buildings, like that's how far out they were.
And then the weather started to turn and they realized
they might be in trouble with mother nature. And she
said that they actually had to make a decision what's worse,
facing Mother Nature or facing Ditty. That's wild that they
(16:25):
had to. They were in that position out in the
ocean with a storm brewing, and they felt safer there
than they did near Diddy.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
That's I'm very much scared of the ocean right if
you get out too far. It's just intimidating one hundred
percent to think that was a safer place at the time.
Their on paddleboard, they're not a boat, they're not rome.
They're out there in the elements with nothing protecting them,
and that was a better option at the time. Jen
that this is all alleged incidents, but if some of
(16:55):
this stuff, if that's true, that that is another deep
die or another another way of a depth of context
of what these folks experienced in the world of Ditty.
That is insane to me that that took place. They eventually, yes,
(17:16):
they obviously had to go back. Mia was also the
one we've been talking so much about this story as well,
and again, as we say ropes corroboration, we've heard this
story told several times. The incident in which Ditty was
attacking Cassie and Deontae Nash, the stylist, and another woman
(17:36):
who was there we now know it was Mia literally
had to jump on his back to try to get
him off of her. She ends up with a gash
in her head. That incident, she described, she said, this
was the moment that she knew they were in real
danger from Ditty. Of all the other stuff she had seen,
she said, there was something about his eye. His eyes
were black. It's the second time we've heard that. Yes,
(17:57):
we've heard that. But she said, this was real fear
and real danger, she said, versus all the other incidents.
Speaker 2 (18:06):
That's hard to imagine with everything she testified that she experienced,
and that she endured that that was the moment where
she felt like, actually her life, Cassie's life, Deontay's life
might all actually be threatened because of Ditty and his
rage and the black and his eyes. It's beyond scary
to think about. And speaking of Deonte, I found this
(18:30):
was interesting that Ditty's defense team was doing their best
to try and you know, just poke some holes in
what he was saying. And when they actually brought up
an instance when Deontay said he left a hotel room
because Colmbs wanted to invite a guy over, and so
the defense attorney said, hey, well then you must not
have been that concerned about Cassie's safety if you were
(18:53):
willing to leave the hotel room, and he said I
always did. I was always worried. And can you imagine
being in that inner circle, having a job and yet
knowing you couldn't say no to Diddy, and knowing that
when you left, you weren't sure if your friend was
(19:13):
going to be safe or not. That is what each
of these employees had to live with and are speaking
to that they were, yes, concerned for their own safety,
but always worried about Cassies when they left her alone.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
We did get some updates as well from the court
as far as how this trial is going to go.
We've been talking Robes about the prosecution said they're right
on track and even in recent days said they're ahead
of schedule and thought they'd be done, maybe even a
week earlier than they thought they would be. Said they'd
be six weeks, maybe just five, and like, wow, they're
getting through this thing. Well, now the defense has said
(19:45):
they've changing things up. Apparently something that's taking place that
the defense is going to I don't want to say
fully changed strategy, but they say Robes they might need
some more time now.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
So, yes, initially it was supposed to be eight weeks.
It looks like it's going to be at least eight
weeks to get through all of the testimony. And do
we have any idea, you know, there was early speculation.
I can't imagine that Diddy would take the stand, But
do we have any idea where Didty is going to
call up? Oh that did the stand to defend himself.
Speaker 1 (20:14):
We don't have that list. But they're changing something around.
I wonder what it's going to look like. Very curious
to see what this is going to look like now
because they have a lot of information. Now they have
a lot to right. The defense gets to go second,
the prosecution will get to come back after that. But
they have now seen exactly what the strategy, if you will,
the prosecution is going to be. So they're changing potentially
(20:35):
defense strategy a little bit. And folks might be wondering, Mia,
we talk about domestic violence, We're talking about all these
assault but then people go away in a minute. He
starts with racketeering and prostitution, all these things. They say,
this is part of the legal experts will tell you
she is part of helping to build a case that
he had a criminal enterprise because forced labor. There's just
(20:58):
specific legalities in there to where her story now applies
to this racketeering charge of an idea of he's forcing
labor up on someone. That's just a technical legal thing
to prove, but it is a part of why they
needed to hear her story.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Yeah, she said she once worked for five days without sleep.
She said her vision was blurring. She said she burst
into tears and that was the only point at which
did he let her take a break and be off
the clock. But by the way, with all that we
just described, all of this that she claims she endured.
She said her base salary was fifty thousand dollars a year.
(21:34):
Think about that, fifty thousand dollars a year to work
endlessly and to be working under those types of conditions,
did he people?
Speaker 1 (21:44):
There was a time in the nineties people would have done,
in Emmy two thousands anything to get into that world.
They were on top of the world.
Speaker 2 (21:53):
They just didn't know what that world actually was until
they were in it.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
And now here we are, we're all finding out that
all of that means music, all of those videos, all
that stuff you love, all of those shows you watch.
Every time you clapped when he was on stage, every
time you saw him walk down a red carpet. Everything
looks different now and that just sucks. Mia is going
to be back on the stand today this morning. She
(22:16):
don't know how long. It's possible she could be up
there for quite a while today. The cross examination has
it even started, no with her, so you know, the
defense is really going to probably take some go after her.
So again, folks said, this one's a little more details.
Why sometimes we've left some things out, but some of
these details were horrific. But it was important to share
her story and that's why we did it.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
And we will continue to share all of the stories
that we hear on the stand each and every day.
So we appreciate you listening here while we try to
sum up what is happening in that courtroom just a
few blocks from where we're recording this right now. But
we hope you have a wonderful day and a great weekend. Everyone,
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
They do think