June 2, 2025 • 42 mins
In this episode of Zone 7, Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum, is joined by pop culture journalist Lauren Conlin, who has been reporting live from the courtroom in the federal investigation into Sean “Diddy” Combs. Lauren brings the latest from the court room as of May 30th, 2025. Sheryl and Lauren unpack incredible testimonies from Cassie Ventura, Kid Cudi, and other key witnesses, painting a disturbing picture of alleged abuse, control, and intimidation. They cover how star power and fear create a fortress of silence around high-profile abusers, and how that wall is slowly being dismantled in court. She walks listeners through the RICO foundation the prosecution is building, the alleged car bombing of Kid Cudi, the grooming and abuse of Cassie, and what’s to come the week of June 1st-5th.
Lauren Conlin is a New York City-based reporter, podcaster, and host specializing in pop culture and true crime. She is a writer-reporter for Pop Style TV, Nicki Swift Celebrity, and Grunge.com, and the host of two popular podcasts: Lauren Interviews, featuring celebrity and reality TV personalities, and Corruption: What Happened to Grant Solomon, an investigative deep dive into a suspicious teen death. Lauren’s true crime reporting has gained national attention, including viral interviews tied to the Madeleine McCann case, exclusive coverage of Brittany Murphy’s death, and appearances on VICE TV, Fox News, and Law & Crime. Her work has been featured by outlets like People, EW, Page Six, Elle, and The Today Show.
Listeners can connect with Lauren on Prime Time Crime Live Wednesdays at 8pm EST, on X @lauren_conlin and on IG @laurenemilyconlin
Show Notes:
- (0:00) Welcome back to Zone 7 with Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum
- (0:10) Sheryl welcomes guest, and reporter, Lauren Conlin to Zone 7
- (0:30) Lauren is bringing all the latest updates of the P Diddy trial
- (2:00) Lauren dissects the testimony of Cassie Ventura
- (5:00) The infamous hotel video
- (6:30) The testimony of Kid Cudi
- (10:30) Cassie's documented threats and emails
- (18:00) The violence of Diddy in public
- (18:30) “Sean Combs wasn’t hiding his violence… he punched her in the stomach at a restaurant - in front of Usher.”
- (20:00) Carrie Morgan's friendship ends and the NDA pattern
- (22:00) The rivalry between Suge Knight
- (25:00) The home security raid - weapon evidence and defaced serial codes
- (27:00) Latest updates as of May, 30th, 2025
- (27:30) Updates from Mia’s testimony and the RICO foundation
- (31:00) Who is next to testify?
- (37:00) What’s to come next
- (41:30) ”Mix me with violence, blend me with peace, combine me with hate. I can't face to defeat.” Sean Combs
- Thanks for listening to another episode! If you’re loving the show and want to help grow the show, please head over to iTunes and leave a rating and review!
---
Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an Emmy Award winning CSI, a writer for CrimeOnLine, Forensic and Crime Scene Expert for Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, and a CSI for a metro Atlanta Police Department. She is the co-author of the textbook., Cold Case: Pathways to Justice. Sheryl is also the founder and director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, a collaboration between universities and colleges that brings researchers, practitioners, students and the criminal justice community together to advance techniques in solving cold cases and assist families and law enforcement with solvability factors for unsolved homicides, missing persons, and kidnapping cases.
Social Links:
- Email: coldcase2004@gmail.com
- Twitter: @ColdCaseTips
- Facebook: @sheryl.mccollum
Instagram: @officialzone7podcast
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
Sex, trafficking, racketeering, y'all know I'm talking about Sean Cone's
Puffy p Diddy Puff Daddy.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
He is accused of using.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Violence, threats, blackmail to control his victims to make sure
that his empire is protected. We have the just.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
She's just a light. I mean, what can I say?
She is beyond by vacious.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
She is fun, she is talented, she is smart, she
is beautiful. We have Lauren Conlin, y'all, and she has
been at that courthouse from dark to dark. She ain't
missing none of it. She's been live and what we
decided we were going.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
To do tonight for you.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Now, let me tell you this is Friday night, and
we're gonna do a special release of Zone seven on Monday.
But if anything happens, first thing Monday morning, and he
Lauren's fault. So it's Friday night, We're going to get
you all the latest information first thing Monday that we can,
and we got Lauren here to run through every bit
(01:17):
of it.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Hey, honey, Hi Cheryl, that was such a nice introduction.
Thank you so much. You're the kindest and I feel
the exact same way about you, So just want to
put that out there.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Nothing but facts. I mean, I have spent enough time with.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
You and your family. I mean, it's just extraordinary the
way that you just live your life, always so positive
and happy and willing to help and share and listen, y'all.
She has been running full speed. She could be home
right now with her feed up and a nice drink
of whatever she chooses, but no, she's here to talk
(01:53):
about everything. So let's just get into it. And I
think it would be really important for people. Let's just
start at the beginning and talk about the first witness
we saw. Let's start with Cassie Ventura.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yes, Cassie, she was the third witness. We saw two
witnesses before Cassie. We saw the security guard at the
Intercontinental Hotel that was present and working the day of
the infamous beatdown of Cassie. That's really what I refer
to that video as the beat down. And then we
(02:27):
heard from Daniel Phillip, who was the escort that was
frequently used with Cassie and Diddy. And then we heard
from Cassie. So we had a little bit of foundation
from those two, but Cassie really laid the foundation for
about four days, I believe. I'm thinking back now it
was two weeks ago, but I believe it was about
(02:49):
four days on the stand, eight and a half months pregnant. Man,
I was so impressed with her, Cheryl, her poise, she
rarely lost her cool, and she was just going through
the God, can you imagine Cheryl going through text messages
that you sent when you were twenty two? I mean,
are just things you said and did when you were
(03:11):
twenty one or twenty two. And also you know this, Yeah,
this was the darkest time in her life. It's very
clear that Cassie was groomed, she was assaulted, she was beaten,
she was you know, she was not treated how any
human being should ever be treated. And she was up
there on the stand, you know, just reliving all of this,
(03:34):
and also admitting to her own faults, her her own
addiction to drugs, her own bouts with depression after you know,
her time with Sean Colmes, and again, her testimony really
laid the foundation here. But I don't think a lot
of us really expected some of the details that we
were about to hear. And I'm not trying to sensationalize anything,
(03:59):
but you know, just having to hear this poor girl
talk about having an escort urinate in her mouth as
well as Sean Colmes, and to have the prosecutor kind
of question her and say and ask questions like, well,
did you want them to urinate on you? And she's like, no,
does anybody? And I know they have to ask these questions,
(04:21):
it's their job, but it just felt so wrong to
sit there and have to listen to her getting hammered
about this. And I'm not even talking about the cross examination,
which is just so crazy, you know, because it's they
had to get all these details out, so so yeah,
it was it was a foundation that was laid and
the violence she described, the hotel setups, with the freak
(04:45):
offs that she described, down to Ditty's Louis Vauton medbag
that she first introduced to us. They have all since
been corroborated. So her testimony was incredibly important.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
And I think the video, I mean, if you don't
want to believe her, there is no way you can't
believe what you're seeing.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
It's true. And it's crazy because I thought it was
so difficult. We had to watch that video on the
first day, probably six times. At one point we had
to go frame by frame and see other parts of
the video that we hadn't seen before. I mean, it
was them walking down the hall. But still I find
(05:25):
it all to be equally traumatic. And I found that
the jury was just not really flinching or showing any
reaction throughout this, And I kept wondering to myself, are
they becoming desensitized to this violence? Because they also rarely
react to some of the violent things that we hear
from witnesses on the stand as well. But yeah, going
(05:47):
back to what you said, the video is definitely a
very important piece of evidence for so many reasons, as
is that entire hotel incident, because the security guard testify
that Diddy showed him a stack of money and essentially,
and I'm paraphrasing, said, you know, here, take this to
(06:08):
basically keep your mouth shut. Again, he didn't say that,
but that was inferred. The security guard said no. And
then during cross examination, it was I forget exactly who
was Maybe it was Xavier Donaldson who said, but don't
quote me on that, but he just said, well, you know,
didn't you say that you told mister Holmes that he
had to pay for the damage to the hotel room
(06:28):
or the glass that he broke in the hallway. You know,
couldn't he have been offering you that this money for
that so, you know, doing their job. But yeah, it was.
It was definitely a very important piece of evidence.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Agreed. And let's talk about Kid Cutty.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
That was a crazy day, Cheryl. It was, I man,
not I was expecting the courthouse to be a circus again,
but it was so crazy. Just to go back for
a second, it was so crazy on opening statements or
the day of opening statement and then it kind of
died down a little bit and then Kid Cutty, woof
it was. It was nuts. But he he testified. He
(07:10):
testified about the break in of his house, which turned
out to be an official trespassing incident. But we didn't
know about this break in the public really only heard
rumors about his car being blown up. So his testimony
about Sean Colmbs going to his house with an associate,
being called by an assistant that was in the car
(07:33):
outside of his house while this was happening, Capricorn Clark.
He described getting this call while he was with Cassie
at a hotel and just you know, running over there
to the house and he said that they were gone
by the time that he got there. That his dog
was in the bathroom and got PTSD from being locked
in the bathroom after some Christmas presents were opened. But
(07:56):
he filed the police report, and you know, did he care.
Kept reaching out to him and saying, I just want
to talk, I just want to talk, and he ignored it.
He was like, this is insane. I'm going to let
the police handle it because I don't know what to
expect from him at this point. And he ended up
going to Connecticut with Cassie for Christmas. This was a
few days. It was like three days after the break in,
(08:19):
and Cassie ended up breaking up with him over this trip.
She was very concerned because Sean Colmes had threatened her
and had said I'm going to harm you and Scott
mescady kid Cuddy, and it's not going to be by
my hands. It's going to be by somebody else's hands.
I'm going to be out of the country when this happens.
He also threatened to release two sex tapes if she
(08:42):
didn't comply with what he said. And we found this
out because Cassie sent an email to her mother. The
subject line was titled threats and it was to her
mom and to Capricorn Clark where she said all of this,
and then she also testified. Cassie testified that he told
her he was going to blow up Kid Cutty's car
(09:03):
and that he hoped his friends would be present for this.
So Kid Cutty goes back to La after Cassie breaks
it off with him. Cassie goes to me Ditty secretly
in Arizona, and then it's January. It's been a month
since since they broke up Cassie and Kid Cutty and
he's forty five minutes from his house. Gets a call
(09:23):
from his assistant around six thirty am, or his dog walker,
and she tells him that his car is on fire.
She took pictures and he was like, what is happening?
And that's when he said, okay. I reached out to
Sean Colmes and I arranged a meeting because enough is enough.
And that's where he actually described him at the La
(09:45):
Soho house where he met him as a quote Marvel
super villain. He was facing the wall, he said, Diddy
with his arms behind his back, and I thought it
was kind of interesting because he made a point Kid
Cutty to say that Diddy was acting very strange. He
offered him water twice. He was very calm. He was
just like, hey, man, I'm sorry, you know, I you
(10:08):
know that cass is my girl. I just want to
work this out. I'm sorry for you know, any just
you know, any tension between us, but you know, I
feel like we need to talk about this. And when
the defense was doing the cross examination, he actually got
Kid Cutty to say on two different occasions that Cassie
(10:28):
quote played both he and Diddy, because you know, Cassie
and Diddy's relationship was on again, off again, and at
that point they were off, but they were still you know,
Cassie was still doing freak offs with him, and she
had told Kid Cutty that they were done. And obviously, Diddy,
you know, it's hits. It's very hypocritical, right, He's sleeping
(10:51):
with so many women, but Cassie can't date anyone else.
And this is obviously my opinion, but I was surprised
that the defense actually got him to say that more
than once. So he did. Kid Cutty did say that.
At the end of the conversation, he said, hey, what
about my car, and and did he said, I don't
know what you're talking about. And he was like yeah, okay,
and then you know, they really they didn't talk at
(11:13):
all until a few years later. Did he was actually
at the Soho house with his daughter's Kid Cutty happened
to be there, and he said that did. He approached
him and apologized for everything that happened between them. So
it was it was pretty interesting and and Kid Cutty
was funny on the stand. He cursed a lot, and
he was very real, very clear he didn't want to
(11:35):
be there.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
I mean, you know, sure, yeah, but he was to
admit that happened to him. See that's the other thing
people don't get when you're especially in that lifestyle. You know,
you're supposed to be the pimp, the hard person, the
I've done time, that I'm running, you know, my organization
kind of thing. And now you're not only having to
(11:55):
admit this man broke into my house. Now if that
ain't a power. Plus, hey, he's telling you I can
get to you and there's nothing you can do about it.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
I'm in your house and you're not even here.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I mean, that would get my attention, right, and then
your car blows up exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
And he also admitted on the stand, which I thought
was kind of sweet. That he loved Cassie, he fell
in love with her, and it's you know, we It's
also been kind of just very trippy to see these
photos of these celebrities on red carpets, like Cassie and Diddy,
and see these bruises on her body that were covered
(12:36):
up with makeup and have it be pointed out to
us now while she's got this big smile on her face,
you know, and then thinking about how Kid Cutty was
really heartbroken over this, and we the public, you know,
we see gossip headlines and I think gossip mags were
definitely more of a thing, I guess in twenty eleven,
twenty twelve, but this never really got out. So I
(12:56):
found it all to be just, you know, obviously traumatic,
but also fascinating from that perspective, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Right well, you know, Stockholm syndrome is a real thing.
Battered wife syndrome is a real thing. And you know,
I've heard a lot of people say, yeah, but she
would have this horrible abuse happen. But then as for
her job back, he has a way of pulling you
back in.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
That's clear.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
You can even hear some of the former employees talk
about it like they thought their life was in danger
after only a couple of weeks of working for him.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yes, and he he is clearly very charming, Cheryl. I
think that's part of why he was so successful. You
can even see him turn on the charm. I mean,
the way he reacts to not so much the press,
but there's a public section in the courtroom, and the
way he kind of turns around, smile at them, he
makes eye contact with them, you know, gives them that
(13:51):
heart symbol. It's just it's like, wow, you just see
how he was able to sort of control a lot
of people. People and the Kid Cutty testimony, just going
back to that really quickly. I think that was really
the first time that the RICO was kind of introduced
(14:13):
or you know, I guess something on the indictment was
kind of introduced to us, while Cassie definitely laid the
foundation there. And I believe they're trying to say that
Cassie was commercially sex trafficked. I believe so. I mean,
it's hard to tell at this point. You know who
they're trying to say was sex traffic, but I believe
it was Cassie. But I felt like, yeah, Kid Cutty's
(14:35):
testimony was the first time that I was like, oh wow, okay,
I get it.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah, they're starting to lay a pretty solid foundation that
everybody's testimony lines up. It all cooberates what Cassie has said.
But they've also added some things like when Dawn Richard
when she testified, she's talking about Cassie in there trying
to make breakfast, and Sean Combs comes down.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
There hollered about where are my eggs? Where are my eggs?
And takes the skillet and was going to hit her
with it.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah, she Don Rochard did testify to that, and listen,
I have heard more violent events that happened to Cassie
through her friend, her former best friend, Carrie Morgan, as
well as her assist or I'm sorry, her celebrity stylist
Deontay Nash. I mean, I believe there were way too
(15:30):
many violent beatings that Cassie just couldn't even count them.
She couldn't recall all of them. So, yes, we have
other people who have witnessed these violent outbursts by Diddy
and they're telling us about it now. Don Richard, I
felt like, you know, she, I don't think she was
the best witness for the government. If I had to
(15:51):
give an opinion, I felt like she was one of
the weakest. She definitely, and I'm not trying to sound
harsh at all, but I felt like there was a
lot of holes poked in her testimony during cross examination
when it came to the what she told the government
in maybe eight to ten meetings and what she said
(16:11):
on the stand, particularly the skillet incident, which I believe happened.
That's the main thing, without a doubt. Don Rochard saw
what she saw, and Diddy beat Cassie because she didn't
make the eggs fast enough. It's what happened after Don
Richard said that she was threatened by Diddy and Harve
Pierre at another point. That's another bad boy exec But
(16:34):
Diddy said, you know what you saw between me and
cass was passion, and then apparently he added, you know,
don't tell anyone because where I come from, if you do,
people go missing or people disappear. Now, the defense just
kind of elicited the fact that she never shared that
(16:54):
with anyone before this death threat, because that's really important, right.
That also goes to Rico so and they pointed this out,
and then Don Richard actually admitted that her memory has changed,
so maybe maybe she didn't remember things as well, but
she also was trying to forget these memories because they
were so traumatic for her. So I mean, it's going
(17:16):
to depend on on the jury, of course, but I
did feel like that that was sort of a moment
for the defense to kind of shine.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Well, there's one more element there.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
A lot of people do not come forward and they
don't tell things until somebody's in jail. And remember he
asked for bail over and over and over. He still
has people loyal to him. So maybe she was like,
I maybe he shouldn't say that, and maybe she thought, well,
I'm here now, I'm go ahead and say it. But
(17:46):
here's the point to me, with all of these people
that are testifying to what they saw, and this is
what I don't want anybody to miss. Sean Combs wasn't
hiding his violence. He wasn't hiding it. So there's a
lot of people. You know, you go to church and
the deacon is just fabulous, and he's charismatic and he's
(18:07):
very concerned, how are you everything good? If I can
do anything, let me know. You don't know what he's
like at home, same thing with a police officer and
a teacher and a salesman and the CEO of a
fortune five hundred company. You don't know, You just know
what they present in public. Most abusers can hide it,
at least for a little while. Well, he wasn't hiding
(18:30):
it from anybody. He punched your in the stomach at
a restaurant in front of Usher.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
I was just gonna say that. I was totally gonna
say that, because that was crazy when Don Richard said that.
I mean so many of us were like, wait, so
Usher knew about it. And look, we don't know if
Usher saw this with his own eyes, but it seemed
like the dinner was intimate enough based on the number
of guests she described, which were under ten guests, that
(18:57):
he did see something. But you're so right. I mean,
we've just got a lot of instances that people seem
to just turn the other cheek, look the other way,
and it really is so heartbreaking that he could commit
this violence against women and treat his staff like that
for for so long and get away with it. But
(19:20):
just really quickly going back to Don Richard, she you
know the testimony that was that was kind of coming
after the whole why didn't you talk about these death threats?
Was again what you kind of mentioned the fact that
everybody goes back and kind of asks him for work again.
And so they had pointed that out as well, that
(19:40):
she stopped working with him after she was a member
of Diddy Dirty Money and she didn't have as many
record sales as she once did, and you know, she
contacted him and nothing ever happened. So that was was
brought up as well, and that really does seem to
be a common thing. I would say, not so much
(20:01):
for the male personal assistance or any of the male
employees that we've heard from so far, but definitely with
the female ones, they definitely seemed to kind of go
back and actually just kidding. The celebrity stylist still contacted,
did he after he stopped working for him, but just
not for work, just on a personal level.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Well, he also settled a lawsuit for twenty million dollars
to make sure information didn't get out. He offered other
people money. Her friend didn't he offer her thirty grand
to not tell what she saw.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Oh, yes, So that and also Cheryl, we heard a
little bombshell today from Mia and I'll get there, but yes,
Carrie Morgan, Cassie's former best friend, this was a friendship
ending event. In twenty eighteen, did he bust it into
Cassie's apartment while Carrie was there, saying, you know, who's
(20:55):
Cassie sleeping with? Essentially, and he picked he he choked
Carrie Morgan or held her by the throat and then
hit her over the head with a wooden hangar. And
Carrie Morgan was, you know, she had a lawyer ready
and she was ready to take some action. And then
Cassie called her and they met at a pizza place,
and you know, Carrie described that their friendship ended because
(21:19):
Cassie took Diddy's side and didn't seem like this was
such a big deal. And Carrie kind of said, nope,
for me, this is where I draw the line. The
violence is where I draw the line. And Cassie just said, well,
we'd like to settle this without a lawyer. So he's
going to offer you thirty grand and to sign this NDA,
and Carrie said, yes.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
So again he has a pattern of trying to keep
things secret in using money to do so, and like
David James, he talked and one thing that really stuck
out for me was Okay, you went and bought drugs
for and that doesn't surprise me. I think that's probably standard.
But he talked about the rivalry we should not now
(22:00):
that got my attention because Should's been in prison. His
antics are well documented, holding people off the balcony by
their ankles, you know, being with Tupac when he was
murdered in Las Vegas. Maybe having some ties to other
folks that were doing things that were violent. But if
(22:21):
you're telling me Sean Combs well step two shulg night,
that tells me how violent that man can be.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Oh well, and the fact that they grabbed three guns
and David James said on the stand he was kind
of nervous because he's thinking to himself, Okay, there's three
of us, you know, d Rock, Diddy and me, and
there's three guns. So what does this mean? You could
tell he was he was genuinely pretty concerned in that
moment on the stand, reflecting back on that night, and
(22:53):
also the fact Cheryl that he said that he quit.
He gave his notice pretty much days later and they
offered him another position, like, oh, do you want to
work at Sean John kind of, you know, just a
completely different role to stay in the company, and he
was like, nope, I'm good. However, he also seemed to
have positive memories about Ditty as well, and they even
(23:16):
shared some laughs, which is so crazy to me, Like
Diddy was in his seat laughing and David James was
laughing as well. It was kind of like the Twilight Zone.
And you know that happened with the other assistant, George
Kaplan as well. They just shared these these moments.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
It seemed like, well, let's talk about the guns.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
One of them was an AR fifteen that had a
DEFAE serial number. Now let's talk about Wow, that would
be the case. You're talking about a millionaire. Why wouldn't
he have a legal weapon. I'll tell you because he
doesn't want that weapon to be traced back to him,
which if he bought it legally, could be.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Yes. Well, that was that came out during We had
Special Agent Gerard Gannon on the stand from the HSI,
who was in charge of the March twenty twenty four
raid of his Miami property to Star Island. So we
did see the AR fifteens. There's two of them that
were defaced, and we saw the photo evidence, and then
(24:16):
we saw them in person. And when we saw this
photo evidence, the AR fifteens, they were taken apart. The
upper barrel and the lower barrel were separated. They were
even in different shelves on the closet. And I believe
it was the upper barrel that there was two of
them that were wrapped in a towel. But the magazines
from the lower barrel, they were pretty much filled with bullets.
(24:42):
I think there may be was like three or four
bullets missing from one of the guns. But when they
showed the guns to the jury, they were put together.
The defense made sure to remind the jury Cheryl that, oh,
when you saw these photos of the guns, they were
not together, so you you can see what they're they're
trying to do. They're they're trying to minimize, you know,
(25:04):
these weapons. The defense also actually asked the Homeland Security agent.
They're like, well, you know, you live in Florida, I mean,
you own guns. Isn't it very common to own guns
in Florida? And yeah, it was just very much like okay.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Not with obliterated serial number exactly.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
And there he also had a handgun as well. I
think it was a forty five or something like that,
which was not defaced. They made sure to tell us
that that was not defaced.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Who's George Kaplan? What was he about?
Speaker 3 (25:38):
He was another assistant and we actually thought for a
second that he may end up pleading the fifth, But
it turns out that both he and David James got
proffer agreements because they had to testify that they did
speak to drug dealers to buy drugs for data.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Okay, so they got immunity exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
That's fair, yep.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I mean buying drugs doesn't bother me.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
As much as you know, the abuse that these women
allegedly have suffered at his hands and witnessed by so
many people.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Yes, exactly. And just to point out just a hypocrisy
or a hypocritical moment, I should say, David James actually
testified that he grabbed the chef's wrists over something and
he kind of like shook her and he had to
go to HR and he said that Ditty said, if
you ever put your hands on a woman again, you're
out of here. I'm like, ok yeah, so I know.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I was like, oh, who is Frank Black?
Speaker 3 (26:41):
So that's Ditty's alias that he uses when he checks
into hotels. We've seen that corroborated numerous times. There's even
been times that he's used that to get prescription drugs.
And I believe it was Cassie that testified that even
certain DAWs let him use that name, and Biggie, I guess,
(27:04):
referred to himself as Frank White, So it's kind of
a play on that.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Okay, all right, girl, what happened today Friday, May thirtieth.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Yes, Okay, So I was just going to bring this
up about Mia. So Mia is or was Ditty's personal assistant,
and then she became the director of development for Revolt TV,
which was a subsidiary for Revolt Films, which he owns,
and she also is very close with Cassie and she
actually said that she and Cassie are still like sisters.
(27:39):
So Mia is actually victim for But just to because
I brought this up. She testified during the last five
minutes of her direct examination something that I think is
very important. She said that d Rock, which was one
of Ditty's main security guards or yeah, bodyguards, texted her
(27:59):
about maybe a week or a few days after Cassie's
lawsuit dropped in November of twenty twenty three. Now, Mia
testified that she she didn't think that d Rock was
still employed by Ditty. However, she she figured out uh
very quickly because he told her, oh, I'm in Miami.
(28:20):
He texted her, I'm doing something for one of Ditty's kids.
So anyway, he texted her like a week after and
just said hey, Mia, like what's good or something like that,
and she was so excited to hear from him. She's like, hey,
de Rock, I miss you. What's up? And then he said, wow,
crazy about you know what's going on with Puff? And
he said everybody knows that Cassie and Puff just fought
(28:43):
like a normal couple. And that's when you know, she
was like, uh oh mea thought to herself, I don't
really want to be involved with this. Something's not right
here because de Rock witnessed it all and de Rock
actually helped Cassie on certain occasions, so she kind of
just acted like played dumb. Said she didn't have service,
(29:03):
didn't you know, didn't really write back to him. And
then he said, okay, well Puff needs to talk to you,
and she's like ignoring him, and then he kind of
gets upset, like Mia, what's going on, why are you
not writing me back? And she said she was scuba
diving she didn't have service. Well, Puff ends up calling her,
and she says she has this reaction where she throws
her phone on the couch and runs out of her house.
(29:26):
And then here's from de Rock again a few days later,
where you know, she says, okay, he called me. I
called him back. I didn't leave a message, but I'll
just leave it at that, and she never called him back.
But then Dee Rock said, where can I send you something?
Or where you know, basically, what's your address? I need
to send you something or I'm paraphrasing, but Mia said
(29:51):
she took that as he wanted to send her money,
and she was certain of that and she said, no, no,
I'm good. Don't worry about me, like, yes, I'm in debt,
but you don't have to worry about it. And that
de Rock said, well, I just want to send my
sister a gift because they refer to themselves as family.
And she said no, thanks, and that was that. But
(30:12):
then in February of twenty twenty four, she got two
text messages from Sean Colmes saying, I just want to
talk to you, I hope all as well. Love, And
then the second message was, Hey, I'm just looking for
you to jog my memory a bit. You are my
right hand for so long. I'm reading from the notes
(30:33):
I took, and he said, I just want to remind myself.
I want you to remind me of who I was
around during certain time periods. So that was that was
a moment. She never wrote back, but I was like,
oh boy, I believe they are trying to show again
some more rico, some more witness intimidation. But yeah, it
(30:57):
was WF. It was crazy.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
That is so great. So who do you think is
coming next?
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Well, I mean, I know that the chef Chef Jordana
is supposed to testify. I believe we're going to hear
from travel agents and people that did bookings for him Diddy,
and that I believe is going to be where we
kind of hear about some of the escorts that they
flew to different cities, because that is definitely a thing.
(31:27):
So yeah, I mean it's I have to tell you,
I can't believe it's only three. I'm like, oh, this
is very dark, very very dark.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
So do you feel like you've heard enough that you
see a foundation being laid for Rico for sure or
do you need more?
Speaker 3 (31:48):
I would say this week they have done a really
good job of laying the Rico foundation with Capricorn Clark
and with the There was a Arson investigator, and this
was the day that the defense actually moved for a mistrial.
They did not get one, but essentially the defense was
(32:11):
not happy with the government's line of questioning for this
Arson investigator because he disclosed that they were investigating the
kid Cutty Arson and they were working with the LAPD
who investigated the trust passing incident, and they had this
fingerprint card and somehow they were going to try to
match the DNA they got off the Molotov cocktail with
(32:32):
the print card from the trust passing incident. But the
print card was destroyed and they asked the Arson investigator, well,
did you order it to be destroyed? And you know,
he said no, and then they went on, well, is
it unusual that something like that that piece of evidence
would be destroyed out of the blue. Finally an objection
(32:53):
and what they were alluding to was that, you know,
Diddy ordered somebody in the LAPD to have it destroyed
and argued that the jury initially was so concerned about
celebrities and people like Diddy being able to buy their
way out of situations that they couldn't get this information
out of their head, you know, like this, they can't
(33:13):
unhear this, so we want a mistrial. The judge ended
up saying, Okay, you know the jury, no mistrial, clearly,
but the jury should disregard the questions and disregard the answers,
which they did. But but no, I felt like, you know,
the testimony from from Capricorn Clerk as well as a
testimony from Mia that we're hearing, I think has laid
(33:34):
a much better foundation. Of course, you know, we've heard
about a kidnapping. However, the kidnapping, you know, there was
a police report of this whole night, but the kidnapping
was not part of it. So I feel like for
everything that we're hearing Cheryl, when it comes to the
reco case, there's also a good handful of doubt as well.
(33:55):
So it really is going to depend on the jury,
I mean, which is obvious. But you know what I'm
I'm saying when I say that, like it really and
I've had these thoughts and I'm sorry, I'm just I'm
so long winded, But the jury is I mean, there's
three people under forty, and it looks like there's many
people in their sixties, someone their seventies. I have to
(34:15):
think it's going to be this generational battle. Do you
know what I'm saying? Like, because we've seen text messages
from Cassie that say, I love freak offs. I never
want to stop freakoffs. I don't know if someone in
their seventies is going to and this is a general thing.
It's obviously depends on the person, but you know, if
they see a text message, they're going to say, oh,
well she said this. You know, they may not think
(34:36):
of the nuanced situation that she's in, you know, when
it comes to trauma. But it's yeah, it's gosh. I
know that we have a long way to go.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Do you know if there's anybody that's going to testify
that is super famous? I mean, is there somebody that's
just going to come and bring the house down?
Speaker 3 (34:56):
Well, this is what's this is what's crazy. I don't
think that they're going to to tell us until a
day or two prior because we don't have a witness
list and what they've been doing is kind of at
the end of the day, they've been saying okay, you know,
to the government. The judge says, who's up, and then
we'll hear one or two people or you know, a
couple people that they are aiming to have for that week.
(35:17):
And so we really we heard about kid Cutty the
day before or maybe two days before. But I think
that's how it's going to go down. They're not going
to tell us until, yeah, until the week of or
the day before.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
I would think with the case this significant, this big,
you've got to have at least one. There's no way
there's not somebody that witnessed it that Cassie knew was
in the room, that Capricorn knew was in the room,
that these ex assistants they knew. So whether it's justin.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Bieber or ray Ja or whoever it might be, he
had people around him twenty four seven.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
And there's no way you could go to one of
those parties and miss everything. You can't miss katamaine and
peels and marijuana and somebody getting there, you know, skull
crushed the hand.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
You can't miss all of that.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Well, I feel like, you know, the defense, I feel
like there's a good chance they'll call some character witnesses. Maybe,
so perhaps that's when they may call a celebrity. I mean,
and you're right, we don't know who saw what and who.
I mean, you're absolutely right, he partied with a lot
of people, and we've seen people in pictures. Just today
(36:39):
we saw Diddy with Meek Mill and the game and
you know, but I also want to point out something
the defense had pointed out because I'm trying to be
fair as I cover this, I'm trying to just kind
of you know, not offer much except for the facts.
But the defense pointed out, who is.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
That in journalism?
Speaker 3 (36:59):
I know, right, No, But you know me, usually my
mouf off, I give my opinion, but in this case,
I'm really trying something new here, Cheryl. No. But they
pointed out, you know, during the raid, at least that
the amount of drugs they found in Diddy's Star Island
home was so small that they were destroyed. So because
(37:20):
it was it was like a little baggye here, like
in a baggie of pills here and there, and you know,
for the average person, yeah, it's a lot. But I
guess when you're talking about possible drug trafficking, let's say,
or you know, it's it's It was a small amount.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
To kind of prode the point I was trying to make.
One person testified that he had to clean up the
hotel room before the maid service came so that they
would not take pictures of what occurred during these freak offs. Well,
to me, that tells you right there, George, what was
going down.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Yeah, everybody pretty much testified, every assistant that they had
to clean baby oil up off the wall, off the floor,
off the furniture. There's candle wax everywhere. You know. They
had a hotel manager from the Hermitage Hotel testify, and
you know, he just reiterated the fact that sometimes they
(38:16):
would add one thousand dollars onto the room for a
deep clean, that there'd be like a weird odor coming
out of the room sometimes. They also they said that
he liked the room at I think it was like
seventy five, which is pretty warm. But you know, and
I thought about this this clip that I think it
was on some late night talk show where he kind
(38:37):
of said he likes for it to get warm and sweating,
and I was like, oh, you know, I just it's
all corroborating the same thing. However, I will offer just
an opinion here. I do feel like at this point,
right now, we do need to hear from from more
people about the sex trafficking because at this point I
(38:59):
don't twelve jurors unanimously agreeing that Cassie was commercially sex trafficked.
I think that the transportation to engage in prostitution will
be a very easy conviction once we hear from the
travel agents and possibly the escort that traveled with them.
But I do think at this point it's going to
be difficult unless they get you know, we hear from
(39:22):
the Jane victim who is supposed to testify. That's victim too,
I believe.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
All right, Well, the only issue I have is when
you said people in their sixties and seventies may not
understand the nuances. I will read text messages I sent
to Walt right now, and that was.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
No, and I feel that I'm not. I guess I'm
not saying it like that because I.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Know I'm just tasing with you.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
I'm just chasing, so I don't want to offend anyone.
But I'm just thinking of my parents, for example, and
how you know, if they see somebody say something in
a text message enough times, they're probably gonna just go
with what the person said. And again that's not for everybody.
But I am staring at this jury and I'm like,
just make an expression. I just want to know what
(40:09):
you're thinking.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Well, I think there is some level of who would
do that. I mean, you think you have all of
this money and this is what he's doing with it,
harming people, threatening people, hurting people. So, you know, I
think that from what I can understand that you're saying,
the jury's at least paying attention. They're watching him, they're
(40:33):
watching the people on the stand, and they're taking it seriously.
And I think whether there's a generation gap, you know,
maybe understanding. Maybe they don't know him, maybe they don't
know his music. But again, the testimony, the video, you
can't miss that.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
Yeah, no, exactly, And I think that with the witnesses
this week, they are paying very close attention. It's it's
been uh yeah, it's it's been very very interesting this
week and very gripping, very traumatic, and very dark.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Well, I appreciate you. You have been doing stellar work.
I mean, on your feet outside in the rain, the cold,
the heat, the wind, it's been remarkable to watch. So
thank you so much, because if it weren't for you
and others, you know, we wouldn't know what was going on.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
Ah, well, thank you so much. I really, I really
appreciate you, Cheryl, honestly, and I'm very excited for this
trial to be over.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Well we'll have you owned toward the end and we
can recap and you can you know, maybe we can.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Talk as the jury's out. That would be fun.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
Oh my gosh, that would be so fun.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Yeah, all right, Lauren Conlin.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
I appreciate you, and I'm gonna end Zone seven the
way that I always do with a quote, mix me
with violence, blend me with peace, combine me with hate.
I can't face defeat, Sean Combs. I'm Cheryl McCollum, and
this is Zone seven.
Sex, trafficking, racketeering, y'all know I'm talking about Sean Cone's
Puffy p Diddy Puff Daddy.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
He is accused of using.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Violence, threats, blackmail to control his victims to make sure
that his empire is protected. We have the just.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
She's just a light. I mean, what can I say?
She is beyond by vacious.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
She is fun, she is talented, she is smart, she
is beautiful. We have Lauren Conlin, y'all, and she has
been at that courthouse from dark to dark. She ain't
missing none of it. She's been live and what we
decided we were going.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
To do tonight for you.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Now, let me tell you this is Friday night, and
we're gonna do a special release of Zone seven on Monday.
But if anything happens, first thing Monday morning, and he
Lauren's fault. So it's Friday night, We're going to get
you all the latest information first thing Monday that we can,
and we got Lauren here to run through every bit
(01:17):
of it.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Hey, honey, Hi Cheryl, that was such a nice introduction.
Thank you so much. You're the kindest and I feel
the exact same way about you, So just want to
put that out there.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Nothing but facts. I mean, I have spent enough time with.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
You and your family. I mean, it's just extraordinary the
way that you just live your life, always so positive
and happy and willing to help and share and listen, y'all.
She has been running full speed. She could be home
right now with her feed up and a nice drink
of whatever she chooses, but no, she's here to talk
(01:53):
about everything. So let's just get into it. And I
think it would be really important for people. Let's just
start at the beginning and talk about the first witness
we saw. Let's start with Cassie Ventura.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
Yes, Cassie, she was the third witness. We saw two
witnesses before Cassie. We saw the security guard at the
Intercontinental Hotel that was present and working the day of
the infamous beatdown of Cassie. That's really what I refer
to that video as the beat down. And then we
(02:27):
heard from Daniel Phillip, who was the escort that was
frequently used with Cassie and Diddy. And then we heard
from Cassie. So we had a little bit of foundation
from those two, but Cassie really laid the foundation for
about four days, I believe. I'm thinking back now it
was two weeks ago, but I believe it was about
(02:49):
four days on the stand, eight and a half months pregnant. Man,
I was so impressed with her, Cheryl, her poise, she
rarely lost her cool, and she was just going through
the God, can you imagine Cheryl going through text messages
that you sent when you were twenty two? I mean,
are just things you said and did when you were
(03:11):
twenty one or twenty two. And also you know this, Yeah,
this was the darkest time in her life. It's very
clear that Cassie was groomed, she was assaulted, she was beaten,
she was you know, she was not treated how any
human being should ever be treated. And she was up
there on the stand, you know, just reliving all of this,
(03:34):
and also admitting to her own faults, her her own
addiction to drugs, her own bouts with depression after you know,
her time with Sean Colmes, and again, her testimony really
laid the foundation here. But I don't think a lot
of us really expected some of the details that we
were about to hear. And I'm not trying to sensationalize anything,
(03:59):
but you know, just having to hear this poor girl
talk about having an escort urinate in her mouth as
well as Sean Colmes, and to have the prosecutor kind
of question her and say and ask questions like, well,
did you want them to urinate on you? And she's like, no,
does anybody? And I know they have to ask these questions,
(04:21):
it's their job, but it just felt so wrong to
sit there and have to listen to her getting hammered
about this. And I'm not even talking about the cross examination,
which is just so crazy, you know, because it's they
had to get all these details out, so so yeah,
it was it was a foundation that was laid and
the violence she described, the hotel setups, with the freak
(04:45):
offs that she described, down to Ditty's Louis Vauton medbag
that she first introduced to us. They have all since
been corroborated. So her testimony was incredibly important.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
And I think the video, I mean, if you don't
want to believe her, there is no way you can't
believe what you're seeing.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
It's true. And it's crazy because I thought it was
so difficult. We had to watch that video on the
first day, probably six times. At one point we had
to go frame by frame and see other parts of
the video that we hadn't seen before. I mean, it
was them walking down the hall. But still I find
(05:25):
it all to be equally traumatic. And I found that
the jury was just not really flinching or showing any
reaction throughout this, And I kept wondering to myself, are
they becoming desensitized to this violence? Because they also rarely
react to some of the violent things that we hear
from witnesses on the stand as well. But yeah, going
(05:47):
back to what you said, the video is definitely a
very important piece of evidence for so many reasons, as
is that entire hotel incident, because the security guard testify
that Diddy showed him a stack of money and essentially,
and I'm paraphrasing, said, you know, here, take this to
(06:08):
basically keep your mouth shut. Again, he didn't say that,
but that was inferred. The security guard said no. And
then during cross examination, it was I forget exactly who
was Maybe it was Xavier Donaldson who said, but don't
quote me on that, but he just said, well, you know,
didn't you say that you told mister Holmes that he
had to pay for the damage to the hotel room
(06:28):
or the glass that he broke in the hallway. You know,
couldn't he have been offering you that this money for
that so, you know, doing their job. But yeah, it was.
It was definitely a very important piece of evidence.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
Agreed. And let's talk about Kid Cutty.
Speaker 3 (06:44):
That was a crazy day, Cheryl. It was, I man,
not I was expecting the courthouse to be a circus again,
but it was so crazy. Just to go back for
a second, it was so crazy on opening statements or
the day of opening statement and then it kind of
died down a little bit and then Kid Cutty, woof
it was. It was nuts. But he he testified. He
(07:10):
testified about the break in of his house, which turned
out to be an official trespassing incident. But we didn't
know about this break in the public really only heard
rumors about his car being blown up. So his testimony
about Sean Colmbs going to his house with an associate,
being called by an assistant that was in the car
(07:33):
outside of his house while this was happening, Capricorn Clark.
He described getting this call while he was with Cassie
at a hotel and just you know, running over there
to the house and he said that they were gone
by the time that he got there. That his dog
was in the bathroom and got PTSD from being locked
in the bathroom after some Christmas presents were opened. But
(07:56):
he filed the police report, and you know, did he care.
Kept reaching out to him and saying, I just want
to talk, I just want to talk, and he ignored it.
He was like, this is insane. I'm going to let
the police handle it because I don't know what to
expect from him at this point. And he ended up
going to Connecticut with Cassie for Christmas. This was a
few days. It was like three days after the break in,
(08:19):
and Cassie ended up breaking up with him over this trip.
She was very concerned because Sean Colmes had threatened her
and had said I'm going to harm you and Scott
mescady kid Cuddy, and it's not going to be by
my hands. It's going to be by somebody else's hands.
I'm going to be out of the country when this happens.
He also threatened to release two sex tapes if she
(08:42):
didn't comply with what he said. And we found this
out because Cassie sent an email to her mother. The
subject line was titled threats and it was to her
mom and to Capricorn Clark where she said all of this,
and then she also testified. Cassie testified that he told
her he was going to blow up Kid Cutty's car
(09:03):
and that he hoped his friends would be present for this.
So Kid Cutty goes back to La after Cassie breaks
it off with him. Cassie goes to me Ditty secretly
in Arizona, and then it's January. It's been a month
since since they broke up Cassie and Kid Cutty and
he's forty five minutes from his house. Gets a call
(09:23):
from his assistant around six thirty am, or his dog walker,
and she tells him that his car is on fire.
She took pictures and he was like, what is happening?
And that's when he said, okay. I reached out to
Sean Colmes and I arranged a meeting because enough is enough.
And that's where he actually described him at the La
(09:45):
Soho house where he met him as a quote Marvel
super villain. He was facing the wall, he said, Diddy
with his arms behind his back, and I thought it
was kind of interesting because he made a point Kid
Cutty to say that Diddy was acting very strange. He
offered him water twice. He was very calm. He was
just like, hey, man, I'm sorry, you know, I you
(10:08):
know that cass is my girl. I just want to
work this out. I'm sorry for you know, any just
you know, any tension between us, but you know, I
feel like we need to talk about this. And when
the defense was doing the cross examination, he actually got
Kid Cutty to say on two different occasions that Cassie
(10:28):
quote played both he and Diddy, because you know, Cassie
and Diddy's relationship was on again, off again, and at
that point they were off, but they were still you know,
Cassie was still doing freak offs with him, and she
had told Kid Cutty that they were done. And obviously, Diddy,
you know, it's hits. It's very hypocritical, right, He's sleeping
(10:51):
with so many women, but Cassie can't date anyone else.
And this is obviously my opinion, but I was surprised
that the defense actually got him to say that more
than once. So he did. Kid Cutty did say that.
At the end of the conversation, he said, hey, what
about my car, and and did he said, I don't
know what you're talking about. And he was like yeah, okay,
and then you know, they really they didn't talk at
(11:13):
all until a few years later. Did he was actually
at the Soho house with his daughter's Kid Cutty happened
to be there, and he said that did. He approached
him and apologized for everything that happened between them. So
it was it was pretty interesting and and Kid Cutty
was funny on the stand. He cursed a lot, and
he was very real, very clear he didn't want to
(11:35):
be there.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
I mean, you know, sure, yeah, but he was to
admit that happened to him. See that's the other thing
people don't get when you're especially in that lifestyle. You know,
you're supposed to be the pimp, the hard person, the
I've done time, that I'm running, you know, my organization
kind of thing. And now you're not only having to
(11:55):
admit this man broke into my house. Now if that
ain't a power. Plus, hey, he's telling you I can
get to you and there's nothing you can do about it.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
I'm in your house and you're not even here.
Speaker 1 (12:09):
I mean, that would get my attention, right, and then
your car blows up exactly.
Speaker 3 (12:15):
And he also admitted on the stand, which I thought
was kind of sweet. That he loved Cassie, he fell
in love with her, and it's you know, we It's
also been kind of just very trippy to see these
photos of these celebrities on red carpets, like Cassie and Diddy,
and see these bruises on her body that were covered
(12:36):
up with makeup and have it be pointed out to
us now while she's got this big smile on her face,
you know, and then thinking about how Kid Cutty was
really heartbroken over this, and we the public, you know,
we see gossip headlines and I think gossip mags were
definitely more of a thing, I guess in twenty eleven,
twenty twelve, but this never really got out. So I
(12:56):
found it all to be just, you know, obviously traumatic,
but also fascinating from that perspective, you know.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Right well, you know, Stockholm syndrome is a real thing.
Battered wife syndrome is a real thing. And you know,
I've heard a lot of people say, yeah, but she
would have this horrible abuse happen. But then as for
her job back, he has a way of pulling you
back in.
Speaker 2 (13:19):
That's clear.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
You can even hear some of the former employees talk
about it like they thought their life was in danger
after only a couple of weeks of working for him.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yes, and he he is clearly very charming, Cheryl. I
think that's part of why he was so successful. You
can even see him turn on the charm. I mean,
the way he reacts to not so much the press,
but there's a public section in the courtroom, and the
way he kind of turns around, smile at them, he
makes eye contact with them, you know, gives them that
(13:51):
heart symbol. It's just it's like, wow, you just see
how he was able to sort of control a lot
of people. People and the Kid Cutty testimony, just going
back to that really quickly. I think that was really
the first time that the RICO was kind of introduced
(14:13):
or you know, I guess something on the indictment was
kind of introduced to us, while Cassie definitely laid the
foundation there. And I believe they're trying to say that
Cassie was commercially sex trafficked. I believe so. I mean,
it's hard to tell at this point. You know who
they're trying to say was sex traffic, but I believe
it was Cassie. But I felt like, yeah, Kid Cutty's
(14:35):
testimony was the first time that I was like, oh wow, okay,
I get it.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah, they're starting to lay a pretty solid foundation that
everybody's testimony lines up. It all cooberates what Cassie has said.
But they've also added some things like when Dawn Richard
when she testified, she's talking about Cassie in there trying
to make breakfast, and Sean Combs comes down.
Speaker 2 (15:03):
There hollered about where are my eggs? Where are my eggs?
And takes the skillet and was going to hit her
with it.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Yeah, she Don Rochard did testify to that, and listen,
I have heard more violent events that happened to Cassie
through her friend, her former best friend, Carrie Morgan, as
well as her assist or I'm sorry, her celebrity stylist
Deontay Nash. I mean, I believe there were way too
(15:30):
many violent beatings that Cassie just couldn't even count them.
She couldn't recall all of them. So, yes, we have
other people who have witnessed these violent outbursts by Diddy
and they're telling us about it now. Don Richard, I
felt like, you know, she, I don't think she was
the best witness for the government. If I had to
(15:51):
give an opinion, I felt like she was one of
the weakest. She definitely, and I'm not trying to sound
harsh at all, but I felt like there was a
lot of holes poked in her testimony during cross examination
when it came to the what she told the government
in maybe eight to ten meetings and what she said
(16:11):
on the stand, particularly the skillet incident, which I believe happened.
That's the main thing, without a doubt. Don Rochard saw
what she saw, and Diddy beat Cassie because she didn't
make the eggs fast enough. It's what happened after Don
Richard said that she was threatened by Diddy and Harve
Pierre at another point. That's another bad boy exec But
(16:34):
Diddy said, you know what you saw between me and
cass was passion, and then apparently he added, you know,
don't tell anyone because where I come from, if you do,
people go missing or people disappear. Now, the defense just
kind of elicited the fact that she never shared that
(16:54):
with anyone before this death threat, because that's really important, right.
That also goes to Rico so and they pointed this out,
and then Don Richard actually admitted that her memory has changed,
so maybe maybe she didn't remember things as well, but
she also was trying to forget these memories because they
were so traumatic for her. So I mean, it's going
(17:16):
to depend on on the jury, of course, but I
did feel like that that was sort of a moment
for the defense to kind of shine.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Well, there's one more element there.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
A lot of people do not come forward and they
don't tell things until somebody's in jail. And remember he
asked for bail over and over and over. He still
has people loyal to him. So maybe she was like,
I maybe he shouldn't say that, and maybe she thought, well,
I'm here now, I'm go ahead and say it. But
(17:46):
here's the point to me, with all of these people
that are testifying to what they saw, and this is
what I don't want anybody to miss. Sean Combs wasn't
hiding his violence. He wasn't hiding it. So there's a
lot of people. You know, you go to church and
the deacon is just fabulous, and he's charismatic and he's
(18:07):
very concerned, how are you everything good? If I can
do anything, let me know. You don't know what he's
like at home, same thing with a police officer and
a teacher and a salesman and the CEO of a
fortune five hundred company. You don't know, You just know
what they present in public. Most abusers can hide it,
at least for a little while. Well, he wasn't hiding
(18:30):
it from anybody. He punched your in the stomach at
a restaurant in front of Usher.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
I was just gonna say that. I was totally gonna
say that, because that was crazy when Don Richard said that.
I mean so many of us were like, wait, so
Usher knew about it. And look, we don't know if
Usher saw this with his own eyes, but it seemed
like the dinner was intimate enough based on the number
of guests she described, which were under ten guests, that
(18:57):
he did see something. But you're so right. I mean,
we've just got a lot of instances that people seem
to just turn the other cheek, look the other way,
and it really is so heartbreaking that he could commit
this violence against women and treat his staff like that
for for so long and get away with it. But
(19:20):
just really quickly going back to Don Richard, she you
know the testimony that was that was kind of coming
after the whole why didn't you talk about these death threats?
Was again what you kind of mentioned the fact that
everybody goes back and kind of asks him for work again.
And so they had pointed that out as well, that
(19:40):
she stopped working with him after she was a member
of Diddy Dirty Money and she didn't have as many
record sales as she once did, and you know, she
contacted him and nothing ever happened. So that was was
brought up as well, and that really does seem to
be a common thing. I would say, not so much
(20:01):
for the male personal assistance or any of the male
employees that we've heard from so far, but definitely with
the female ones, they definitely seemed to kind of go
back and actually just kidding. The celebrity stylist still contacted,
did he after he stopped working for him, but just
not for work, just on a personal level.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
Well, he also settled a lawsuit for twenty million dollars
to make sure information didn't get out. He offered other
people money. Her friend didn't he offer her thirty grand
to not tell what she saw.
Speaker 3 (20:34):
Oh, yes, So that and also Cheryl, we heard a
little bombshell today from Mia and I'll get there, but yes,
Carrie Morgan, Cassie's former best friend, this was a friendship
ending event. In twenty eighteen, did he bust it into
Cassie's apartment while Carrie was there, saying, you know, who's
(20:55):
Cassie sleeping with? Essentially, and he picked he he choked
Carrie Morgan or held her by the throat and then
hit her over the head with a wooden hangar. And
Carrie Morgan was, you know, she had a lawyer ready
and she was ready to take some action. And then
Cassie called her and they met at a pizza place,
and you know, Carrie described that their friendship ended because
(21:19):
Cassie took Diddy's side and didn't seem like this was
such a big deal. And Carrie kind of said, nope,
for me, this is where I draw the line. The
violence is where I draw the line. And Cassie just said, well,
we'd like to settle this without a lawyer. So he's
going to offer you thirty grand and to sign this NDA,
and Carrie said, yes.
Speaker 2 (21:37):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
So again he has a pattern of trying to keep
things secret in using money to do so, and like
David James, he talked and one thing that really stuck
out for me was Okay, you went and bought drugs
for and that doesn't surprise me. I think that's probably standard.
But he talked about the rivalry we should not now
(22:00):
that got my attention because Should's been in prison. His
antics are well documented, holding people off the balcony by
their ankles, you know, being with Tupac when he was
murdered in Las Vegas. Maybe having some ties to other
folks that were doing things that were violent. But if
(22:21):
you're telling me Sean Combs well step two shulg night,
that tells me how violent that man can be.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
Oh well, and the fact that they grabbed three guns
and David James said on the stand he was kind
of nervous because he's thinking to himself, Okay, there's three
of us, you know, d Rock, Diddy and me, and
there's three guns. So what does this mean? You could
tell he was he was genuinely pretty concerned in that
moment on the stand, reflecting back on that night, and
(22:53):
also the fact Cheryl that he said that he quit.
He gave his notice pretty much days later and they
offered him another position, like, oh, do you want to
work at Sean John kind of, you know, just a
completely different role to stay in the company, and he
was like, nope, I'm good. However, he also seemed to
have positive memories about Ditty as well, and they even
(23:16):
shared some laughs, which is so crazy to me, Like
Diddy was in his seat laughing and David James was
laughing as well. It was kind of like the Twilight Zone.
And you know that happened with the other assistant, George
Kaplan as well. They just shared these these moments.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
It seemed like, well, let's talk about the guns.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
One of them was an AR fifteen that had a
DEFAE serial number. Now let's talk about Wow, that would
be the case. You're talking about a millionaire. Why wouldn't
he have a legal weapon. I'll tell you because he
doesn't want that weapon to be traced back to him,
which if he bought it legally, could be.
Speaker 3 (23:53):
Yes. Well, that was that came out during We had
Special Agent Gerard Gannon on the stand from the HSI,
who was in charge of the March twenty twenty four
raid of his Miami property to Star Island. So we
did see the AR fifteens. There's two of them that
were defaced, and we saw the photo evidence, and then
(24:16):
we saw them in person. And when we saw this
photo evidence, the AR fifteens, they were taken apart. The
upper barrel and the lower barrel were separated. They were
even in different shelves on the closet. And I believe
it was the upper barrel that there was two of
them that were wrapped in a towel. But the magazines
from the lower barrel, they were pretty much filled with bullets.
(24:42):
I think there may be was like three or four
bullets missing from one of the guns. But when they
showed the guns to the jury, they were put together.
The defense made sure to remind the jury Cheryl that, oh,
when you saw these photos of the guns, they were
not together, so you you can see what they're they're
trying to do. They're they're trying to minimize, you know,
(25:04):
these weapons. The defense also actually asked the Homeland Security agent.
They're like, well, you know, you live in Florida, I mean,
you own guns. Isn't it very common to own guns
in Florida? And yeah, it was just very much like okay.
Speaker 2 (25:20):
Not with obliterated serial number exactly.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
And there he also had a handgun as well. I
think it was a forty five or something like that,
which was not defaced. They made sure to tell us
that that was not defaced.
Speaker 2 (25:35):
Who's George Kaplan? What was he about?
Speaker 3 (25:38):
He was another assistant and we actually thought for a
second that he may end up pleading the fifth, But
it turns out that both he and David James got
proffer agreements because they had to testify that they did
speak to drug dealers to buy drugs for data.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
Okay, so they got immunity exactly exactly.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
That's fair, yep.
Speaker 2 (26:02):
I mean buying drugs doesn't bother me.
Speaker 1 (26:03):
As much as you know, the abuse that these women
allegedly have suffered at his hands and witnessed by so
many people.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
Yes, exactly. And just to point out just a hypocrisy
or a hypocritical moment, I should say, David James actually
testified that he grabbed the chef's wrists over something and
he kind of like shook her and he had to
go to HR and he said that Ditty said, if
you ever put your hands on a woman again, you're
out of here. I'm like, ok yeah, so I know.
Speaker 2 (26:36):
I was like, oh, who is Frank Black?
Speaker 3 (26:41):
So that's Ditty's alias that he uses when he checks
into hotels. We've seen that corroborated numerous times. There's even
been times that he's used that to get prescription drugs.
And I believe it was Cassie that testified that even
certain DAWs let him use that name, and Biggie, I guess,
(27:04):
referred to himself as Frank White, So it's kind of
a play on that.
Speaker 1 (27:09):
Okay, all right, girl, what happened today Friday, May thirtieth.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
Yes, Okay, So I was just going to bring this
up about Mia. So Mia is or was Ditty's personal assistant,
and then she became the director of development for Revolt TV,
which was a subsidiary for Revolt Films, which he owns,
and she also is very close with Cassie and she
actually said that she and Cassie are still like sisters.
(27:39):
So Mia is actually victim for But just to because
I brought this up. She testified during the last five
minutes of her direct examination something that I think is
very important. She said that d Rock, which was one
of Ditty's main security guards or yeah, bodyguards, texted her
(27:59):
about maybe a week or a few days after Cassie's
lawsuit dropped in November of twenty twenty three. Now, Mia
testified that she she didn't think that d Rock was
still employed by Ditty. However, she she figured out uh
very quickly because he told her, oh, I'm in Miami.
(28:20):
He texted her, I'm doing something for one of Ditty's kids.
So anyway, he texted her like a week after and
just said hey, Mia, like what's good or something like that,
and she was so excited to hear from him. She's like, hey,
de Rock, I miss you. What's up? And then he said, wow,
crazy about you know what's going on with Puff? And
he said everybody knows that Cassie and Puff just fought
(28:43):
like a normal couple. And that's when you know, she
was like, uh oh mea thought to herself, I don't
really want to be involved with this. Something's not right
here because de Rock witnessed it all and de Rock
actually helped Cassie on certain occasions, so she kind of
just acted like played dumb. Said she didn't have service,
(29:03):
didn't you know, didn't really write back to him. And
then he said, okay, well Puff needs to talk to you,
and she's like ignoring him, and then he kind of
gets upset, like Mia, what's going on, why are you
not writing me back? And she said she was scuba
diving she didn't have service. Well, Puff ends up calling her,
and she says she has this reaction where she throws
her phone on the couch and runs out of her house.
(29:26):
And then here's from de Rock again a few days later,
where you know, she says, okay, he called me. I
called him back. I didn't leave a message, but I'll
just leave it at that, and she never called him back.
But then Dee Rock said, where can I send you something?
Or where you know, basically, what's your address? I need
to send you something or I'm paraphrasing, but Mia said
(29:51):
she took that as he wanted to send her money,
and she was certain of that and she said, no, no,
I'm good. Don't worry about me, like, yes, I'm in debt,
but you don't have to worry about it. And that
de Rock said, well, I just want to send my
sister a gift because they refer to themselves as family.
And she said no, thanks, and that was that. But
(30:12):
then in February of twenty twenty four, she got two
text messages from Sean Colmes saying, I just want to
talk to you, I hope all as well. Love, And
then the second message was, Hey, I'm just looking for
you to jog my memory a bit. You are my
right hand for so long. I'm reading from the notes
(30:33):
I took, and he said, I just want to remind myself.
I want you to remind me of who I was
around during certain time periods. So that was that was
a moment. She never wrote back, but I was like,
oh boy, I believe they are trying to show again
some more rico, some more witness intimidation. But yeah, it
(30:57):
was WF. It was crazy.
Speaker 2 (30:59):
That is so great. So who do you think is
coming next?
Speaker 3 (31:04):
Well, I mean, I know that the chef Chef Jordana
is supposed to testify. I believe we're going to hear
from travel agents and people that did bookings for him Diddy,
and that I believe is going to be where we
kind of hear about some of the escorts that they
flew to different cities, because that is definitely a thing.
(31:27):
So yeah, I mean it's I have to tell you,
I can't believe it's only three. I'm like, oh, this
is very dark, very very dark.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
So do you feel like you've heard enough that you
see a foundation being laid for Rico for sure or
do you need more?
Speaker 3 (31:48):
I would say this week they have done a really
good job of laying the Rico foundation with Capricorn Clark
and with the There was a Arson investigator, and this
was the day that the defense actually moved for a mistrial.
They did not get one, but essentially the defense was
(32:11):
not happy with the government's line of questioning for this
Arson investigator because he disclosed that they were investigating the
kid Cutty Arson and they were working with the LAPD
who investigated the trust passing incident, and they had this
fingerprint card and somehow they were going to try to
match the DNA they got off the Molotov cocktail with
(32:32):
the print card from the trust passing incident. But the
print card was destroyed and they asked the Arson investigator, well,
did you order it to be destroyed? And you know,
he said no, and then they went on, well, is
it unusual that something like that that piece of evidence
would be destroyed out of the blue. Finally an objection
(32:53):
and what they were alluding to was that, you know,
Diddy ordered somebody in the LAPD to have it destroyed
and argued that the jury initially was so concerned about
celebrities and people like Diddy being able to buy their
way out of situations that they couldn't get this information
out of their head, you know, like this, they can't
(33:13):
unhear this, so we want a mistrial. The judge ended
up saying, Okay, you know the jury, no mistrial, clearly,
but the jury should disregard the questions and disregard the answers,
which they did. But but no, I felt like, you know,
the testimony from from Capricorn Clerk as well as a
testimony from Mia that we're hearing, I think has laid
(33:34):
a much better foundation. Of course, you know, we've heard
about a kidnapping. However, the kidnapping, you know, there was
a police report of this whole night, but the kidnapping
was not part of it. So I feel like for
everything that we're hearing Cheryl, when it comes to the
reco case, there's also a good handful of doubt as well.
(33:55):
So it really is going to depend on the jury,
I mean, which is obvious. But you know what I'm
I'm saying when I say that, like it really and
I've had these thoughts and I'm sorry, I'm just I'm
so long winded, But the jury is I mean, there's
three people under forty, and it looks like there's many
people in their sixties, someone their seventies. I have to
(34:15):
think it's going to be this generational battle. Do you
know what I'm saying? Like, because we've seen text messages
from Cassie that say, I love freak offs. I never
want to stop freakoffs. I don't know if someone in
their seventies is going to and this is a general thing.
It's obviously depends on the person, but you know, if
they see a text message, they're going to say, oh,
well she said this. You know, they may not think
(34:36):
of the nuanced situation that she's in, you know, when
it comes to trauma. But it's yeah, it's gosh. I
know that we have a long way to go.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
Do you know if there's anybody that's going to testify
that is super famous? I mean, is there somebody that's
just going to come and bring the house down?
Speaker 3 (34:56):
Well, this is what's this is what's crazy. I don't
think that they're going to to tell us until a
day or two prior because we don't have a witness
list and what they've been doing is kind of at
the end of the day, they've been saying okay, you know,
to the government. The judge says, who's up, and then
we'll hear one or two people or you know, a
couple people that they are aiming to have for that week.
(35:17):
And so we really we heard about kid Cutty the
day before or maybe two days before. But I think
that's how it's going to go down. They're not going
to tell us until, yeah, until the week of or
the day before.
Speaker 1 (35:33):
I would think with the case this significant, this big,
you've got to have at least one. There's no way
there's not somebody that witnessed it that Cassie knew was
in the room, that Capricorn knew was in the room,
that these ex assistants they knew. So whether it's justin.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Bieber or ray Ja or whoever it might be, he
had people around him twenty four seven.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
And there's no way you could go to one of
those parties and miss everything. You can't miss katamaine and
peels and marijuana and somebody getting there, you know, skull
crushed the hand.
Speaker 2 (36:14):
You can't miss all of that.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
Well, I feel like, you know, the defense, I feel
like there's a good chance they'll call some character witnesses. Maybe,
so perhaps that's when they may call a celebrity. I mean,
and you're right, we don't know who saw what and who.
I mean, you're absolutely right, he partied with a lot
of people, and we've seen people in pictures. Just today
(36:39):
we saw Diddy with Meek Mill and the game and
you know, but I also want to point out something
the defense had pointed out because I'm trying to be
fair as I cover this, I'm trying to just kind
of you know, not offer much except for the facts.
But the defense pointed out, who is.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
That in journalism?
Speaker 3 (36:59):
I know, right, No, But you know me, usually my
mouf off, I give my opinion, but in this case,
I'm really trying something new here, Cheryl. No. But they
pointed out, you know, during the raid, at least that
the amount of drugs they found in Diddy's Star Island
home was so small that they were destroyed. So because
(37:20):
it was it was like a little baggye here, like
in a baggie of pills here and there, and you know,
for the average person, yeah, it's a lot. But I
guess when you're talking about possible drug trafficking, let's say,
or you know, it's it's It was a small amount.
Speaker 1 (37:36):
To kind of prode the point I was trying to make.
One person testified that he had to clean up the
hotel room before the maid service came so that they
would not take pictures of what occurred during these freak offs. Well,
to me, that tells you right there, George, what was
going down.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
Yeah, everybody pretty much testified, every assistant that they had
to clean baby oil up off the wall, off the floor,
off the furniture. There's candle wax everywhere. You know. They
had a hotel manager from the Hermitage Hotel testify, and
you know, he just reiterated the fact that sometimes they
(38:16):
would add one thousand dollars onto the room for a
deep clean, that there'd be like a weird odor coming
out of the room sometimes. They also they said that
he liked the room at I think it was like
seventy five, which is pretty warm. But you know, and
I thought about this this clip that I think it
was on some late night talk show where he kind
(38:37):
of said he likes for it to get warm and sweating,
and I was like, oh, you know, I just it's
all corroborating the same thing. However, I will offer just
an opinion here. I do feel like at this point,
right now, we do need to hear from from more
people about the sex trafficking because at this point I
(38:59):
don't twelve jurors unanimously agreeing that Cassie was commercially sex trafficked.
I think that the transportation to engage in prostitution will
be a very easy conviction once we hear from the
travel agents and possibly the escort that traveled with them.
But I do think at this point it's going to
be difficult unless they get you know, we hear from
(39:22):
the Jane victim who is supposed to testify. That's victim too,
I believe.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
All right, Well, the only issue I have is when
you said people in their sixties and seventies may not
understand the nuances. I will read text messages I sent
to Walt right now, and that was.
Speaker 3 (39:43):
No, and I feel that I'm not. I guess I'm
not saying it like that because I.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Know I'm just tasing with you.
Speaker 3 (39:48):
I'm just chasing, so I don't want to offend anyone.
But I'm just thinking of my parents, for example, and
how you know, if they see somebody say something in
a text message enough times, they're probably gonna just go
with what the person said. And again that's not for everybody.
But I am staring at this jury and I'm like,
just make an expression. I just want to know what
(40:09):
you're thinking.
Speaker 1 (40:11):
Well, I think there is some level of who would
do that. I mean, you think you have all of
this money and this is what he's doing with it,
harming people, threatening people, hurting people. So, you know, I
think that from what I can understand that you're saying,
the jury's at least paying attention. They're watching him, they're
(40:33):
watching the people on the stand, and they're taking it seriously.
And I think whether there's a generation gap, you know,
maybe understanding. Maybe they don't know him, maybe they don't
know his music. But again, the testimony, the video, you
can't miss that.
Speaker 3 (40:52):
Yeah, no, exactly, And I think that with the witnesses
this week, they are paying very close attention. It's it's
been uh yeah, it's it's been very very interesting this
week and very gripping, very traumatic, and very dark.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Well, I appreciate you. You have been doing stellar work.
I mean, on your feet outside in the rain, the cold,
the heat, the wind, it's been remarkable to watch. So
thank you so much, because if it weren't for you
and others, you know, we wouldn't know what was going on.
Speaker 3 (41:28):
Ah, well, thank you so much. I really, I really
appreciate you, Cheryl, honestly, and I'm very excited for this
trial to be over.
Speaker 2 (41:38):
I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Well we'll have you owned toward the end and we
can recap and you can you know, maybe we can.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Talk as the jury's out. That would be fun.
Speaker 3 (41:48):
Oh my gosh, that would be so fun.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Yeah, all right, Lauren Conlin.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
I appreciate you, and I'm gonna end Zone seven the
way that I always do with a quote, mix me
with violence, blend me with peace, combine me with hate.
I can't face defeat, Sean Combs. I'm Cheryl McCollum, and
this is Zone seven.
Host
Sheryl McCollum
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