By Luc Cohen, Reuters
Rapper Scott 'Kid Cudi' Mescudi. Photo: flickr/ Dana Beveridge
- Kid Cudi testifies about alleged 2011 home break-in
- Combs accused of violent acts in sex trafficking trial
- Combs denies wrongdoing, pleads not guilty.
Rapper Scott "Kid Cudi" Mescudi testified at Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking trial that the hip-hop mogul broke into his home in 2011 after discovering Mescudi was dating his on-and-off girlfriend Casandra Ventura.
The incident is one of a number of violent and threatening acts that prosecutors allege that Combs undertook during a 20-year scheme to coerce women, including Ventura, to take part in drug-fueled sex parties known as "Freak Offs" and prevent them from leaving his orbit.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs' lawyers have acknowledged he has a history of drug abuse and domestic violence, but argue that the women who took part in Freak Offs did so consensually.
Testifying as a prosecution witness, Mescudi told the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates in Manhattan federal court that Ventura called him early one morning in December 2011 and told him Combs had found out about their relationship and asked Mescudi to pick her up.
Mescudi, wearing a leather jacket over a white shirt and blue jeans in court, said Ventura sounded nervous and scared, and warned him that she had given Combs his Hollywood Hills address.
Mescudi, known for hit songs "Day 'N' Nite" and "Memories," said one of Ventura's associates then told him that Combs was in his home. After dropping off Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel, Mescudi said he drove toward his home. On the way, Mescudi testified, he called Combs.
"I said, motherf**ker, you in my house?" Mescudi testified.
Mescudi said Combs sounded calm and told him he wanted to talk.
When he arrived at his house, Mescudi said no one else was there. He said gifts that he bought for his family were opened and his dog was locked in a bathroom. He said he reported a break-in to the police.
Under cross-examination by Combs' lawyer Brian Steel, Mescudi acknowledged that he had left his door unlocked and that there was no damage to his home or furniture.
"I'm not belittling, but the only things that were displayed differently is there were some Christmas presents that were unwrapped?" Steel said.
Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura (L) and Sean 'Diddy' Combs. Photo: MIKE COPPOLA
'That was my girl'
Ventura, known professionally as Cassie, testified on 14 May that Combs threatened to release sex tapes of her and have someone hurt both her and Mescudi after discovering they were seeing each other.
Mescudi testified that he and Ventura ended their relationship shortly after the break-in. He told jurors that he learned in January 2012 from his dog's babysitter that his car had caught fire in his driveway.
Mescudi testified that the day after the car fire, he met with Combs at the Soho House hotel in Los Angeles.
Mescudi said Combs told him at the meeting, "We were homies, you know that was my girl." Mescudi said Ventura had told him she and Combs had broken up.
Mescudi said he asked Combs about his car, and Combs told him he did not know what he was talking about.
Asked by prosecutor Emily Johnson how he understood that comment, Mescudi said, "He was lying."
Mescudi told Steel during cross-examination that no witness ever said Combs was near his property at the time and said he never learned about any fingerprint or DNA evidence police collected from the car. Also known throughout his career as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, Combs turned artists like Notorious B.I.G. and Usher into stars, elevating hip-hop in American culture and becoming a billionaire in the process.
He has been held in federal lockup in Brooklyn since his September 2024 arrest.
