An Ex-Employee, Mia, Testifies That Sean Combs Sexually Assaulted Her

NEW YORK – A former personal assistant to Sean Combs testified Thursday about a grueling work environment in which she was subjected to sleep deprivation, violence and multiple instances of sexual assault by her boss.

The woman is taking the stand at Combs’ racketeering and sex-trafficking trial under the pseudonym “Mia,” but jurors were shown her real name. In the witness box, she described a fast-paced, often exciting job that could quickly descend into chaos based on the fluctuation of Combs’ moods.

“The highs were really high, and the lows were really, really low,” she testified.

During her eight years working for Combs, Mia testified, he would lash out if he was unsatisfied with her performance, in one instance throwing a bowl of spaghetti at her and, in another, a computer – both of which missed.

“He’s thrown me against the wall,” Mia testified. “He’s thrown me into a pool. He’s thrown an ice bucket on my head. He slammed my arm into a door.”

Looking down, her voice quieting to a whisper, she said that Combs had also sexually assaulted her multiple times. Prosecutors said they would return to the subject in detail later, but they had previewed her account for jurors by saying that Mia would testify that Combs forced her to perform oral sex and sneaked “into her bed to penetrate her against her will.”

Mia said she was in her mid-20s, living in New York and working to ascend in the entertainment industry – she had already been a personal assistant for Mike Myers – when she began working for Combs in 2009.

Jurors were shown a document that listed Mia’s marching orders, which included staying attached to her Blackberry at all hours and staying within Combs’ eyesight. Combs, the document read, could “ask you to do 17,000 things at one time that range from cracking his knuckles to writing his next movie to doing his taxes.” When she stayed at Combs’ houses, she testified, he directed her to never lock her bedroom door.

Once, Mia said, she worked for five days without sleep, until her vision began to blur and she burst into tears, prompting Combs to let her off the clock. (She said her initial base salary was $50,000.)

Combs is not accused of sex trafficking Mia but of subjecting her to forced labor – including sexual activity – through violence and threats of serious harm. The forced labor allegation is part of a broader racketeering conspiracy charge that accuses Combs of directing a criminal enterprise that helped him commit crimes and cover them up over two decades.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him. His lawyers have acknowledged that he was responsible for domestic violence, but they vehemently denied the existence of a criminal conspiracy, asserting that he was the head of entirely lawful businesses that were disconnected from his private sex life. They have argued that the sex at issue in the case was entirely consensual.

For prosecutors, Mia’s testimony helps establish a pattern of how Combs treated women, and corroborates the account of Casandra Ventura, the music mogul’s on-and-off girlfriend of 11 years, whose recounting of brutal violence, meticulous control and marathon sexual encounters with male prostitutes, known as “freak-offs,” are at the heart of the government’s case.

Mia, who described her relationship with Ventura as “like sisters,” testified that she witnessed Combs attack his former girlfriend several times.

She describing instances in which she and Ventura tried to escape his angry outbursts by barricading a door with furniture or paddleboarding away from him on the shore of Turks and Caicos.

She said she did not report the physical abuse to the police because “I believed that Puff’s authority was above the police,” using one of Combs’ nicknames.

Combs directed Mia to “keep tabs” on Ventura, she testified. One night, she said, she was told by Combs to keep Ventura company in a hotel room, but they were invited to a house party hosted by Prince. “Cass and I debated like little kids if we should sneak out of the house,” she said. The women attended the party, Mia testified, dancing and having fun until Mia saw Combs arrive.

“Oh, crap,” she remembered thinking. “Me and Cass just booked it.”

When Combs caught up to Ventura in the front yard, he began attacking her, Mia testified, until Prince’s security intervened. The next day, Mia was suspended without pay for insubordination, she said.

As Mia left the witness stand during a break, Combs, who was wearing a gray crew-neck sweater and a collared shirt, shook his head in apparent disapproval.

In the defense’s opening statement, Teny Geragos, a lawyer for Combs, said the upcoming cross-examination of Mia will surface messages she wrote to Combs throughout her employment expressing her “unbelievable love” for him.

Before Mia took the stand Thursday, the defense finished its cross-examination of Deonte Nash, a stylist who worked with Combs and Ventura for years and maintains a close friendship with Ventura.

Nash was a critical witness for the prosecution because he said that Ventura confided in him several times that she did not want to participate in the “freak-offs” that prosecutors say Combs demanded and directed.

Xavier Donaldson, a lawyer for Combs, focused questioning on an instance when Nash said he left a hotel room at Ventura’s request because Combs “wanted to invite a guy over,” suggesting that he must not have had concern for Ventura’s safety at the time.

“I always did,” Nash replied.

The cross-examination became animated as Donaldson inquired about a flirtation Ventura had with actor Michael B. Jordan in 2015 that is said to have spurred Combs’ jealousy. Nash cut in: “Yes, I did hook her up with Michael B. Jordan; I know where you’re going with this.”

The defense has argued that Combs’ violence toward Ventura was motivated by jealousy and drug use, not issues related to sexual coercion.

Nash detailed several instances in which he said he witnessed Combs physically abuse Ventura, including a 2013 incident in which he said Combs grabbed Ventura by the hair, pulled her off a couch and started hitting her after she had failed to answer her phone.

Mia corroborated the attack during her testimony. She said that she and Nash moved to try to stop Combs, but when she jumped on his back, Combs threw her against the wall.

“It was the first time I realized the severe danger that we were actually in,” Mia testified.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.