Ashley Banfield (0:00)

Foreign Hi, everyone. I'm Ashley Banfield and this is Drop Dead Serious. Today's episode takes us back inside that Manhattan federal courthouse for day six of testimony in the explosive and very, very dirty racketeering and sex trafficking trial against P. Diddy, Sean Puffy Combs. And if you thought last week was intense, buckle up or pour a drink or say your woos. Cuz today there was fire and there were photos. It turns out if federal prosecutors are right, Puff Daddy didn't just beat up his girlfriend, he beat up her friends too. And two of those friends threw down on the stand today. You remember last week when Don Rashard told the jury about witnessing Diddy attacking his girlfriend Cassie with a frying pan? Because, you know, make the eggs, woman. She said afterwards that Diddy looked right at her and threatened her career if she told anyone about what she saw Sean Combs do to Cassie. And Dawn Richard dropped this bombshell too when she said Diddy went way beyond just threatening her career. Where I come from, people go missing if they talk. And that's a quote she said. That's what Diddy said. And just when you thought things couldn't get any more dramatic, a brand new witness took the stand today. Carrie Morgan. And she's yet another woman who says Diddy beat her up too. I'll get to the part where she says exactly what happened to her and why she says Sean Combs did it. That's coming in just a second. Uh, but she was Cassie's best friend until she said Diddy and his abuse of Cassie came between Cassie and her. Her testimony was absolutely chilling. But to understand just how tense this day really got, we got to go back to the beginning. Because when Diddy strolled into that courtroom in his signature tan sweater, white shirt and sand colored pants, nobody could have guessed how much mud was about to come his way when Dawn Richard started answering questions that said Diddy's multi million dollar lawyers and did their fair share of muddying up Dawn Richard too, and her reputation. And I'm going to get to that in a minute as well because that was pretty uncomfortable too. And not only that, but the Department of Justice released a series of photos that are really jarring. They were marked into evidence when they were shown to the jury. But now the public, that's you and me, we're getting a look at them too. There were eight photos in all showing Cassie in the aftermath of what she says were brutal beatings by Diddy. We're talking bruises on her thigh, bruises on her back, a deep gash over her eyebrow. Swollen lips, black eyes. Three of the images are selfies taken inside an Uber. Cassie's wearing oversized dark sunglasses and trying to hide her face. And then there's a stark picture of a knife, a large chef's knife that's just lodged into the handle of an apartment door to make the lock more secure. According to Cassie, she used that knife in 2018 to protect herself against Sean Combs. Last week, she testified that Diddy started showing up unannounced at her apartment. And in her words, quote, I was getting a lot of unannounced visits from Sean. I was trying to kill two birds with one stone. Lock it. And I had a weapon. And finally, the hotel room. These next photos were taken in September of 2024 inside Diddy's suite at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan. They were taken on the day that Sean Combs was arrested. And they show all of the personal effects that Diddy had in his hotel room with him. Like stacks of cash, bottles of baby oil and personal lubricant, pill bottles and bags of pink powder, which prosecutors allege were the same drugs used for the so called free coughs. Can I just say. Oh, where to start? Okay, so you got to think back to September of last year of 2024. Diddy is like, in the aftermath of the Cassie suit and all that stuff's coming out and the hotel videos out and everything. And we're now hearing, well, they've already rated his two homes, right? Big, big homes in Miami and la. And we're hearing the arrest of Diddy is imminent. But then we're also hearing back in September that he is negotiating the terms of his surrender. Right? This happens. It's not that unusual. You know, if you got a guy who looks like he's playing ball and he's like, okay, I'll, I'll come down and I'll surrender and give you my passport and do everything, you know, so we don't have to have agents jump out of the bushes and grab me and throw me into a wagon. That's, that's the circumstance we were in back in September. Puff was negotiating the terms of his surrender. That's why he came to New York. It's why he came to the Park Hyatt, because he was still negotiating the terms of the surrender. And any moment now, he was going to like, waltz himself into the federal authorities custody. So what does Puff Daddy do? Well, if the Fed's photographs are accurate, he lubes up the hotel room. I mean, literally, it looked like it was ready for the next freak off, right? Drugs, wads of cash, tons of baby oil, lots of lube. It's just like the pattern never ends. And all I can think is, like, how stupid could you possibly be? Like, how stupid could you be? He knew what the potential charges were. He was talking to his lawyers. They were talking to the feds. They knew what was coming. They knew it was sex trafficking. They knew it was racketeering. They knew all this stuff. And Puff decides to get a free cough set up. I mean, I'm guessing that's what it's for because that's what it was for all the other times. Allegedly. Okay, so that's what happened in the hotel room last September when they raided his hotel room and they arrested him at the Park Hyatt. They got, yet again, all the sex paraphernalia. So let's go back to Monday, day six, and let's jump right into it. Dawn Richard was on the stand right off the bat, and she started by revisiting that now infamous skillet incident. Skillet incident. Do you remember the one? She testified to this on day five, she said that Diddy came after Cassie with a frying pan after saying, like, what? What the hell with these eggs? Or something. Like a fight over breakfast. And. And she says that he hit Cassie with a frying pan. The next day in the studio, dawn said that Diddy pulled her aside, along with a fellow bandmate named Kalena Harper. And according to Don, Diddy told them, quote, where I come from, people go missing if they talk. End quote. But dawn said she didn't react. She said she told the jury she was shocked, but also that she couldn't believe, quote, this was the beginning of the group. She was talking about the launch of the band Diddy, Dirty Money, the moment her career should have taken off. Instead, it was the moment that everything changed. And that was just how Monday started. Dawn opened up about the repeated abuses that she saw Cassie endure at the hands of Sean Combs. She told the jury that she saw Diddy punch Cassie, choke Cassie, slap Cassie. She said, quote, I saw him kick her. I saw him punch her in the stomach. One of the most vivid memories, she said she had happened at a summer concert in Central Park. Dawn told the jury, quote, cassie came into the bathroom crying. Her eye was swelling. And then dawn said that Cassie began covering up the bruise with makeup and put on sunglasses to try to hide it. The prosecution showed a photo of that day, an actual photo of that day, and all three women, Cassie, dawn, and Kalena were all wearing sunglasses. And dawn told the jury, quote, we wore sunglasses in solidarity. I wanted her to feel supported. And then she dropped another bombshell. A dinner at a restaurant in West Hollywood where Don said Diddy again punched Cassie in the stomach. Staffers were there and saw what happened, she said, so were celebrities, she said, but no one intervened. Later, under cross examination, we found out exactly which celebrities Don was referring to. They were Usher and Neo. And still, Don continued, quote, cass had big dreams, but Diddy made her wait. He made it clear he was in charge, end quote. Don said any time that she and Kalena would raise concerns with Cassie about the abuse, Cassie would report it back to Diddy. And then Don testified, quote, diddy told us to stay out of it and to mind our business. She said she even brought her concerns to the president of Bad Boy Records, Harv Pierre. Dawn said that his response was, quote, it gets dark and lonely if you don't listen. Dawn pivoted to Diddy's drug use. Weed, cocaine, ketamine, Molly, Ecstasy, she said, and she testified he'd do drugs in the studio and at his homes. She told the jury that Diddy's drug dealer was a man named One Stop who allegedly delivered cocaine, weed, molly, even birth control and Plan B. Don testified to seeing Diddy carry a gun twice, once in 09 and once in 2010. But she admitted she never saw him wave it, never saw him cock a gun, and never saw him load the gun. And Q, Atlas and the Atlas Cam. It's a good time for me to tell you that Atlas is always in the studio, and he's always sleeping and resting until he has to clear his throat. And it usually is recorded on the mic. So we figured, what better time than just to let you see what that noise is? How you doing, bud? You okay? He's 15, so he doesn't hear so good. All right, back to the trial. When asked why she filed a civil suit against Diddy in 2024, Dawn Richard said, I saw Cass finally take a stand and tell her truth, and a filed mine because of how he treated me. Prosecutors asked dawn if she was expecting money, and dawn said, quote, I'm expecting justice. And then came the defense. And boy, oh, boy, did Puff's lawyers make short work of Dawn Richard. This is when the rubber hits the road, guys. This is when a defense attorney earns her money. And the millions and millions that Diddy is paying for this defense team was well worth it. Today, his lawyer, Nicole Westmoreland, did not waste time. Westmoreland started chipping away at the Skillet story, pointing out that in Don's previous government interviews, she said Diddy threw eggs at Cassie, not that he hit Cassie with the frying pan. Diddy's lawyer asked, would you agree with me that it's been hard to keep your story straight? And dawn responded, I told it to the best of my recollection. She was pressed again, why didn't she mention the death threat in any of her prior interviews? Dawn said, I'm doing my best to answer these questions. Those interviews were a long time ago. Diddy's lawyer fired back a death threat that you didn't recall on seven different occasions. She also pointed out that dawn never told the FBI about Diddy doing cocaine, something she testified to today. She also pointed out that Don never mentioned the celebrities at the restaurant either. Usher Neo, Diddy's lawyer asked, you would agree with me that as time progresses, your story changes. And Don had to concede, yes. So she was asked, why, if she was so afraid of Diddy, would she continue to keep reaching out to him after she left Bad boy Records in 2011? And after a long pause, dawn admitted, yes, I did reach out. The defense then laid out the success that she had under Diddy Platinum records with Danity Kane and Diddy Dirty Money. Those two bands were huge, certainly big and successful compared to the underperformance of her solo career. So dawn was asked again if her civil suit is about compensation. And she said, I'm filing a lawsuit to get compensation for work I've done. Diddy's lawyer asked, which means money? And dawn answered, yes. And then it was time for redirect and a chance for prosecutors to try to clean up some of that damage that Diddy's lawyers did. They asked dawn why her story had changed. She said, quote, the environment was volatile. It was really hard to work. She said, I tried to erase it from my mind. And when dawn was asked if she had a chance to review the notes that the government took when they interviewed her, Don responded, no, my legal team reviewed those. She became emotional when she was asked about reaching out to Lorianne Gibson, a former judge from the TV show Making the Band, saying that she had hoped Diddy Dirty Money would reunite and help Kalena's career. Then the defense got one more shot. They reminded the jury that Don wanted that group back together, a move that would have meant working alongside none other than Sean Puffy Combs, a man she said she feared. And dawn confirmed, yes, I would have worked with him again. And when Asked why she filed the lawsuit, she said, to be made whole and paid for the time with Mr. Combs. The lawyer pressed, which means money. And dawn said yes. After Dawn Richard stepped down, a brand new voice filled the courtroom, Quieter, but just as gut wrenching. Carey Morgan took her place on the stand and sat tall and right out of the gate. She said she did not want to be there. For nearly two decades, Carrie had been Cassie Ventura's best friend. They met in 2001, before the stardom, before the headlines, and before Sean Diddy Combs. Back then, she said Cassie was unstoppable. She was confident, she was joyful. She was full of spark. But as the years went on, she said Cassie's spark faded. She described Diddy as generous, sure, but intimidating and controlling and critical. And it wasn't just words. Carrie said she saw Diddy hurt Cassie in Los Angeles. She watched him pull Cassie by the hair and hit her in Jamaica. She says he dragged her across the floor by her hair and left her curled in a fetal position, barefoot, shaken and bruised. She said Cassie ran off into the woods with the bare feet and that when she came back, there was a lump on her head. And then came March of 2016, a night Carrie said she'll never forget. Cassie came home from the Intercontinental Hotel beating incident wearing a hoodie pulled tight over her face. And Cassie had a black eye. She said not long after that, she said Diddy showed up at the apartment holding a hammer. Carrie said she panicked, that she called Drock, Diddy's security man, that she called Christina Coram, Diddy's chief of staff. She told the jury, quote, I think someone called the police. Text messages from that night were shown to the jury. In them, Cassie says she felt trapped. Then came 2018, the night Carrie said everything between Cassie and her ended forever. Carrie said she was at Cassie's Hollywood Hills apartment when Diddy showed up, furious, demanding to know who Cassie had been cheating with. Carrie said Diddy turned his vengeance on her. Quote, he came up behind me and choked me. End quote. And when she tried to run, Carrie said, he boomeranged a hanger at my head. It hit me behind the ear. Carrie said she went to urgent care that night dizzy, vomiting, and was diagnosed with a concussion. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. She said Cassie asked her to sign a non disclosure agreement about that violent episode episode. And that she said that ended her relationship right there with Cassie. But there was more that she told the jury. Carrie said Diddy once exploded in jealousy when Cassie had a conversation with Michael B. Jordan. Carrie told the jury, quote, they weren't even together anymore. But he, Diddy was still jealous. I think Cassie was trying to leave. And then Diddy's lead attorney, Mark Agnifolo, took over. And rather than diving straight into the evidence or the non disclosure agreement, he started by going back all the way back to the beginning of Carrie and Cassie's friendship. They met at a photo shoot in New York City, waiting for the Polaroids to develop. Carrie thinks it might have been her first modeling job. She's from Buffalo, and at the time, Cassie was already making decent money. A quarter of a million dollars a year as a catalog model. The two became fast friends. She said they kept running into each other on photo shoots. And eventually after graduating high school, they moved in together in downtown Manhattan. And their friendship lasted from 2001 all the way to 2018. Igniflo pointed out how close Carrie was to Cassie's world and to Diddy's. She confirmed that she traveled with them often. Italy, Ibiza, Jamaica, Burning man. Three times. Diddy's home, his studios. She was in his inner circle. And then the stories about jealousy. Carrie said Cassie was jealous of Kim Porter, the mother of Diddy's four children. Carrie told the jury that Cassie, quote, told me she was upset she never got to go to New Year's Eve parties. It was an ongoing thing, end quote. She also remembered Diddy introducing Cassie to artists like French Montana, Fabulous and too short. But Diddy's lawyer wanted to get a sense of Diddy's jealousy too. Carrie admitted she didn't remember if he had a problem the time Cassie was dancing with Chris Brown. But she did remember one thing clearly. Cassie had shown an interest in actor Michael B. Jordan, and that bothered Diddy. Carrie said Cassie began talking to Jordan before filming a movie in South Africa. Carrie joined her in South Africa during the shoot along with one of Diddy's assistants named Mia. And Carrie said plainly Cassie was trying to leave did Diddy. And then Diddy's lawyer asked about a woman named Gina, another person linked to Diddy. Carrie said Gina was a big problem. She wouldn't go away. He was having a relationship with this little girl. And when asked what she meant by little girl, Carrie clarified, quote, we treated her like a little girl because she acted like one. End quote. She said Gina was younger than the rest of them and added, I'm pretty sure she got pregnant that Gina girl. She and Combs were together for many, many years, even when he was with Cassie. And then the conversation shifted back to 2016, back to that infamous hotel beating at the Intercontinental. Carrie didn't call the police that night, but officers did arrive. And when they did, she said they pushed her against the door. They asked her for ID and wanted to know what happened to Cassie. Carrie told the jury that police asked Cassie what happened to her eye, but that Cassie didn't say a word. And then they moved on to some of the key players surrounding Diddy. Carrie confirmed that Christina Coram, Diddy's chief of staff, was always around. She said that she and Christina weren't close, but that they crossed paths. Drock was his head of security and part of the inner circle. Mia was one of the assistants and seemed to have the stamina for the non stop pressure of working for Diddy. Carrie made it clear it wasn't easy keeping up. But the real breaking point for Carrie, she said, was 2018. That time she testified that Diddy threw that wooden hanger at her. That's when she said her friendship with Cassie unraveled for good. Carrie said that Cassie told her that she was just overreacting. And she said Cassie was no longer supportive of her. She looked at the jury and she said it plainly. I draw my line at physical abuse. She said, she never reached out to me, end quote. It's been seven years and those two haven't spoken since. Diddy's lawyers asked if she settled anything with Cassie. And Carrie clarified, quote, it wasn't with Cassie directly, but I got money. Cassie offered her $30,000 to sign an NDA, a non disclosure agreement. That's what Carrie told the jury. Quote, it was so I wouldn't tell anyone what I saw, so I wouldn't sue anyone, end quote. They met at a pizza place. Cassie gave her a number. Carrie accepted, and that was the end. Carrie said, I don't know why she hasn't reached out to me. I'm sure she doesn't have the same number anymore, end quote. Diddy's lawyer then stepped back and zoomed out. He said plainly, it's a lot of chaos being in Combs Circle. And Carrie agreed. But then she added something unexpected. Quote, it was fun. It was fun too. I loved the crew we had. A lot of them were my friends. A big loss, end quote. And then came a surprise exhibit. Diddy's lawyer pulled up a text message from 2016, a poem that Carrie had written for Diddy. She sent it after the Met gala, and she told Diddy, quote, sometimes it felt like he didn't love himself. And then there Was one more thing. Had she ever encouraged Cassie to stay? Carrie said sometimes, yes, but most of the time, no. Igniphilo closed with photos, images of Carrie, Cassie and Diddy walking together in May of 2017, just after the Met Ball. It was one of the last times they were all seen together. But for Kerry Morgan, that entire world that the friendships, the music, the chaos, it ended the moment Cassie slid that non disclosure agreement across the table. The final witness of the day was someone who'd seen Diddy's world from the inside. His former personal assistant, David James. David took the stand quietly, but the moment he began speaking, you could feel the emotion build. David James described the day he was hired. He said he was sitting in the HR offices at Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group. The head of HR pointed to a photo on the wall. She said, quote, this is Mr. Combs kingdom. We're all here just to serve in it, end quote. David James was with Diddy for years, and the jury learned quickly that this wasn't just an assistant gig. According to David, he wasn't just managing schedules. He was helping orchestrate some of the darkest allegations in this entire case. He became emotional as he recalled how deeply involved he was in setting up the freak offs, the same depraved drug fueled sex marathons that Cassie testified about just a few days earlier. He was the go between, he said. The fixer, the right hand man, he said. And when the prosecution asked about Cassie, the way Diddy talked about her, David didn't hesitate. He told the court, quote, he said, I've got her right where I want her. She's young. And, quote, he said she was very moldable. David also confirmed what many had already suspected, that Diddy was dating multiple women at once. Cassie was just one of them. So was Sarah and so was Tara. But according to David, there was always a main girlfriend. Wasn't Cassie. He told the jury Ms. Porter was his main squeeze, referring to Kim Porter, the mother of his children. And with that, court adjourned. But tomorrow, David James is coming back. And if his first hour on the stand is any indication, what's next could be devastating for the racketeering case. To prove racketeering, prosecutors have to prove that Diddy used his enterprise, his employees, his business to commit a series of other crimes like sex trafficking, assault, kidnapping, arson, drug trafficking, bribery, extortion, and that he did it over the period of 10 years. But he only has to have two of them proven in court in order to get racketeering. Right? That's all that the government has to prove two of those predicate acts over the course of 10 years. This was the assistant who arranged the parties, kept the calendar, handled the secrets, and now this is the assistant unpacking them one by one in front of a federal jury. We'll be back with everything he says. I always say subscribe so you don't miss the bonus episodes. I just keep throwing them down left and right, so make sure you subscribe. And I always love to hear your comments as well. But for now, I'm Ashley Banfield. Remember, the truth isn't just serious, it's dropped. Dead serious.