Former Danity Kane member Dawn Richard testified during Diddy’s sex trafficking and racketeering trial that the disgraced Bad Boy Records founder would threaten to make people go “missing” if he didn’t get his way.
As reported by independent reporter Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press, Dawn Richard testified in Diddy’s ongoing case for the second time on Monday, May 19. She was asked to expand on some of her statements, including one in which she mentioned that Diddy told her that people “could go missing.” Asked how she interpreted that statement, she said, “That people could die.”
She was also asked what she observed regarding Diddy’s relationship with Cassie. “He would drag her and kick her and punch her in the mouth,” she said, adding that the alleged acts of violence were prompted by her speaking up for herself. Dawn Richard testified that multiple security guards witnessed some of these attacks. She also said that Cassie once wore sunglasses in public to avoid showing bruises, so she wore sunglasses alongside her “in solidarity.”
“I asked myself, ‘If he did that to someone he supposedly loved, what he do to an employee?'” said Richard, who was signed to Diddy during her time with Danity Kane. “So I’d approach Mr. Combs with softness.” She was asked if she ever tried to intervene and replied, “No, for my own safety.”
Other questions prosecutors asked her included if she ever saw him using drugs, which she confirmed, and if she ever saw him with guns. She said that she saw him with handguns. Her contact with him after Danity Kane came to an end was “sporadic,” but she admitted she would contact him occasionally for business reasons.
Dawn Richard testified last week about the abusive behavior she witnessed during Diddy’s relationship with Cassie. She recalled one incident in which he allegedly tried to hit Cassie in the head with a skillet with eggs in it, to which she responded by dropping to the floor in the fetal position. “I was scared for her, and scared to do anything… I was scared if I intervened, it might get worse,” Richard said.
Dawn Richard filed a lawsuit against Diddy last year for alleged harassment and sexual abuse. She said that she was inspired to speak up after Cassie filed a lawsuit in which she accused him of years of abusive behavior and sexual misconduct. He denied the allegations and accused her of trying to get free promo for her recently released album.
