One of Cassie Ventura’s friends testified Wednesday that Sean “Diddy” Combs dangled her over a 17th-floor balcony, telling jurors that the incident left her with “night terrors and paranoia.”
On the witness stand during the fourth week of the music mogul’s sex-trafficking trial, Bryana Bongolan said she had been at Ventura’s apartment in 2016 when Combs stormed in unexpectedly, according to CNN. She told the jurors that the star dangled her over a balcony, then threw her into furniture.
The attack left her with injuries both physical and psychological, Bongolan said: “I have night terrors and paranoia and scream in my sleep at times.”
Bongolan is one of many witnesses already called by prosecutors, who claim Combs ran a criminal enterprise aimed at coercing Ventura and other women into participating in drug-fueled sex shows known as “freak-offs.” Defense attorneys have said the sex was consensual and that Combs merely operated a legitimate music business.
The alleged balcony incident has long been one of the flashiest accusations against Diddy. It was referenced in Ventura’s civil lawsuit that sparked the rapper’s downfall, and prosecutors mentioned it in the indictment and in other pre-trial court filings. Bongolan herself described it in detail in a civil lawsuit she filed last year.
On the witness stand Wednesday, she described it for jurors, saying it had left her with “a bruise on the back of my leg and back and neck pain.”
Bongolan also testified that she once saw Diddy throw a knife at Ventura, and about another time that she saw Cassie with a black eye. She also told jurors about an alleged incident at a photoshoot in which Combs threatened her life.
“He came up really close to my face and said something around the lines of, ‘I’m the devil and I could kill you,’” Bongolan said.
Combs was indicted in September, charged with running a sprawling criminal operation aimed at facilitating the freak-offs — elaborate events in which Combs and others allegedly coerced Ventura and other victims into having sex with escorts while he watched and masturbated. Prosecutors also say the star and his associates used violence, money and blackmail to keep victims silent and under his control. (Read Billboard‘s full explainer of the case against Diddy here.)
Once one of the music industry’s most powerful men, Combs is accused of racketeering conspiracy (a so-called RICO charge), sex trafficking and violating a federal prostitution statute. If convicted on all of the charges, he faces a potential sentence of life in prison.
The trial, which has already featured testimony from Ventura herself, another unnamed victim named Mia and numerous other witnesses, is expected to run until early July. Bongolan is expected to continue testifying in the afternoon.
