A girl instructed U.S. jurors Wednesday that hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs dangled her over a Seventeenth-story balcony earlier than throwing her onto furnishings in an assault that left her traumatized and bruised.
Bryana Bongolan testified within the music icon’s ongoing federal legal trial in New York that she was staying over together with her pal Casanda “Cassie” Ventura — Combs’s ex and a key trial witness who lately delivered searing testimony of abuse and coercion.
While she was at Ventura’s place, Combs burst into the house and seized Bongolan on the balcony.
Bongolan, a designer, mentioned Combs repeatedly shouted with expletives that “you know what you did” — and she or he mentioned she repeatedly instructed him she didn’t.
The witness additionally recounted an incident when she noticed Combs hurl a knife at Ventura, which Bongolan mentioned Ventura then threw again at him.
Bongolan instructed prosecutors she didn’t go to the police out of concern: “I was just scared of Puff,” she instructed the court docket, utilizing one other nickname for Combs.
But a protection lawyer for the musician, who faces racketeering and intercourse trafficking fees, solid Bongolan as a drug abuser and unreliable witness whose story was shifting.
Bongolan is amongst dozens of people that have filed civil fits in opposition to Combs lately, authorized motion she instructed jurors she took “because I wanted to seek justice for what happened to me on the balcony.”
Bongolan, who stays pals with Ventura, says the incident left her with post-traumatic stress, together with recurring night time terrors and paranoia: “Sometimes I scream in my sleep,” she instructed jurors.
Defense lawyer Nicole Westmoreland bluntly indicated that Bongolan was mendacity, and implied that the witness had in contrast notes with Ventura to get their tales straight as the 2 filed separate civil fits in opposition to Combs.
Ventura alleged that she suffered harrowing abuse below Combs, her former on-and-off companion of greater than a decade, opening the floodgates in opposition to the one-time music powerhouse when she first filed go well with in opposition to him in November 2023.
That go well with was settled out of court docket in lower than 24 hours.
Westmoreland on Wednesday pushed the narrative that Bongolan’s heavy drug use, together with with Ventura, clouded her recollections of the alleged occasions.
Bongolan was testifying below an immunity order that protects her from incrimination if she speaks in truth.
She continuously responded to Westmoreland by saying she couldn’t keep in mind each element — and the often brusque protection questioning of her will proceed Thursday morning.
Afterwards, the prosecution is anticipated to name Jane — long-anticipated testimony from a lady who will communicate below a pseudonym in relation to one of many intercourse trafficking fees in opposition to Combs.
Combs, 55, faces upwards of life in jail if convicted of crimes of intercourse trafficking and racketeering.
Prosecutors say he ran a legal enterprise of high-ranking staff and bodyguards who enforced his energy with illicit acts together with kidnapping, bribery and arson.
On Tuesday, a resort safety guard mentioned he obtained $100,000 in a brown paper bag from Combs in trade for now-infamous surveillance footage that confirmed the artist-entrepreneur violently kicking and dragging Ventura in a resort.
Jurors have repeatedly been proven the disturbing clip in open court docket.
The safety officer, Eddy Garcia, mentioned he initially rebuffed an try from a Combs worker — Kristina Khorram, who has been described because the music heavyweight’s “right hand” — to acquire the video.
After repeated calls, together with from Combs himself, Garcia ultimately agreed to promote the tape, with permission from his supervisor, who acquired a minimize.
“‘Eddy, my angel, I knew you could help. I knew you could do it,'” Garcia recounted Combs telling him.
Garcia — who was additionally talking below an immunity order — testified that he signed a non-disclosure settlement.
Last week a former assistant talking below the pseudonym Mia described violent acts Combs dedicated in opposition to her and in addition recalled many instances that she noticed him beat Ventura.
Now in its fourth week of testimony, witnesses have included alleged victims, former high-ranking staff in addition to assistants and regulation enforcement officers.
The trial in Manhattan is anticipated to final nicely into the summer time.
© 2025 AFP