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Advisory: This report includes descriptions of physical violence.

On Tuesday, federal lawyers prosecuting Sean Combs continued widening their case against the hip-hop mogul. The sole witness on the stand for the day was a woman named Capricorn Clark, who rose from being Combs' personal assistant to heading marketing for his Sean John fashion company. Clark testified that during the years she worked for him — off and on between 2004 and 2018 — he repeatedly threatened her, and kidnapped her in December 2011.

Much of Clark's testimony, including various claims of physical threats and intimidation allegedly made by Combs and some of his associates, was aimed to bolster the racketeering charges against Combs. But some of her most vivid statements were related to Combs’ admittedly tumultuous and violent relationship with his then-girlfriend, the singer and model Casandra “Cassie” Ventura. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all the charges, which also include sex trafficking and transportation to commit prostitution.

When testifying about the alleged 2011 kidnapping, Clark described events that the jury had heard about last week, this time from her perspective. She said that it took place after Combs learned that Ventura, with whom he had an on-and-off again relationship, had begun dating rapper 

Clark, who wept repeatedly on the stand, testified that Combs came to her Los Angeles apartment door early on that December morning in a state of rage and armed with a gun. According to Clark, Combs ordered her to get dressed and accompany him to Mescudi's home in the Hollywood Hills, saying: "We're going to go kill" the musician. (Combs had learned that Clark was aware that Ventura was dating Mescudi, but had not informed him of Ventura's new relationship.) She said she was made to wait in Combs' car as he and one of his security employees went inside in search of Mescudi

After a chaotic car chase, Clark testified, Combs threatened to kill her if she went to the authorities, and that he would "kill all" three of them — Mescudi, Ventura and Clark — if Mescudi notified the police that Combs had been in his home. Later that afternoon, she said, she witnessed Combs battering Ventura, kicking her repeatedly in the legs, back and backside as Ventura crouched "in a fetal position."

Last Thursday, Mescudi testified to the jury about the break-in and his car being set on fire weeks after this alleged incident involving Clark. Combs' lawyers have denied that the tycoon had anything to do with the arson. While on the stand earlier this month, Ventura 

Combs' first threat against her, Clark alleged, came on her very first day of work in 2004. Combs, who knew that Clark had previously worked as an intern for a rival producer and record label executive, 

, allegedly informed Clark that if she had anything further to do with Knight, "He would have to kill me."

Clark also testified about an earlier instance in which she was allegedly held against her will. Later that first year, Clark testified, associates of Combs locked her into a dilapidated and locked building in Midtown Manhattan for five days, in order to subject her to many lie detector tests. The alleged incident occurred after the disappearance of three pieces of high-end diamond jewelry that had been loaned to Combs and which Clark had been entrusted to look after. The man testing her, Clark alleged, repeatedly told her she would be "thrown into the East River" if she failed. Clark said she endured the testing to prove her innocence. "I was petrified," she said. One of Combs' security employees allegedly took her home each night, and also searched her apartment for the missing jewels.

The tests were repeatedly inconclusive, and she was fired for "three to four weeks," after which she was rehired to work on Combs' 35th birthday party. She said Combs never mentioned the missing diamonds to her again, nor did he question her about where she had been during those five days she was absent from the office during the time she was allegedly held for the lie detector tests.

Clark said she left Combs' employ in 2006, after Combs allegedly pushed her repeatedly, to take a job at another record group, Jive/Zomba, but that she eventually returned. She was fired in early 2012, after reporting the alleged 2011 kidnapping to executives at Bad Boy Records, the recording label co-founded by Combs. She was told it was due to an improperly taken vacation, and she testified that Combs told her she would "never work again." She later received a settlement from Combs over accusations of wrongful termination. Combs' defense team repeatedly objected to prosecutorial questions over the amount of that settlement, which were sustained.

During cross-examination, Combs' attorney Marc Agnifilo repeatedly targeted inconsistencies in Clark's accounts, including a previous claim to prosecutors that Combs had allegedly pointed the gun at her in 2011. From the stand, Clark said that instead Combs had been "waving it around."

Agnifilo also asked Clark why she had returned to work for Combs repeatedly, given her allegations. She said that it was because she had been unable to get hired for any other job in the music industry. Her last position in Combs' employ, she said, was as Ventura's "creative director" in 2016. She said that every decision related to Ventura — from her hair and clothing to her schedule — had to be personally approved by Combs.

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Anastasia Tsioulcas

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On Tuesday, Clark, who worked for Combs for more than a decade, accused him of kidnapping her during a chaotic 2011 episode involving his former girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, and the rapper Kid Cudi.

Former Sean Combs employee Capricorn Clark says he kidnapped her

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