Rapper Kid Cudi’s Porsche was intentionally set on fire with a homemade Molotov cocktail a month after Sean “Diddy” Combs broke into his Hollywood Hills house, Kid Cudi testified in Combs’ sex trafficking trial on Thursday morning in Manhattan federal court.
Asked by federal prosecutors what his reaction was in January 2012 to finding out his black Porsche 911 Cabriolet convertible has been set on fire, Kid Cudi, testifying under his birth name Scott Mescudi, replied: “What the fuck?”
Jurors were shown photographs of the damage to Mescudi’s Porsche, revealing a two-foot hole cut in the convertible’s soft roof and smoky damage to the car’s red interior.
He said Combs icily denied burning up the car during a meetup at the Soho House shortly after the incident, but years later apologized “for all that bullshit.”
Wearing a worn-in black leather jacket over a white shirt with light blue jeans, Kid Cudi testified that a month before the car burning incident, he had reported a break-in at his house to law enforcement. He said he found some holiday gifts tampered with and his dog had been locked into a bathroom.
Despite knowing that Combs was responsible for the break-in after finding out about his relationship with Cassie Ventura, Mescudi explained he opted to report the incident rather than confront the Bad Boy Records CEO.
“I thought, ‘OK you’re angry, just think about this.’ I don’t know who he has with him. I don’t what his intentions are,” he said. “I thought about the reality of the situation, not knowing what I was walking myself into, so I decided to call the police.”
Prosecutors have accused the label boss of conspiring with his inner circle entourage of assistants and bodyguards to manipulate women into drug-fueled, voyeuristic sexual encounters — dubbed “freak offs” — that often involved male prostitutes performing sex acts on women while Combs watched.
Ventura testified last week Combs threatened to release a pair of explicit “freak off” videos in December 2011 after he found out she was dating rapper Kid Cudi, in addition to threats of physical violence.
She said Combs boasted he was going to explode Kid Cudi’s car in his home driveway.
“Sean wanted Scott’s friends to see Scott’s car get blown up,” she said, referring to Kid Cudi by his birth name.
Ventura filed a bombshell civil lawsuit against Combs in November 2023 accusing him of rape and repeated physical abuse. She claimed in her complaint that “Kid Cudi’s car exploded in his driveway” around the same time that Combs threatened to blow up the vehicle.
Arson is one of the RICO predicates included in Combs’ indictment, in addition to kidnapping, bribery and narcotics distribution.
Across four days of emotional testimony in the first week of the trial, Ventura recalled in graphic detail the physical violence and emotional abuse she was subjected to during the years she was participating in the so-called “freak offs” with hired prostitutes while Combs watched and pleasured himself.
Signed to a 10-album deal with Combs’ Bad Boy record label during that time period, Ventura testified she was unable to advance her career beyond her first album because of the amount of time she was required to do the sex parties and subsequent time expended to recover from the draining drug use and physical exhaustion.
Earlier on Thursday morning, prosecutors questioned George Kaplan, a personal assistant at Combs Enterprises from 2013 to 2015, who testified he witnessed several episodes of physical abuse leveled by Combs at two of his girlfriends, Cassie Ventura and a woman referred to as Gina.
He recalled seeing Ventura on the floor of Combs’ private jet with her legs extended aloft while Combs raised a whiskey rocks glass, during a commotion of glass crashing.
He later recalled Combs ordering to purchase of anti-swelling agents, including witch hazel, to treat injuries that Ventura sustained from a separate incident at Combs’ Los Angeles mansion.
He described an incident at the Miami Beach house in 2015, witnessing Combs aggressively throw “a number of decorative or real apples” at Gina, as “the last straw” for his employment at Combs Enterprises.
“She was trying to shield herself with her arms,” he described Gina reacting to a “very angry” Combs throwing green apples at her.
Kaplan, who started at Combs Enterprises as an executive assistant to Brian Offutt, then-chief operating officer at the company, said he did not intervene in any of those incidents due to youthful naivety and “tunnel vision” about his career.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey asked, “Why nothing?”
“Because I wished it wasn’t happening,” Kaplan replied. “I didn’t want to be involved in it.”
“I actually thought for a second that it might be normal that this is what I could I expect if I wanted a career in the entertainment industry,” he said.
Earlier in his testimony, Kaplan described items in the prepared hotel bags he would set up at hotel rooms in advance for Diddy, included “clothes, speaker, candle, liquor, Astroglide.”
He recalled on Wednesday tidying up Combs’ hotel rooms as part of his duties as executive assistant: “I think that it was implied … that, you know, protecting him and protecting his public image were important.”
Kaplan said he typically cleaned up detritus at the hotel rooms, including liquor bottles, Gatorade bottles and “often baby oil.”
“I loved working there,” he said later during cross-examination questioning by Combs’s defense lawyer. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
“My friends told me that this was my Harvard and I was blowing it,” he testified about his decision to leave the company in late 2015.
Combs, 55, is standing trial on a five-count indictment charging him with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
The 12-person jury is composed of eight men and four women, while the six alternates are made up of four women and two men.
The trial is expected to run up to eight weeks into early July.
Source: courthousenews.com
