{"id":5996,"date":"2025-05-23T06:40:06","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T06:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/kid-cudi-testifies-about-car-explosion-break-in\/"},"modified":"2025-05-23T06:40:06","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T06:40:06","slug":"kid-cudi-testifies-about-car-explosion-break-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/kid-cudi-testifies-about-car-explosion-break-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Kid Cudi Testifies About Car Explosion, Break-In"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\tKid Cudi took the witness stand Thursday (May 22) in the sex-trafficking trial of Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs, telling jurors that he believes Combs broke into his Los Angeles house and later torched his Porsche with a Molotov cocktail out of anger over his relationship with Cassie Ventura.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe \u201cDay \u2018n\u2019 Nite\u201d rapper (Scott Mescudi) was a much-anticipated witness in the criminal trial of Combs, who\u2019s accused of coercing Ventura and other women into participating in drug-fueled sex shows known as \u201cfreak-offs.\u201d The trial closed out its second week on Thursday (May 22) and is expected to continue for at least another month. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tMescudi was photographed arriving at the Manhattan federal courthouse in a leather jacket and smoking a cigarette. According to reporting from CNN<\/a> <\/em>and the Associated Press<\/a><\/em>, he began testifying in the morning and told jurors he briefly dated Ventura in 2011.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom the stand, Mescudi said Ventura, an R&B singer who dated Combs for 11 years, became very scared when the music mogul learned about her new relationship in December 2011. He then claimed Combs broke into his L.A. house while he was at a hotel with Ventura, and that items were moved and his dog was locked in a bathroom when he returned.<\/p>\n

\n\tCombs allegedly tried to talk to Mescudi after this incident, but the rapper said he ignored the mogul\u2019s texts: \u201cYou broke into my house, you messed with my dog, I don\u2019t want to talk to you,\u201d Mescudi testified.<\/p>\n

\n\tVentura claimed during her marathon testimony last week that Combs had threatened to blow up Mescudi\u2019s car out of anger about their relationship, and, in her 2023 civil lawsuit against Combs, said that shortly after Combs issued these threats, Mescudi\u2019s car was blown up. Mescudi seemed to confirm this, saying his Porsche 911 was torched in his driveway in early 2012.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt one point, the jury was shown a photo of Mescudi\u2019s burnt-up luxury car. \u201cIt looks like the top of my Porsche was cut open, and that\u2019s where the Molotov cocktail was put in,\u201d Mescudi testified of the photo.<\/p>\n

\n\tMescudi later said he met up with Combs to discuss their differences after the incident, and that Combs acted \u201clike a Marvel supervillain\u201d during their meeting. He added that Combs promised he wasn\u2019t responsible for the car explosion, but Mescudi said he believed Combs was lying.<\/p>\n

\n\tCombs has not been officially linked to the car explosion \u2014 a point that Combs\u2019 attorneys emphasized when cross-examining Mescudi. Defense attorney Brian Steel <\/strong>suggested that DNA collected from the car was identified as belonging to a woman, though Mescudi responded that he never heard from authorities about this.<\/p>\n

\n\tSteel did get Mescudi to confirm on cross-examination that Ventura confided in him about physical abuse from Combs, but never mentioned sexual abuse. This supports the defense\u2019s argument that while Combs committed domestic violence, he never engaged in trafficking and that all of his sexual encounters were consensual.<\/p>\n

\n\tMescudi posted a video on X thanking fans for support after departing the courthouse.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlso on Thursday, the jury heard additional testimony from Combs\u2019 former assistant George Kaplan, who said he quit in 2015 after witnessing the rapper\u2019s violent treatment of Ventura and other girlfriends. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe central reason that I left my job as Mr. Combs\u2019 assistant was that I was not comfortable or aligned with the physical behavior that had been going on,\u201d said Kaplan, who began his testimony on Wednesday (May 21). Notably, Kaplan was granted immunity after initially being reluctant to testify. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA parade of other witnesses also briefly took the stand on Thursday. This included Ventura\u2019s former makeup artist, Mylah Morales, who said she saw Ventura with extensive injuries after an argument with Combs in 2010, plus a hotel employee and a computer forensics agent.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe trial is off for the next few days and slated to resume on Tuesday (May 27).<\/p>\n

\n\tCombs was indicted in September, charged with running a sprawling criminal operation aimed at facilitating the freak-offs and using violence, money and blackmail to keep victims silent and under his control. (Read Billboard<\/em>\u2018s full explainer of the case against Diddy here.)<\/p>\n

\n\tOnce one of the music industry\u2019s 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 life prison sentence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kid Cudi took the witness stand Thursday (May 22) in the sex-trafficking trial of Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs, telling jurors that he believes Combs broke into his Los Angeles […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6062,449,5819,6061,5818,2901],"class_list":["post-5996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-breakin","tag-car","tag-cudi","tag-explosion","tag-kid","tag-testifies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}