277: Diddy Trial: His Freak-Off Kits, Cassie's BFF Speaks, & His Family No-Shows at Court

Week 2 of the Diddy trial is underway and gets darker. Cassie’s former best friend takes the stand, detailing a disturbing assault she claims Diddy inflicted on her — and the moment that ended her friendship with Cassie. Dawn Richard of Danity Kane breaks her silence. Meanwhile, Diddy’s own family appears to distance themselves in court. Is his inner circle finally cracking? 🔎Join Our True Crime Club & Get Exclusive Content & Perks 🔎Join The Club: https://www.patreon.com/annieelise🎧 Need More to Binge? Listen to EXTRA deep dive episodes every week on Apple!https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/serialously-with-annie-elise/id1519456164Follow Annie on Socials 📸🩷Instagram: @ _annieelise💜TikTok: @_annieelise🗞️ Substack: @annieelise💙Facebook: @10tolifeShop Annie’s Closet & Must-Haves! 👗Poshmark: https://posh.mk/Tdbki6Ae0RbShopMY: https://shopmy.us/annieeliseAmazon: https://www.amazon.com/shop/10tolife?ref_=cm_sw_r_apin_aipsfshop_BKN1ZMCMEZHACVFQ2R75&language=en_USDisclaimer ‣ Some links may be affiliate links, they do not cost you anything, but I make a small percentage from the sale. Thank you so much for watching and supporting me.🎙️ Follow the podcast for FREE on all podcast platforms! Apple:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/serialously-with-annie-elise/id1519456164Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/6HdheEH8WeMTHoe5da34qUAll Other Platforms: https://audioboom.com/channels/5100770-serialously-with-annie-eliseGet Involved or Recommend the Case 💬About Annie: https://annieelise.com/For Business Inquiries: [email protected].*Sources used to collect this information include various public news sites, interviews, court documents, FB groups dedicated to the case, and various news channel segments. When quoting statements made by others, they are strictly alleged until confirmed otherwise. Please remember my videos are my independent opinion and to always do your own research.

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• 0:00Annie Elise?

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• 0:42Annie Elise?

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• 1:39Annie Elise?

  Today's episode is sponsored by Zenni. Okay, I have a question for you guys. When is the last time that you actually bought something for yourself? Especially right now, this time of year, when you are shopping for everybody else, you're checking off your list. When is the last time you got something for you? Because I think it's so easy to just completely forget about ourselves, especially this time of year. But that's why I love the idea of treating yourself to a new pair of glasses from Zenni. They have so many cute styles, from prescription glasses to sunglasses. They Have frames starting at just under $30. They also have this amazing tool on their site where you can do a virtual try on feature and it lets you see how the different frames look on you before you order, which I feel like that is key because for me like I'm a cat eye kind

• 2:24Annie Elise?

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• 3:03Annie Elise?

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• 3:25Annie Elise?

  Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of Seriallessly.

• 3:48Annie Elise?

  Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to an all new episode of Seriallessly. With me, Annie Elise. As you can tell, this is a bonus episode. It is releasing outside of the normal release schedule. If you're watching the video version of this, you also see that I am in a hotel room. I am currently in Boston on the East Coast. I am covering the Karen Reed trial over here. I'll be in court all day for the next couple of days. And then simultaneously, I am covering the Diddy trial because so many of you have been requesting updates and what's going on in that trial. And boy, oh, boy, are there a lot of updates. So I'm here, brought all my gear. I'm recording for you in the hotel room and we have got a lot to talk about.

• 4:29Annie Elise?

  Now, as a reminder, if you are watching the video version of this, the uncensored version of this lives over on my podcast. You know, YouTube likes to censor me. So you can go listen to the uncensored version for free on all podcast platforms. And also because these updates are releasing outside of the normal release schedule, take a quick second, whatever podcast app you're listening on, just look in the right corner, bottom corner, I don't know where it is, and make sure that you're following the podcast. That way, if I drop one of these outside again of the normal release schedule, you will not miss these updates because I am going to be putting them out as often as they come up and as I see warranted. So just make sure you do that. Now, today, we are going to be talking about everything that's been going down in

• 5:13Annie Elise?

  the Diddy trial. I already did a brief update last week about a lot of the bombshells during Cassie's testimony. But since then, there has been new information. Not only today, there were a ton of new things that were expressed by her former best friend, but we also heard from Dawn. And if you remember Dawn, she was a part of the girl band, Danity Kane, that Diddy had, you know, started. They, I think, started on, what was it? Was it Making the Band? Is that how old I am? And then they had Danity Kane, Aubrey O'Day was also in it. She's also expected to testify. So Dawn was recounting on Friday, a lot of the things that she firsthand witnessed. She also followed up a little bit today on

• 5:56Annie Elise?

  Monday with some more detail. And then we heard directly from Cassie's former best friend. And I have to say, some of the stuff that her best friend shared that she witnessed is not only extremely upsetting, but she also talks about assault that she received from Diddy firsthand. So we're going to go into all of it. Let's start with Friday, just so I can give you a little bit of a recap of what Dawn had said while she was testifying. And I have my notes in front of me. So if you're watching the video version of this, you're going to see me scanning down to my notes. But, you know, gotta do what you gotta do when you're on the road, right? Now, let me just start by saying this, the cross-examination against Cassie while she was still testifying, or when she was done testifying for the prosecution, it was really done in a

• 6:39Annie Elise?

  tactical way to put her in a bad light, to make her look like she was complicit, that she wanted it, that she even was eager for it. And, look, everybody's entitled to their opinions, but I'm going to just say, I think, I know every lawyer has a job to do, but I think that that was absolutely disgusting to hear about and witness, because they really tried to make it seem like, you know, you asked for it, you could have just walked away, when, hi, no, it is not that easy to walk away from a relationship like that, that is dangerous, emotionally threatening, physically threatening, especially when somebody is like a freaking billionaire. And, I'll say this too, I saw a meme over the weekend,

• 7:22Annie Elise?

  that I feel like it's a statement that illustrates this perfectly, but it said, so many, and only girls are going to be able to relate to this, so I'm sorry, but, it said, so many girls are too scared to speak up when their nail tech does something that they don't want, whether it's a color, or a shape, or whatever, so how do you expect to speak up against a billionaire, in your, that you're in a relationship with? And I'm obviously paraphrasing, it was a much more well-put-together, concise quote, but, it's true, it's like, assuming that somebody could speak up, when there's so many years of backstory there too, it's just, obviously, it's not that easy. So, anyway, one of the things that they really, I'm going to just give a couple examples, actually, of the things that they were doing, trying to paint

• 8:05Annie Elise?

  Cassie in a bad light. One of them being that the defense questioned her about a 2013 birthday party that was for her brother, where, at this birthday party, she allegedly got into an altercation with another woman, and she told Diddy, flat-out quote, she tried to kill the bitch, saying, you know, kind of insinuating or inferring, like, you're equally threatening, you're equally tough, or in this life, that kind of thing. Then there was audio from Cassie in 2014 that was played. And in this audio, she also threatened an unknown man who apparently had taken a non-consensual video of her during sex. She was also heard in this recording saying, "It's my fucking life and I will kill you. I will kill you, I will cut you up and I will hide you.

• 8:49Annie Elise?

  I have never killed anyone in my life, but I will kill you. And it's not going to be my hands. There's not going to be blood on my hands. It's going to be somebody else." So again, just trying to illustrate some violent tendencies and that she was also complicit in, quote, "Diddy's world." Now, some less violent topics that the defense brought up about Cassie's personal life included her stints in rehab, whether or not her current husband knew the extent of her and Diddy's relationship, her mental health, current medications that she's taking specifically, and I apologize if I butcher the pronunciation of these, but Subzazone and Buprenamine.

• 9:31Annie Elise?

  And I looked both of those medications up and they are both used to treat opioid dependency or opioid addiction. So they brought this up as well, just trying to make an illustration of her personal life. Now, the cross-examination ended with the defense showing the jury text messages from the year 2012. And in these text messages, Diddy texted Cassie saying, quote, "Want to freak off one last time tonight?" And her response was, "I don't want to freak off for our last time. I want it to be the first time for the rest of our lives." Again, once more, the defense, in my opinion, trying to infer that she liked this lifestyle. She was complicit, she co-signed it, she wanted it. And in this text message even saying, you know, "I want it to be like the first time

• 10:16Annie Elise?

  every time." However, the prosecution then redirected this and they showed the jury messages from that same exact text thread. And in this text thread, Cassie was discussing her UTIs. I mentioned on the last recap that some of the bombshell detail that she shared with that is that she had UTIs so frequently because of these freak-offs that antibiotics stopped working. Completely, and that she had developed oral sores, all sorts of things. So in this text thread, they show her not only discussing the UTIs, but also saying to Diddy, quote, "I don't want to do one last time. I don't want it at all." So the prosecution's redirect ended with a pretty big bang, I will say,

• 10:59Annie Elise?

  with Cassie clarifying three very important things. One, she wasn't planning on filing any more lawsuits against him. She was receiving absolutely no money to testify at his trial. And the third, that she would give back the $20 million settlement payment if it somehow allowed her to never have been a part of those freak-offs and to have her agency and autonomy back. And the reason that last one is important is because during cross, they even questioned her and say, "Well, like, if these freak-offs were so bad, would you have given the $20 million back to not have done one of these freak-offs or to not have done any of them?" To which she says, "I would give the $20 million back if I had my agency back."

• 11:44Annie Elise?

  So it was a pretty powerful ending, I thought. Next on the witness stand was a special agent for the Department of Homeland Security's trafficking group. And she was one of the investigators who was present for Diddy's hotel room raid that happened last September. And specifically, she was in charge of handling the evidence pictures and taking inventory of what was found. And I find this very interesting because the way she describes this hotel room, to me, feels like a freaking nightmare. Like this, almost like he had this freak-off kit that he had it all set up that like, it just paints the picture of what this situation really looked like. So she describes the state of his hotel room, and she describes the evidence that was taken.

• 12:29Annie Elise?

  For example, she describes there being blue mood lighting in one singular corner of the hotel room, describes five bottles of baby oil and lube that were being stored in the bathtub inside of the bathroom, which, as we had heard previously from Cassie's testimony, he liked that lube and oil to be lukewarm or warmed up. So I could imagine them, you know, putting the bathtub, piping hot water, filling it, and then dumping all of them in. So it's almost like a way to boil it, right? She also says that they found multiple pill bottles that had been stuffed inside a Louis Vuitton bag and these prescriptions were prescribed to somebody named Frank Black. Now, if that's an actual person, I don't know, or if that is just a cover name that he used

• 13:14Annie Elise?

  for his prescriptions, possibly, but some of these prescriptions were ketamine and MDMA. Then there were two more bottles of lube that were found on the nightstand. There was also a black fanny pack with eye drops and $9,000 in cash. So, the last person to take the stand later in the day on Friday was Dawn Richards. As I mentioned, Dawn was in a band called Danity Kane. Diddy managed this band. They did some sort of reality show where it was called like, I think it was called Making the Band. It was right around the same time O-Town was going on. Takes me back to, you know, the early 2000s, but she was one of the finalists. Aubrey O'Day, as I mentioned, also was a part of that band and she too is expected to testify.

• 13:57Annie Elise?

  So Dawn testified about a time that she saw Diddy attack Cassie back in 2009. And apparently, this attack was all because Cassie didn't make him his eggs fast enough, like didn't get him his breakfast fast enough. She also has her own personal allegations against Diddy, claiming that he both sexually and physically assaulted her as well as many other people. Now although the testimony was at the very end of the day, it was still more than detailed. She described in detail Diddy coming down the stairs that morning, yelling at Cassie, asking her, you know, "Where the fuck's my food? Where's my food?" And then hitting her and kicking her to the ground. She also testified that he hit her in the head with the actual skillet that she had

• 14:40Annie Elise?

  been using to cook his eggs. Now, while Cassie was on the ground, Dawn testified that Diddy continued beating her up and eventually put his arm all the way around her neck and then dragged her upstairs by her hair. Which I gotta just say, we hear a lot more of this as I continue and you'll hear about him dragging her by the hair and by the neck. It seems very on brand for him, especially after we saw that infamous hotel footage where he does exactly that. And just- Not only is that so invasive, so personal and so violent, but it also displays that you truly are viewing that person as property or not garbage, but just like a piece of trash, like a trash bag, I guess, yeah, garbage,

• 15:24Annie Elise?

  that you're just grabbing by the hair and dragging them wherever you want them to go. It's absolutely appalling to even think about. So Dawn even testified that Diddy had threatened her and another band member who saw this attack. And she described this threat by saying, quote, "Where he comes from, people who say something can end up missing." So Friday ended with the prosecution and the defense arguing on whether or not Dawn's testimony was valid. So we pick back up on Monday, May 19th, and maybe it's not a key detail in all of this, but I found this very, very interesting and I even went and like tried to fact check this at three different points to just make sure that what I was reading was true. I found it really interesting. Tell me what you think.

• 16:07Annie Elise?

  But Diddy's three sons and his mom were not in court on Monday at all. And they have all been very active, very present, right? I mean, last week, his three sons, Quincy Brown, Justin Combs and King Combs, were all present in the courtroom, sitting right in the second row, right behind Diddy's bench. And his mother, Janice, was also there every single day. His twin daughters, Jessie and Delilah, were also present one of the days during court. Yet now, on the start of the second week, none of his family members appeared to be present. Which, that's a pretty bold move. So I don't know if that means that maybe his family is finally starting to see the light

• 16:50Annie Elise?

  and they're not supporting him or they're not supporting him publicly. I don't know if maybe last week was just too much and maybe they felt like they wanted to leave midweek, but they didn't want to have that kind of public appearance or that light cast down that they were leaving midweek in the trial. So they waited until the top of the week of the trial, of the next week to do that. I don't really know. I mean, we all know that last week's testimony was a lot, even for the general population to hear and consume. So I can only imagine what the family must have been feeling. But I think that's a pretty bold move that not one family member was present on day one of week two. So we'll see what happens tomorrow.

• 17:33Annie Elise?

  So Monday's testimony began again with Dawn. She was back on the stand and she was testifying and the defense questioned her extensively and they were particularly focusing in on a domestic incident that she witnessed against Cassie, the one that I mentioned previously over the breakfast, over the eggs. And they even questioned whether or not she would agree that it had been hard to quote, "keep her story the same over the years." And that's all in reference to that incident being like, "Well, you kind of haven't kept your story straight throughout the years, so let's get into that," which she said, "No, I do not agree to that." They then started calling out some of her inconsistencies in her story over the years, trying to really like drive that point home. And it felt like they were kind of doing

• 18:14Annie Elise?

  a lot of damage control, in my opinion, also maybe trying to paint her as an unreliable witness. So here's where the, what they were citing. They said that she had previously told the detectives that she had never seen Diddy do cocaine specifically, yet on the stand, she testified that she had seen him do cocaine. She had also testified that she saw him do Molly and ketamine in the past. Then the defense mentioned that in a previous interview, Dawn said absolutely nothing about the threat of people going missing and that the only thing that she claimed Diddy had ever said was that quote, "This was a love thing," whatever that means. If maybe he's trying to excuse or make excuses for what he was doing with Cassie, saying, "You know,

• 18:57Annie Elise?

  it's a love thing. You don't know anything about it. We just love hard. We fight hard." That kind of thing. But they were trying to, again, poke holes in her testimony. They also said that she had claimed that a woman named Kalina Harper, who was a member of one of the girl groups that Diddy had formed. This one was called Diddy Dirty Money. It was a musical trio. And Diddy and Dawn had done that back in, I think it was 2009 and this girl Kalina was a part of it. So Dawn had said that she was with her on three different incidents where they both witnessed Diddy hurting Cassie. However, Kalina denies that she had ever seen Diddy be abusive before. Now, she could certainly be lying to protect herself. I mean, what are the odds of her simply being afraid since Dawn had even-

• 19:42Annie Elise?

  Said that Diddy threatened her life too. I mean, could she be protecting him? Maybe she's afraid for her own life, given the threats that Diddy had made to Dawn as well? Who really knows? But they were, once again, just trying to use this as leverage to paint her as an unreliable witness. Now, the last example that they gave was that Dawn had previously talked about that egg incident in the past, but said that Diddy only threw the eggs at Cassie, not the skillet. There was no hitting, there was no dragging upstairs, that he only had thrown eggs at her. Which she said, you know, "I have suppressed a lot of these memories over the years. I have tried to move forward, but now they are slowly starting to resurface. So if I didn't remember every exact detail, it's not because I'm changing my story,

• 20:26Annie Elise?

  it's because I'm actually like, open to remembering the details now." So next, to take the stand was a woman named Carrie Morgan. And this was Cassie's former best friend, which she made it very clear that she did not even want to be there. She said she was only testifying because she was subpoenaed, saying, "I've moved on with my life, I don't even want any part of this, I just don't want to be here." You guys know, I am all about finding easy ways to get more nutrition into my day. Between recordings, school pickup, after-school activities, you name it. My schedule gets really busy, I definitely don't have time to like, cook a meal. And so, I love Kachava, because I can just quickly grab a shake, it is so easy, and also tastes like a little delicious treat.

• 21:08Annie Elise?

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• 21:53Annie Elise?

  That's kachava, K-A-C-H-A-V-A, dot com, code AE.

• 21:59Annie Elise?

  Now she knew a lot of the background of their relationship. She was present for most of it. She and Cassie were friends for over 17 years. And she described Diddy as being nice, being generous, but also saying he had a lot of mood swings. He was very aggressive. And some examples of the things that she witnessed were, one example was she said that Diddy was in this relationship with Cassie and he would sometimes call her best friend up to 50 times a day if Cassie wasn't answering the phone, trying to control where she was, determine where she was, figure out, why isn't she answering, where is she, what's going on? And Carrie said that, you know, he would call me up to 50 times sometimes. It was aggressive.

• 22:41Annie Elise?

  She also testified that she witnessed him physically assault Cassie two different times, one time in Jamaica and one time in LA. And I'm going to get into details of those encounters because they are very graphic and very disturbing. But what's important to note here is that she says, not only did I witness two separate occasions, but on these two separate occasions, Diddy was not on drugs. He had not consumed any alcohol. He was dead sober for these. Now during these different assaults, she collectively witnessed him hit, kick, punch, and once again, pull Cassie's hair. So let me go into the details of the LA assault. She says that this one happened at Diddy's LA home and the people who that were present

• 23:25Annie Elise?

  were her, Diddy, Cassie, and Diddy's security guard. Now her exact quote was, quote, "I saw him push her. I'm pretty sure he hit her. They were on the other side of the bed, so I'm not sure if he kicked her or something else." And she said that during that assault that she was witnessing, Cassie didn't even try to fight back. She just lied there, just let it happen, which is so sad to think about because at that point, it's almost like not only does Cassie know that it's happening and she just allows it to happen, and I don't mean allows it to happen, you know what I mean? She knows in her heart that she can't fight back because it would be worse for her if she did fight back.

• 24:05Annie Elise?

  So according to Carrie, she says she just laid there, didn't fight back, and she just let it happen, just waiting for it to be done. She also testified that at one point she even asked the security guard that was on site to intervene, but the security guard flat out said no. Eventually, she and Cassie fled and they went and they hid on a staircase at a neighbor's house and she didn't describe what the staircase was like. I'm guessing it was outdoors. I can't imagine that they went inside a neighbor's home, but I don't know, LA, especially the Hollywood Hills, there are a lot of homes with like these huge staircases going up. And the reason I also think it was outside is because she said that while they were hiding on the stairs, they saw Diddy and the security guard driving around looking for

• 24:49Annie Elise?

  them, trying to find them, trying to pick them up. So eventually, like so many times before, Cassie went back to Diddy's house, I'm assuming, after maybe she thought he had time to calm down, I'm not sure, and Carrie ended up going back to her hotel room. Then, on another time, when Carrie says she witnessed the assault firsthand, they were in Jamaica. And apparently, Diddy showed up halfway through this trip that she and Cassie were on together. So while they were on this trip, after he showed up, Cassie had gone to the bathroom. Then, after a few minutes, Diddy said she was taking too long. What's taking her so long? Get her out of the bathroom. So, he left Carrie and went to the bathroom. And she says, "That is when I heard Cassie screaming."

• 25:32Annie Elise?

  She says that it was terrifying, that it was a scream that was coming from her throat, not even like her vocal mouth, but she could hear it deep in her throat. And she could hear her screaming, so she went down the long hallway. And she says, quote, "They were coming out of the master bedroom and he was dragging her by her hair." Again, how many times are we going to hear that this monster was dragging her by her hair? So she said that she saw Diddy then drag Cassie outside, throw her to the ground, and then he, and then she accidentally hit her head on a brick when she was thrown down. So again, she and Cassie fled the scene, this time on a golf cart, and they hid in a ditch while Diddy was searching for them. And apparently, this search went on for hours.

• 26:16Annie Elise?

  So after the Jamaica assault, she encouraged Cassie to go to the police, but Cassie told her that she couldn't because she was scared of what Diddy would do. And not only that, but what it would do to her career and her entire livelihood. And she specifically said to Carrie that she couldn't leave him because he controlled everything. And I don't know if that means that he controlled everything in her life, her money, her finances, her home, whatever it may be, or if she was referring to him controlling the industry as a whole, being a top dog, controlling the media, all these power players, things like that. So unclear on what control she meant when she umbrellaed everything in there, everything being the exact term.

• 27:00Annie Elise?

  Now unfortunately, their friendship of almost two decades ended in 2018. And this is because Diddy had personally assaulted Carrie. Now, the incident started by Diddy accusing Cassie of cheating. And at the time, Carrie didn't know anything about Cassie cheating, so she wasn't able to give him any information, though she later learned that she had in fact, yes, been cheating. So she says, quote, "He came up behind me and choked me, and he left finger marks on my neck, and he hit me in the head with a wooden hanger. Cassie was in the bathroom, and it hit me right behind my right ear." She also said that she had to go to the hospital for a concussion because of this, because she says that she was very dizzy and that she even threw up a few times.

• 27:44Annie Elise?

  She had intentions of filing a lawsuit against Diddy. She wasn't scared. He didn't control her. What did she care, right? But then, she decided to go ahead and sign an NDA and accept $30,000 from Diddy in exchange for her silence. She said that the last time that she spoke to Diddy was when that assault happened, and the last time that she saw Cassie was when she signed that NDA. She also said that the reason she ended her friendship with Cassie over this is because she and Cassie ended up meeting up at a pizzeria right around the time she signed the NDA. I don't know if it was the exact day or what, but that Cassie told her she was over-exaggerating. That's a direct quote. So because of that, they ended their 17-year-long friendship.

• 28:27Annie Elise?

  So then the court went on lunch break and the judge ruled that Carrie would be unable to testify about any comments that Cassie had made to her about not wanting to go to that hotel room with Diddy. And this is important because the prosecution was hoping to use this testimony to support their claims of Cassie not wanting to be included in the freak-offs because most of these were typically held in hotel settings. So if Carrie was able to testify saying she never wanted to go to a hotel room and Cassie told me all of this, then it would obviously directly tie back to the freak-offs saying that Cassie was not a willing participant. But ultimately, the judge ruled that Carrie would be unable to testify about any of those comments that Cassie made to her.

• 29:09Annie Elise?

  So Carrie said, in addition to all of this, when she took the stand again after lunch, that Cassie had said on multiple occasions that she was jealous of Diddy's ex, Kim Porter. And one of the things that I thought that was really interesting about this jealousy is she said that she was jealous because she, quote, "could never go to the New Year's Eve parties." Now, around this same time, she also testified that Diddy was very, very jealous of Michael B. Jordan. Michael B. Jordan is the actor, not to be confused with Michael Jordan, the basketball player. And, look, I'm just gonna say it, I saw the movie Sinners, guys, okay? I saw it. I would be jealous of Michael B. Jordan, too. He's hot. He's so hot. And so, anyway, Diddy was apparently very jealous of him.

• 29:53Annie Elise?

  And so, she's going on to kind of just describe what was this very toxic and tumultuous relationship that was filled with jealousy, that was violent on Diddy's end, and just all of the back and forth. So she officially went off the stand at the end of the day around 2:45 PM. And the next witness that was called to the stand was David James. And he's the former personal assistant of Diddy between the years 2007 and 2009. And David does not seem very excited at all to be testifying either, just like she said, you know, where she's like, "I don't even want to be here. The only reason I'm here is because I was subpoenaed." He too said that he was only doing it because he had been subpoenaed twice. Now, I don't know if that truly is because they just feel as though they have moved on with

• 30:38Annie Elise?

  their lives and they don't want to be involved in any of this, or if it's because they truly are scared of what will happen if they testify. And as this trial continues to, and don't worry, I'm not done, I still have a lot more to go over, but as it continues and more people are subpoenaed and called to testify, and I'm talking like, big, powerful players, of course, all of these people have the inside details, right? They were there, they witnessed it, but I'm wondering, like, where are the celeb, the big time A-list celebrities gonna come into play here? If you're subpoenaed, you either testify, or you plead the fifth. And it's gonna be interesting. So, my point in all of that is, I don't know if this former personal assistant says that he didn't want to testify and

• 31:19Annie Elise?

  only is because of the, being subpoenaed twice because he's scared, and he doesn't know what's going to happen, or if maybe he just doesn't want the drama of it all, and really has put this behind him, because he hasn't been employed, what, 2007 to 2009, so 16 years at this point, I could definitely understand, being like, "That was 16 years ago, I don't want any part of this", yet at the same time, me personally, I would feel a calling internally that I would need to testify, because this is such an important and pivotal trial out there. It's not only such a big moment in culture and could shift things in the Hollywood scene entirely, but also, anybody who was a victim

• 32:00Annie Elise?

  of Diddy's should definitely receive justice, and he should be held accountable. So I can understand where maybe you feel like you've put it behind you, and so you don't want to testify, but at the same time, I also think that you should, you should want to, because you should want justice. So anyway, he starts, he gets on the stand, but this is also towards end of day, because court ends around 3pm Eastern every day, and it's, so the day kind of wraps up with David briefly describing his role as a personal assistant for Diddy. He testified that there were times in the beginning where he would even work three weeks straight with zero days off, just because that's how demanding the job was. He also testified that he quickly learned to just

• 32:42Annie Elise?

  not ask too many questions. Diddy's security staff often also told him, or would gently remind him, that he needed to stay in his lane, and his exact quote on the stand was, "I knew not to mess with them. I knew to listen to them." So the jury was dismissed around 3:15 PM and David will continue his testimony tomorrow morning. Now, a couple thoughts, okay? And I want to just go back to Carrie really quick. While there is absolutely no shame in anybody signing an NDA or accepting a lump sum of money in exchange for silence, everybody's going to have their personal opinions on that, right?

• 33:22Annie Elise?

  But with somebody involved who has that much power, I certainly can understand the motivation. You're thinking, okay, am I either going to take this to court, risk my life, risk not being believed, risk this just evaporating and then being in danger? Or should I just take this money and call it what it is and just try to move forward with my life? But the fact that he put a $30,000 price tag on her silence feels very low for not only what she witnessed, but also what she experienced firsthand. And I mean, again, everybody's going to have their own opinions on that and that's a completely, it's completely, you know, I want to be careful with how I say this.

• 34:05Annie Elise?

  Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on accepting hush money. I don't think that any of us can judge unless we are personally in that situation. Look at Cassie herself. She settled out of court initially for $20 million, I think it was, right? So I understand fear being a very big motivator in that. And while it would be great to just live in a world where nobody has to be scared of retaliation, everybody's believed, the court system does its job, we know that that's not really the world that we live in, especially when there are really powerful people in play. So I understand why there were so many NDAs and hush money throughout. And I'm sure this is like only the very beginning of what we are going to hear about that, right?

• 34:50Annie Elise?

  So it's been a lot of information. And again, if you didn't hear some of the bigger details that Cassie shared, I did put that in my update last week. There, just to recap a few of them, I mean, they're very upsetting, but she, I already mentioned how she had said she got such frequent UTIs that she, medication was no longer working, that because of how much oral sex she was doing, performing, I should say, she developed mouth sores, that Diddy had this, we know he had this fetish with baby oil, right? They seized like a thousand bottles of it, but he also had this obsession with while people were having sex with each other, they needed to be glistening, sparkling. So in addition to all of this lube all over them all the time and more and more and more,

• 35:35Annie Elise?

  he also got off on urination. So he would have these male escorts pee on Cassie. At one point, he and the escort peed in her mouth simultaneously and she testified that it was so, like the volume of the liquid was so much that she started choking. And it seems like he just degraded her. And it was like she was a prop to him, a fetish toy for him and would bring these guys in and do these horrific things. And I mentioned too, she said that these freak offs would happen weekly and that they would last for two to three days at a time, which think about that, there's only seven days in a week, right? So if it's lasting 50% of the week, you're, it's like as soon as you finish

• 36:16Annie Elise?

  one, you only have a couple of days until you're right back in another one. And that not only would be emotionally and mentally draining and taxing, but physically taxing as well, right? Girls, you know what I'm talking about, right? It's, it would be exhausting. And not to, like, not to mention the days on end enough, but she said that in order to stay alert, stay awake and recover from these, that they often used MDMA, ecstasy, Molly, other drugs, ketamine, that they would have people come with IVs to treat them and give them hydration. I mean, All sorts of things to trick your body into staying awake and trying to stay well,

• 36:59Annie Elise?

  but even that wouldn't work because medication wasn't even working on her. And as I said in the beginning too, when Cross was going at her, trying to paint her as this like druggie, partier, complicit instigator, she did have drugs that were found on her for opioid dependency. Now, are those drugs that maybe she was taking recreationally outside of these freak-offs or just from the freak-offs? We don't know, but I think it does give a very clear illustration of to the dynamic and what was really going on and like the hell that this poor girl must have lived through. And so many others too, which I think again, we're just scratching the surface.

• 37:40Annie Elise?

  Cassie, it's my opinion, the reason that Cassie was up first, not only is because her testimony was of course so important and so powerful, but also because she is going to be giving birth like any week now. So I'm sure that they wanted to just like make sure that they got it out of the way, got it on record, let her, you know, allow her to go deliver safely and not have to worry about any hiccups in between. So at least she's done with it, which is great, but this trial is expected to go eight weeks and we are only at the top of week two, which means we are going to hear a lot more. I've also seen a lot of videos resurface over the last week from award shows, different times when Cassie is with him on the red carpet. And there's the little things that you can see in the behavior where she's talking and

• 38:25Annie Elise?

  he like yanks her in real close or he gives her this like glaring look and it's almost like you now seeing it in hindsight, to me, it like gives me the chills. And another person that I don't know if they're on the witness list, I haven't been able to verify one way or another, but I would imagine that they are, is Justin Bieber. What's going to happen if Bieber testifies? If he's been subpoenaed, will he plead the fifth because he wants to protect his own integrity and his own self-respect because of the allegations and speculation of what he experienced firsthand? Is Meek Mill going to testify? Jay-Z? Beyonce? J-Lo? I mean, I don't know. I don't even know what to expect.

• 39:07Annie Elise?

  Everybody's expressing frustration too that this trial is not being livestreamed, but it is because it's federal. So usually federal trials, they don't allow cameras in court. They don't allow devices in court unless you're pressed. They don't allow a lot of things. Sometimes even you can't even bring devices. Even if you are pressed, you have to have a notepad and a pen. So it's going to be a very, very controlled trial, but we'll see what happens. It's going to be interesting. That's also why you see so many sketch artists because again, you can't be taking photos in there. So that's why I'm doing these updates too, and why they are outside of the normal release schedule because we're following it daily and keeping a running list of everything that's going on. And I'm just going to start putting them out. I don't know if I can 100%

• 39:51Annie Elise?

  commit to daily. That might be a little bit of a stretch, but certainly a couple of times a week. So as I mentioned, make sure you're following the podcast if you're not yet so that you don't miss them as I put them out. And I'm going to try to keep all of these updates to a highlight reel. I'm not going to just go through all the nitty and gritty, you know, what happened here, what happened there, but really keep it to the highlights of what we learned and what I feel like is the need to know, not just the nice to know. But if you want them to go more in depth, certainly let me know, but I want it to be something that is digestible for you. So let me know your feedback either on the Spotify Q and A section or the Apple review section. Let me know if you find these updates helpful. And if you do, we will keep them coming. All right. Thank you guys so much for tuning into another episode of Serialistly. I will be back with you probably

• 40:35Annie Elise?

  tomorrow. So I'll be back with you very soon. Other than that, I'm going to be in the courtroom for the Karen Reed trial this week. So I will keep you updated on that as well. Not only what happens this week, but what the jury's reactions are looking like, how the vibes are in the courtroom, all of it. So you can of course, not only listen to the recaps here or check out my YouTube, but I also will be posting all about that on my Instagram, which is at underscore Annie E. Lee's. Just a faster way for me to give you updates. All right, guys. Thanks again. Sorry for the long winded outro and I will be seeing you and you will be seeing me in my hotel room again, probably very, very soon. All right. Take care. Bye.

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