A witness testified on Wednesday about Sean “Diddy” Combs dangling her from a balcony in 2016.
NBC reported that Bryana Bongolan, a friend of Combs’ ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, was given immunity for her testimony. Bongolan stated that Ventura did not witness an incident where Combs allegedly held Bongolan over a 17th-floor balcony and made threatening remarks.
Bongolan mentioned that she was unsure of what Combs meant by his statements during the incident, where he held her over the balcony for a brief period before throwing her onto balcony furniture. She testified that the ordeal lasted approximately 10 to 15 seconds.
“Cassie was in her bedroom but she came out. I heard her voice, her tone was in disbelief,” Bongolan said, according to NBC.
After the incident, Bongolan attempted to communicate with Combs via FaceTime, but their conversation was limited. Subsequently, she filed a lawsuit against him, seeking $10 million in damages for the events that occurred in 2016.
Bongolan also recalled an instance in which Combs allegedly took cocaine and told her, “I am the devil and I can kill you.”
The 2016 incident Bongolan testified about was also mentioned in Ventura’s November 2023 lawsuit against Combs. However, Ventura’s lawsuit did not name the woman who Combs allegedly held over the balcony.
Combs was arrested on September 16, 2024, outside a Manhattan hotel on federal charges of racketeering, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Combs has been denied bail three times, as Judge Andrew L. Carter determined there was a “serious risk” of witness tampering in this case.
Federal authorities raided Combs’ homes in Holmby Hills, California, and Miami in March 2024. Reports indicated that the raids were connected to an ongoing sex trafficking investigation that resulted in his arrest months later.
The raids also occurred four months after Ventura accused him of sex trafficking and abuse. In a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, she alleged that Combs drugged her and forced her to have sex with other men. The pair settled the lawsuit a day after its filing.
However, in May 2024, CNN publicized hotel surveillance footage allegedly showing Combs assaulting Ventura. After the video was released, Combs released a video expressing remorse for his behavior.
Two more accusers came forward a week after Ventura’s lawsuit. One of the women claimed Combs drugged and raped her at Syracuse University in New York in 1991. Combs denied those allegations before a third accuser, Liza Gardner, levied similar allegations against him.
Days after footage of the Ventura assault was publicized, two more women filed lawsuits against Combs. One of those women was April Lampros, a New York Fashion Institute of Technology student who reportedly met Combs in 1994. Lampros accused Combs of sexually assaulting her on four occasions between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s.
Combs has been accused of committing or facilitating sexual abuse in at least 30 other lawsuits — including one, filed in October, which alleges he and Jay-Z raped a 13-year-old girl in New York in 2000. The accuser in that case had her lawsuit dismissed in February.
Combs turned down a plea deal days before jury selection began. His trial is expected to last two months.
[Feature Photo: Mark Von Holden/Invision/AP, File]
