Rapper Kid Cudi has taken the stand at Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ sex-trafficking trial – but only after lawyers had a bizarre argument over his dog.
Cudi, real name Scott Mescudi, gave evidence about a break in at his home and his car being blown up.
Mescudi testified that the break-in occurred after Combs found out he was seeing his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura.
It included detail of the state he found his home and his dog in, with Mescudi telling the court the animal, ‘acted differently and was traumatized’ after the December 2011 incident.
However, Combs’ defense sought to limit his testimony about the alleged impact on the animal, as they were worried it could be ‘prejudicial’ to the trial.
Combs was filmed beating up Ventura in a hotel corridor and is standing trial over claims he sex trafficked her and a second woman. He denies the allegations.
Ventura previously testified that Combs had threatened to blow up Mescudi’s car after learning of their affair shortly before the vehicle exploded and the rapper expanded on the incident during his testimony.
Laughter rang out inside a Manhattan federal court Wednesday after Judge Arun Subramanian said that Mescudi is ‘not going to testify what the dog thought.’
Chuckles also echoed through the courtroom each time lawyers or the judge mentioned the dog afterward, including when the judge said ‘I agree it’s a serious issue’ and when Assistant US Attorney Emily Johnson noted that ‘unfortunately the dog is no longer with us’.
The serious legal point that inspired the discussion was whether claims that the dog wasn’t the same after the break-in are prejudicial and should be excluded from testimony.
However, on the stand Mescudi was allowed to discuss how he felt his dog had been impacted, saying he was ‘very jittery and kind of on edge all the time’ in the immediate aftermath.
After taking the stand, he discussed how his romance with Ventura sent the Combs into a rage.
‘I got a call from Cassie 5.30, 6am,’ he told the court. ‘She told me that Sean Combs had found out about us. I was really confused.Â
‘She asked me to pick her up. She sounded really dressed, nervous, scared so I went to pick her up.’
He claimed that Combs’ assistant tipped him off that the music mogul had been to his home.
‘(She said) that Sean Combs and affiliates were in my house and she was in her car,’ Mescudi testified. ‘She was forced to go along with them over there.’
He said he then drove to his home and called Combs on the way.
‘I’m going to be very candid. I said motherf***er you in my house,’ he told the court.
‘He’s like, “what’s up”? I said “motherf****er you in my house?’
He claimed that when he arrived at his residence he found things were out of place.
‘Some gifts I’d bought for my family were opened,’ Mescudi told the court.
‘Some stuff I got from Chanel. My dog was locked up in my bathroom. Gifts were on the kitchen counter.’
Mescudi also discussed his Porsche being set alight in January 2012.
 He received a call from his dog sitter informing him the vehicle was on fire on his driveway, the court heard.
‘Looks like the top of my Porsche was cut open, that’s where they inserted the molotov cocktail,’ Mescudi said of one of the images shown to the jury.
Another image showed what appeared to be the molotov cocktail used in the arson.
His testimony echoes claims made by Ventura in court and her civil lawsuit which she settled before Combs’ criminal trial began.
Ventura claimed that after finding out about her affair with Mescudi, Combs placed a manual corkscrew in between his fingers and lunged at her.
She claimed the accused music mogul told her Mescudi’s car and that he wanted to make sure he was home with his friends when it happened.
‘Around that time, Kid Cudi’s car exploded in his driveway,’ the lawsuit stated of the alleged incident in 2012.
‘Ms. Ventura was terrified, as she began to fully comprehend what Mr. Combs was both willing and able to do to those he believed had slighted him.’
