Ex-assistant Capricorn Clark testifies at Sean 'Diddy' Combs' racketeering trial that he threatened to kill her, made her to get drugs for him

For Capricorn Clark, the death threats from her boss Sean "Diddy" Combs started on her first day on the job, she told a Manhattan federal jury on Tuesday.

The former global brand director for Combs' worldwide music, clothing and liquor empire took the stand in the racketeering and sex trafficking case against him and told the court about years of grueling 19-hour days, her alleged armed kidnapping and ultimately being "blacklisted" from the entertainment industry after more than a decade of on-and-off service to the rap entrepreneur.

As part of the racketeering charge against Combs, federal prosecutors charge that the underlying predicate acts include conspiracy, kidnapping, arson and forced labor.

Clark’s testimony touched on each of these crimes, which the U.S. Attorney’s office must prove to jurors to land a conviction.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His attorneys have acknowledged that their client was a difficult boss who had a series of toxic romantic relationships that spilled over into violence, but taken together, his behavior was that of a man with serious drug dependency, not the kingpin of a criminal enterprise.

Clark, who began working with the Bad Boy Records founder in 2004, said that she sacrificed a normal 9-to-5 career, relationships and family life to protect Combs, "the name and likeness."

She had worked at pioneering rap label Def Jam and interned at Death Row Records for Combs' rival Suge Knight before she landed the personal assistant role at Bad Boy, a fact she hadn’t told her new boss.

Apparently, Combs found out about her work with Knight after she was hired and took her for a walk her first day on the job through Central Park with his bodyguard, Paul Offord, whom she described as "quite stoic, a bit menacing" and "physically he looks like a linebacker."

As they walked through the park, Combs explained to her that he hadn’t been aware of her work with Knight.

“He told me he didn't know that I had anything to do with Suge Knight, and if anything happened, he would have to kill me," she said.

Like two other personal assistants who testified earlier, Clark said she procured ecstasy and cocaine for Combs, a difficult thing for her, she said, after her mother’s cocaine-related death.

She also set up hotel rooms before his marathon sex binges, which he called "freak-offs." Much of the testimony in the last two weeks has focused on Combs' unusual sexual habits with his ex-girlfriend, Casandra Ventura, a pop singer who performed under the name Cassie. He would hire male escorts to have sex with Ventura for days on end, sometimes trashing hotel rooms in the process.

Clark said she earned $65,000 a year and worked from 9 a.m. to 4 a.m. the next day — so many hours that she often got by on two to four hours of sleep.

The company’s human resources department calculated $80,000 in overtime pay that Combs owed her for the extra hours she worked, but he tore up the payroll sheet, she told the jury.

Once, when jewelry on loan to Combs went missing, Clark said that she was locked into a derelict office building every workday for eight hours for a week to undergo polygraph tests regarding the missing jewels.

The man giving her the lie detector test, whom she described as being the size of two linebackers, told her, "If you fail this test, they’re going to throw you in the East River."

Clark moved up the ladder at Combs’ organization, becoming global brand director in 2008, but she said that did not shield her from his relationship drama or more threats.

Last week, the jury heard testimony from rapper Kid Cudi, the stage name of Scott Mescudi, whose home Combs broke into after discovering he was dating Ventura.

In December 2011, Clark said she was awakened one morning to Combs holding a gun outside her door. He demanded that she get dressed and come with him to Cudi’s house, which she described as a kidnapping.

She said that Combs and his bodyguard went into Cudi’s house and then chased after his Porsche when he drove by.

After the police responded, Combs told her that she had to lie to them.

"You need to convince the police that it wasn’t me," Combs said, Clark told the jury. "If you don’t convince them, I’ll kill all you all ..."

Clark said that she covered for Combs and refused to speak to arson investigators after Cudi’s car was firebombed.

Eventually, she was fired in 2018 as his relationship with Ventura finally ended.

She said that Combs told her, when he was dismissing her, "that I would never work again. That he would show that all these people weren’t my friends. That he would make me kill myself."

During cross-examination, defense attorney Marc Agnifilo suggested that she was motivated by bitterness over being let go. He showed letters and emails from Clark asking for Combs' forgiveness and asking to come back to work.

She became emotional, saying that she wrote those letters to regain her career and provide for her family.

"This is my whole life," she said, weeping. "I don’t have my parents. My son has autism, he’s nonverbal. My stakes are higher, sir."