Singer Dawn Richard says Sean 'Diddy' Combs threatened her with death after she saw him beat Cassie

NEW YORK (AP) — Singer Dawn Richard told jurors at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex trafficking trial on Monday that the hip-hop mogul threatened to kill her if she told anyone she saw him physically abusing his longtime girlfriend.

Richard testified that Combs made the threat the day after she witnessed the Bad Boy Records founder punch and kick Casandra “Cassie” Ventura after taking a swing at her with a skillet. Richard said he told her and another woman who saw the attack that “we could go missing” if they didn't stay quiet.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitzi Steiner asked Richard what she took “we could go missing” to mean.

“That we could die,” Richard responded, saying she was shocked because all of this happened just as she was beginning to record with Diddy — Dirty Money, a musical trio with Combs and another R&B singer.

Richard disclosed the alleged threat as she returned to the witness stand to kick off the second week of testimony in Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering trial in Manhattan federal court.

Combs, 55, is accused of exploiting his entertainment powerbroker status to abuse women, including Cassie, through threats and violence for two decades from 2004 until his arrest last September. He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers argue that prosecutors compiled proof of domestic violence, but not the federal crimes he's charged with.

Before day's end, Cassie's best friend of 17 years and a former personal assistant to Combs testified that she felt trapped as prosecutors tried to uncover proof that Combs was operating a criminal racketeering organization that relied on employees to help him control Cassie and other women in his life.

Testimony about Combs' beatings of Cassie came with hardly a mention of the drug-fueled “freak-offs” that dominated testimony last week, when Cassie explained over four days how her wish for a loving relationship with Combs led instead to her weekly sexual performances with male sex workers that left her too exhausted to pursue her musical career.

Richard, who began her testimony Friday and concluded Monday, said she witnessed Combs attack Cassie multiple times, including during a visit to Combs’ home recording studio in 2009, when Richard said she and another woman saw Combs hit Cassie “on the head and beat her on the ground” after Cassie deflected a swipe at her head by a skillet.

Richard said she witnessed Combs beat his girlfriend frequently when he “would punch her, choke her, drag her, slap her in the mouth. I saw him kick her, punch her in the stomach.”

Beatings came when Cassie spoke up for herself, “if she had an opinion about something,” said Richard, who also performed in the group Danity Kane.

She said Combs’ staff, including his bodyguards, also witnessed violence, but they “wouldn’t react. They wouldn’t do anything.”

Richard supported Cassie’s testimony that Combs had stifled Cassie’s fledgling singing career, saying she heard Combs tell Cassie that he “owned her” and that any success she had would be on his terms.

Richard said Combs would get mad — sometimes violent — when she and other artists offered to help Cassie write songs.

Defense lawyer Nicole Westmoreland suggested Richard was testifying because she was angry at Combs for ending Danity Kane and Diddy — Dirty Money, and because she has a pending lawsuit against him.

“You felt that Mr. Combs ruined your career not once, but twice?” Westmoreland asked.

“Yes,” Richard answered.

She contended, though, that she was sad, not angry, over the end of the groups, and is suing Combs because he mistreated her and withheld her earnings.

Bad Boy signed Cassie to a 10-album deal in 2006, but only released one — the self-titled “Cassie,” which came out the same year. Cassie and Combs started dating in 2007 and broke up for good in 2018.

After Richard came testimony from Kerry Morgan. She said she was Cassie's longtime best friend until they had a falling out after Morgan suffered a concussion when Combs' choked Morgan and slung a wooden hanger at her in 2018 when he came to Cassie's Los Angeles home enraged that Cassie was dating someone else.

Morgan said she was going to sue Combs, but Cassie met her at a pizza parlor and had her sign a nondisclosure agreement in return for $30,000 from Combs while accusing her of “milking” and “overexaggerating” the attack. Morgan and Cassie both testified that they haven't spoken since.

Morgan, a reluctant witness who acknowledged that she only testified in response to a government subpoena, said she saw Combs beat Cassie at least twice, including once so severely on a trip to Jamaica when Combs became angry that Cassie was taking too long in the bathroom that she thought her friend had been “knocked out.”

She said she encouraged Cassie to break up with him after realizing that the very confident woman she had met in 2001 during modeling gigs and who roomed with her for a time had “lost her spark” and had assumed a slumped posture as she catered to Combs' needs. But she said Cassie was reluctant to leave Combs.

“He controlled everything. She would’ve lost all of her livelihood,” Morgan said, noting that Combs paid for Cassie's car and apartment, and had her under contract with Bad Boy.

Cassie testified last week that although she continued to go to the recording studio and work on songs, Combs refused to release them.

“He was in charge of her career,” Morgan testified, adding that Cassie sometimes expressed frustration that her music wasn't being released.

David James, who served as Combs’ personal assistant from 2007 to 2009, started crying as he testified that, when he interviewed for the job, one of the hip-hop heavyweight’s lieutenants pointed to a photo of Combs on the wall and told him: “This is Mr. Combs’ kingdom. We’re all here to serve him.”

James’ employment coincided with the early days of Combs and Cassie’s relationship. He recalled her being astonished — and perhaps overwhelmed — by Combs' high-flying, globetrotting ways.

“Man, this lifestyle is crazy,” he recalled Cassie saying as they smoked cigarettes on a dock with her then-best friend Morgan.

James, who will return to the stand Tuesday, said he suggested Cassie leave Combs if she was uncomfortable, to which he said she replied: “I can’t. I can’t get out. You know, Mr. Combs oversees so much of my life.”

James recalled talking to Combs on another occasion about the women in his life. Combs, he said, described his longtime girlfriend Kim Porter, the mother of some of his children, as “my queen.”

When the subject turned to Cassie, James testified that Combs told him: “She’s good. I got her right where I want her. She’s young.”

James recalled Combs describing Cassie as “very moldable.”

Witness Kerry Morgan arrives at Federal Court for teh Sean "Diddy" Combs trial, on Monday, May 19, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

Witness Kerry Morgan arrives at Federal Court for the Sean "Diddy" Combs trial on Monday, May 19, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

CORRECTS NAME SPELLING: Witness Dawn Richard testifies in Manhattan federal court during the sex trafficking and racketeering trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs, Monday, May 19, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

Sean Diddy'Combs, far left, and attorney Marc Agnifilo, right, sit at the defense table during witness testimony in Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, May 13, 2025, in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

Defense attorney Teny Geragos, center, exits court during the Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking trial, Tuesday, May 13, 2025. (AP Photo/Ted Shaffrey)

FILE - Cassie Ventura, left, and Sean "Diddy" Combs appear at The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute benefit gala celebrating "China: Through the Looking Glass" in New York on May 4, 2015. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Dawn Richard arrives at the 66th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

RHO, Italy (AP) — No ice is colder and harder than speedskating ice. The precision it takes has meant that Olympic speedskaters have never competed for gold on a temporary indoor rink – until the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.

In the pursuit of maximum glide and minimum friction, Olympic officials brought on ice master Mark Messer, a veteran of six previous Olympic speedskating tracks and the ice technician in charge of the Olympic Oval in Calgary, Canada — one of the fastest tracks in the world with over 300 records.

Messer has been putting that experience to work one thin layer of ice at a time since the end of October at the new Speed Skating Stadium, built inside adjacent trade fair halls in the city of Rho just north of Milan.

“It’s one of the biggest challenges I’ve had in icemaking,’’ Messer said during an interview less than two weeks into the process.

If Goldilocks were a speedskater, hockey ice would be medium hard, for fast puck movement and sharp turns. Figure skating ice would be softer, allowing push off for jumps and so the ice doesn’t shatter on landing. Curling ice is the softest and warmest of all, for controlled sliding.

For speedskating ice to be just right, it must be hard, cold and clean. And very, very smooth.

“The blades are so sharp, that if there is some dirt, the blade will lose the edge,’’ Messer said, and the skater will lose speed.

Speedskater Enrico Fabris, who won two Olympic golds in Turin in 2006, has traded in his skates to be deputy sports manager at the speedskating venue in Rho. For him, perfect ice means the conditions are the same for all skaters — and then if it's fast ice, so much the better.

"It's more of a pleasure to skate on this ice,'' he said.

Messer’s first Olympics were in Calgary in 1988 — the first time speedskating was held indoors. “That gave us some advantages because we didn’t have to worry about the weather, wind blowing or rain,’’ he said. Now he is upping the challenge by becoming the first ice master to build a temporary rink for the Olympics.

Before Messer arrived in Italy, workers spent weeks setting up insulation to level the floor and then a network of pipes and rubber tubes that carry glycol — an antifreeze — that is brought down to minus 7 or minus 8 degrees Celsius (17.6 to 19.4 degrees Fahrenheit) to make the ice.

Water is run through a purification system — but it can’t be too pure, or the ice that forms will be too brittle. Just the right amount of impurities “holds the ice together,’’ Messer said.

The first layers of water are applied slowly, with a spray nozzle; after the ice reaches a few centimeters it is painted white — a full day’s work — and the stripes are added to make lanes.

“The first one takes about 45 minutes. And then as soon as it freezes, we go back and do it again, and again and again. So we do it hundreds of times,’’ Messer said.

As the ice gets thicker, and is more stable, workers apply subsequent layers of water with hoses. Messer attaches his hose to hockey sticks for easier spreading.

What must absolutely be avoided is dirt, dust or frost — all of which can cause friction for the skaters, slowing them down. The goal is that when the skaters push “they can go as far as possible with the least amount of effort,’’ Messer said.

The Zamboni ice resurfacing machine plays a key role in keeping the track clean, cutting off a layer and spraying water to make a new surface.

One challenge is gauging how quickly the water from the resurfacing machine freezes in the temporary rink.

Another is getting the ice to the right thickness so that the Zamboni, weighing in at six tons, doesn’t shift the insulation, rubber tubing or ice itself.

“When you drive that out, if there’s anything moving it will move. We don’t want that,’’ Messer said.

The rink got its first big test on Nov. 29-30 during a Junior World Cup event. In a permanent rink, test events are usually held a year before the Olympics, leaving more time for adjustments. “We have a very small window to learn,’’ Messer acknowledged.

Dutch speedskater Kayo Vos, who won the men’s neo-senior 1,000 meters, said the ice was a little soft — but Messer didn’t seem too concerned.

“We went very modest to start, now we can start to change the temperatures and try to make it faster and still maintain it as a safe ice,’’ he said.

Fine-tuning the air temperature and humidity and ice temperature must be done methodically — taking into account that there will be 6,000 spectators in the venue for each event. The next real test will be on Jan. 31, when the Olympians take to the ice for their first training session.

“Eighty percent of the work is done but the hardest part is the last 20 percent, where we have to try to find the values and the way of running the equipment so all the skaters get the same conditions and all the skaters get the best conditions,’’ Messer said.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Serpentines are set on the ice of the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Workers clean the ice surface during a peed skating Junior World Cup and Olympic test event, in Rho, near Milan, Italy, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Ice Master Mark Messer poses in the stadium where speed skating discipline of the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will take place, in Rho, outskirt of Milan, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)