A woman who alleges Sean “Diddy” Combs dangled her over the 17th floor balcony of Casandra “Cassie” Ventura’s high-rise apartment took the witness stand Wednesday and told jurors Combs also threatened her once on a beach, proclaiming, “I’m the devil, and I could kill you.”
In chilling testimony, Bryana “Bana” Bongolan recalled the night in September 2016 when Combs allegedly cornered her on Ventura’s balcony in Los Angeles, lifted her up, and “held” her over the edge as she feared for her life. She said Combs was irate, yelling at her, “Do you know what the fuck you did?” As she desperately tried to hold on and not slip to her death, she told Combs she had no idea what he was talking about, she recalled. After about 15 seconds, Combs finally relented and “threw” her into some nearby patio furniture, she testified. She said the alleged assault left her with bruising, back and neck pain, and deep emotional distress.
“I have night terrors and paranoia and scream in my sleep,” she told jurors Wednesday at the mogul’s sex trafficking and racketeering trial in New York.
Appearing nervous, Bongolan spoke softly and haltingly as she recalled meeting Ventura while working at the streetwear company Diamond Supply Co. around 2015. The fashion designer and creative consultant said she “wasn’t really fond of” what she was seeing in terms of her new friend’s relationship with Combs. She said Ventura would appear distressed while speaking to Combs by phone.
One time, Ventura called her on FaceTime while getting ready for the premiere of her movie The Perfect Match in March 2016, Bongolan said. It was a couple days after Combs allegedly punched Ventura in the face at the InterContinental Hotel and then kicked and dragged her in the hotel’s hallway in an assault caught on surveillance video. Bongolan said Ventura panned the camera from side to side, clearly displaying a black eye.
“I remember saying, ‘I’m sorry,’” Bongolan recalled. Ventura, she said, was quiet.
Bongolan also recalled another night when she was staying at Ventura’s apartment and Combs allegedly started banging on the door. She recalled seeing Combs throw a knife at Ventura, with Ventura chucking it back. Bongolan said that she didn’t call police. “I was scared of Puff,” she said.
Love Music?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in Australian/New Zealand music and globally.
Bongolan also recalled the sinister threat Combs allegedly delivered just inches from her face on a beach in Malibu in April 2016. She had no idea what prompted Combs to call himself “the devil” and threaten her life, she testified.
Before her testimony started, Bongolan invoked her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, leading U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian to sign an immunity order. It wasn’t immediately clear why she might need the protection, but Bongolan later testified that she frequently did drugs with Ventura, supplying her with prescription pills, cocaine and ketamine.
Under cross-examination, Bongolan said she agreed that she and Ventura shared a serious “drug problem” during the height of their friendship, frequently doing marijuana, cocaine and ketamine together. She recalled once getting Ventura “hundreds” of pills, saying the quantity scared her.
Combs’ defense lawyer Nicole Westmoreland later tried to poke holes in Bongolan’s recollection of events. She claimed Bongolan’s initial lawyer sent a demand letter to Combs that claimed the mogul uttered “I could kill you” during the purported balcony attack. Bongolan said the two incidents were separate, so the letter did not reflect her account. She said she switched lawyers after that.
Westmoreland also suggested Bongolan failed to mention the “I could kill you” line during her first meeting with prosecutors. Bongolan said she didn’t remember what she told investigators. Grilled over specific details of the alleged balcony incident, Bongolan said “I don’t remember” multiple times.
Bongolan repeatedly said she couldn’t remember or didn’t know about specifics of certain events that Westmoreland questioned her on. At the close of Wednesday, a seemingly exasperated Westmoreland asked the fashion designer to think back to what she might have told prosecutors in an interview just two days ago. Bongolan said she couldn’t recall.
Bongolan was one of Ventura’s close friends while the R&B singer was dating Combs in the latter half of the couple’s turbulent relationship. In a $10 million lawsuit filed last November, Bongolan said the “outrageous” balcony incident left her deeply traumatized.
“The only purpose of dangling someone over a balcony is to actually kill them or to intentionally terrorize them and rob them of any concept of dominion over their own bodily autonomy and safety,” the complaint filed in Los Angeles said.
In the 17-page filing obtained by Rolling Stone, Bongolan said she and her girlfriend were asleep at Ventura’s apartment on September 26, 2016, when Combs showed up unannounced and started banging on the door. Bongolan said she asked her girlfriend to hide in the guest bathroom and lock the door.
As soon as Combs gained entry into the apartment, he allegedly grabbed Bongolan on the balcony, turned her back to his chest and groped her breasts as she yelled at him to leave her alone, the lawsuit said. Bongolan claimed Combs lifted her onto the balcony banister while yelling incoherently, “Do you know what the fuck you did?” Standing barely 5 feet tall, Bongolan said she was no match for the music mogul.
“He immediately lifted her up higher and over the 17th floor balcony of Ms. Ventura’s apartment with only Combs’ grip keeping her from falling to her death,” the lawsuit said. Bongolan said Ventura eventually emerged from her bedroom and yelled at Combs to stop, informing him that Bongolan’s girlfriend was in the apartment as well.
“Ostensibly recognizing the threat of so many witnesses to his assault, [Combs] pulled Ms. Bongolan back from over the balcony,” the complaint said. At that point, Combs allegedly “slammed” Bongolan onto the patio furniture, including a table.
“Mr. Combs firmly denies these serious allegations and remains confident they will ultimately be proven baseless,” a legal representative for Combs said in a statement sent to Rolling Stone when the lawsuit was first filed last year.
The alleged balcony incident was initially revealed in Ventura’s blockbuster sex trafficking lawsuit filed against Combs in November 2023. Bongolan was not identified by name in the complaint, and Ventura reached a private settlement with Combs a day later.
Bongolan also was mentioned, though not by name, in Combs’ superseding indictment as well as prosecutors’ opening statement. Prosecutors allege Combs used violence and threats of violence as a means of promoting and protecting the alleged criminal enterprise at the center of the government’s racketeering charge against him.
Combs, 55, was arrested in September and has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy, the sex trafficking of multiple women, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Authorities allege he paid dozens of male escorts to have coerced sex with his alleged victims. If convicted as charged, Combs could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Bongolan said Combs FaceTimed her a day or two after the balcony incident but was quiet and evasive. She didn’t report the incident to police because she was scared, she said. “I told him I don’t want any problems,” she said.
She said the last time she saw Combs was in January 2018. She recalled visiting his penthouse suite at the One Hotel in Miami with Ventura for a New Year’s celebration and did ketamine with the couple for eight hours. She said after that experience, she decided to get sober and got a tattoo commemorating the date.
Bongolan said her contact with Ventura turned “sporadic” after that, but they remained friends. She said music producer Rob Holladay called her from Combs’ residence in 2024, after Ventura’s lawsuit was filed, and claimed he was authorized to talk about a settlement. The matter didn’t settle, and she went on to file her lawsuit. She reportedly told jurors that she filed the lawsuit “to seek justice for what happened to me.”
On Wednesday morning, a forensic video expert told jurors that the infamous hotel surveillance video showing Combs slamming Ventura to the ground and kicking and dragging her in the hallway of the InterContinental Hotel in 2016 was not manually doctored. Expert Frank Piazza said the video material he received from prosecutors faithfully represented what happened that day. He said an automated conversion process sped up some of the action slightly, but he was able to correct it. He said the motion-activated surveillance system at the hotel also created some pixilation and time stamp issues.
The video compilation also showed the end of the encounter for the first time. In the new footage, a still towel-clad Combs was seen leaving his hotel suite, apparently checking if Ventura was still near the elevator banks. He then turned back around and immediately placed a phone call.
Prosecutors also unveiled a series of text messages extracted from Combs’ phone showing communication with his security member D-Roc in September 2015. The chain of messages appeared to show Combs dispatching D-Roc to monitor Ventura. “It’s time for the ice,” Combs texted in one. “Stay on top of Cassie Does the eye look any better? … Why does she not have herself in hiding?”
In related testimony Tuesday, hotel security guard Eddy Garcia told jurors that Combs and his chief of staff, Kristina Khorram, pushed him hard to erase the video from the hotel’s computer system and hand over the only copy on a thumb drive. Garcia said Combs paid $100,000 in cash and had him sign a confidentiality agreement with a $1 million penalty if he violated it.
From Rolling Stone US
