Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial updates: Court is adjourned until Tuesday

“He pushed me to depths I didn’t know I had,” George Kaplan, Sean Combs' former employee, said of Combs on cross-examination.

Recalling his time as Combs’ personal assistant for a 15-month period between 2013 and 2015, Kaplan said “I’m a young man. This is a god among men.”

When defense attorney Marc Agnifilo asked if he still remembered Combs’ birthday, Kaplan immediately responded, “November 4”.

Kaplan said it had occurred to him that had he still been employed by Combs Enterprises he would not have had to work yesterday because it was “Biggie’s birthday,” referring to the influential late rapper The Notorious B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls, who was the first artist to sign with Combs' Bad Boy Records label.

At Combs Enterprises, Smalls' May 21 birthday is a paid company holiday.

When Kaplan left Combs' employ due to what he testified was the violence he kept witnessing and “fixing” for Combs, he told the jury, “My friends told me this was my Harvard and I was blowing it.”

Asked about the alleged incident of violence against Cassie Ventura, about which Kaplan testified earlier in the morning, Kaplan told the court under cross-examination that he did not recall seeing physical injuries on Cassie Ventura but that he heard a glass breaking and saw that Combs “was holding one.”

Kaplan also testified on cross-examination that he did not trust hotel housekeeping staff to clean up after Combs because he feared they were looking for a “payday.”

The defense showed the court a note they said that Kaplan sent to Combs after his wife Kim Porter’s death, which Kaplan testified he sent “because I was heartbroken for him.” Kaplan also testified that he has respect for Combs but the violence he witnessed “shook me tremendously.”

On re-direct, Kaplan testified that even though he saw no physical injuries to Cassie Ventura during the alleged plane incident, “In my heart of hearts I knew what was happening and I felt an element of guilt that I didn’t do anything to stop it.”

Kaplan’s testimony has concluded. Scott Mescudi, aka rapper Kid Cudi, is now on the witness stand, clad in a black-leather jacket, white shirt and jeans.

George Kaplan testified that he witnessed at least three alleged instances of violence during the time he served as a personal assistant to Sean Combs.

Kaplan testified that in one alleged instance, he recalled glass shattering on a private plane traveling to Las Vegas and seeing Combs holding a whiskey glass over his head and Cassie Ventura on the floor of the plane, holding her hands in front of her face.

In a second alleged incident, Kaplan testified that he was summoned to Combs’ bedroom where, he told the court, he saw Ventura “crying on the bed with her head in her hands.” Kaplan testified that she was “clearly upset” and “it was clear there was bruising” on her face.

Kaplan testified Combs sent him to a pharmacy to buy lotion and witch hazel, which he told the court he understood were to be mixed “to act as an anti-swelling agent.”

In what Kaplan testified was “the last straw for me,” he told the court that in the fall of 2015 he saw a “very angry” Combs “throwing these green apples that lived in a decorative vessel” in the entryway of his Miami home. The apples were allegedly aimed “at another girlfriend” of Combs' who, Kaplan told the court, was “trying to shield herself with her arms.”

Kaplan testified that he never attempted to intervene in these alleged instances because it was not his place to do so. He described himself as “a young kid really trying to make it in the entertainment industry; this was my first professional endeavor," telling the court "I thought for a second this might be normal.”

The same night as the alleged apple-throwing incident, Kaplan testified that Combs summoned him to bring him what Kaplan described as Combs' medicine bag.

“There was definitely some tension” in the room, Kaplan testified, telling the court that the woman at whom Combs allegedly threw the apples "was standing in the corner on the other side very far away.” Later, Kaplan testified he heard the woman's voice and “a lot of commotion” near the front gate involving men that he told the court he assumed to be Combs’ security guards.

Kaplan testified that he left the company a short time later.

“I was not comfortable being aligned with the physical behavior I had seen pieces of during the course of the months,” Kaplan told the court. “Being a party to that kind of stuff.”

On cross-examination, Kaplan testified that he kept in touch with Combs after leaving his employ because he liked him.

George Kaplan returned to the witness stand Thursday at the sex trafficking and racketeering trial of Sean Combs.

Kaplan, who was Combs’ personal assistant for a 15-month period, testified Wednesday that he was responsible for stocking hotel rooms in which Combs stayed with baby oil, personal lubricant and other items prosecutors said were used for sex encounters known as "freak offs."

Kaplan also testified that he “tidied” the rooms after the alleged "freak offs" to make them appear “as close as I could to look like it was the way that it was found when he came in.”

Asked why he tidied the rooms instead of leaving the task for the the hotel staff, Kaplan testified, “I think that it was implied in the role, as you continue to work closely with Mr. Combs, that protecting him and protecting his public knowledge were really important, and that was certainly nothing that I was very keen on doing.”

Once Kaplan concludes his testimony, Scott Mescudi, the rapper better known as Kid Cudi, is expected to testify about an alleged meeting he and Cassie Ventura brokered with Sean Combs at the SoHo House social club in January 2012, shortly after, according to prosecutors, “there was a Molotov cocktail in his car,” referring to Cudi.

Outside of the jury’s presence, there was some debate about whether Kid Cudi could be asked about the trauma that alleged events inflicted on his dog.

“There’s some dog lovers potentially on the jury,” defense attorney Brian Steel said.

“I agree it’s a serious issue,” Judge Arun Subramanian attempted to say with a straight face before the courtroom erupted in laughter.

“Unfortunately, the dog is no longer with us,” prosecutor Emily Kaplan said.

The judge agreed to limit questions about Kid Cudi’s dog.

Scott Mescudi, aka rapper Kid Cudi, is set to take the witness stand today in the trial against Sean "Diddy" Combs.

Mescudi shared a brief romantic relationship with Combs' ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, according to Ventura's prior testimony.

When Combs was made aware of Mescudi and Ventura's relationship, he allegedly threatened violence against Mescudi and Ventura, according to Ventura's testimony, including allegedly threatening to blow up Mescudi's car.