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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 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 at the mogul’s sex trafficking and racketeering trial in New York.
Appearing nervous, Bongolan spoke softly and haltingly. 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 with Combs by phone.
She said one time, Ventura called her on FaceTime while getting ready for the premiere of her movie The Perfect Match in March 2016. 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 revealed the injury quietly, seemingly resigned, she said.
Bongolan also described 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 no one was hit by the knife, and she didn’t call police. “I was scared of Puff,” she testified.
Bongolan claimed Combs delivered the sinister “I could kill you” threat just inches from her face on the beach in Malibu in April 2016. She told jurors she had no idea what prompted the alleged aggression.
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 sought protection, but Bongolan later testified that she frequently did drugs with Ventura, supplying her with prescription pills, cocaine and ketamine.
Under cross-examination, Bongolan agreed that she and Ventura shared a serious “drug problem” during the height of their friendship, frequently getting high on marijuana, cocaine and ketamine together. She recalled once getting Ventura “hundreds” of pills, saying the quantity scared her.
Combs’ defense lawyer Nicole Westmoreland later sought 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 and not on a beach. 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. Pressed 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 specifics about other events that Westmoreland raised. 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.
On Thursday, the defense scored one of its most dramatic moments in the trial so far when Westmoreland claimed Bongolan’s timeline of events was impossible. Westmoreland said hotel and dining receipts showed Combs was in New York, staying at the Trump International Hotel, from Sept. 24 to Sept. 29 in 2016. The lawyer said Combs performed in Newark, New Jersey, on September 25, 2016, as part of the Bad Boy Family Reunion Tour.
In her $10 million lawsuit filed against Combs last November, Bongolan said the balcony incident happened “on or about” Sept. 26, 2016. In her testimony Wednesday, Bongolan clearly linked the incident to a photo of a bruise on her leg that she said was taken shortly after Combs allegedly threw her into the patio furniture. As the jury saw, the photo’s metadata said it was snapped on Sept. 26.
“You agree that one person can’t be in two places at the same time,” Westmoreland asked.
“In theory, yeah,” Bongolan replied. “I can’t answer that one.”
On re-direct, Bongolan was asked if she had any doubt that Combs dangled her from the 17th story. “I have no doubt,” she said. “I will never forget him holding me over the balcony.”
When the jury was excused for lunch on Thursday, Judge Subramanian admonished Combs for allegedly attempting to interact with jurors during the cross-examination. He said Combs could be excluded from the courtroom if the behavior continues.
The judge said Combs was “nodding vigorously and looking at the jury” while Bongolan was on the stand. The judge said he already had issued a warning about Combs’ facial expressions.
When the jurors returned, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christy Slavik showed the panel a screenshot of a text thread between Ventura and Combs’ former chief of staff, Kristina Khorram. The screenshot was taken on Sept. 30, 2016, and appeared to corroborate Bongolan’s alleged balcony assault.
“Hey, I just found out some crazy shit,” Ventura texted Khorram. “He came into my house while my friends were here, and we were all sleeping. They woke me up. He was ringing the bell crazy at 3 a m. And when he came in, I went to my room, and he went to Bana and choked her, then dangled her feet off of the balcony. This is crazy. … I have to stay away.”
Prosecutors said the screenshot was recovered from Khorram’s phone, which was seized at a Florida airport during the raids of Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami on March 25, 2024.
Earlier Thursday, Westmoreland interrogated Bongolan over whether she was claiming Ventura actually witnessed the alleged balcony incident. Westmoreland suggested Bongolan told prosecutors that Ventura saw it with her own eyes. “I spoke to them, but again, I don’t recall,” Bongolan testified.
Ventura’s real-time perception of the alleged balcony incident is important, prosecutors said. Before the jury was seated Thursday morning, Judge Subramanian asked the government to clarify how Bongolan’s testimony connected to Combs’ indictment. Prosecutors said it was an example of extreme violence that influenced Ventura’s state of mind, playing into her alleged coercion.
Bongolan was one of Ventura’s closest friends while the R&B singer was dating Combs in the latter half of the couple’s turbulent relationship. In her lawsuit, she 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 causing a scene. Bongolan said she asked her girlfriend to hide in the guest bathroom and lock the door.
As soon as Combs saw Bongolan, he allegedly grabbed her 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. 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 at the time.
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.
Bongolan testified Wednesday that Combs FaceTimed her a day or two after the balcony incident but was 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 told jurors that she filed the lawsuit “to seek justice for what happened to me.”
On Wednesday morning, a forensic video expert also 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 pixelation and timestamp 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 did she not have herself 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.
Combs, 55, was arrested in September and has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy, the sex trafficking of two 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.
This story has been updated with Bongolan’s testimony on June 5, 2025
