Bryana “Bana” Bongolan, who has accused Sean “Diddy” Combs of dangling her off a balcony, took the stand in his sex trafficking trial on Wednesday, June 4. Diddy has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Bongolan, 33, testified about her relationship with Diddy’s ex-girlfriend Cassie, whom she said she became friends with around 2014. (Diddy, 55, and Cassie, 38, dated off and on from 2007 to 2018.)
According to Bongolan, she avoided meeting Diddy for more than a year because of the allegedly “volatile” nature of his relationship with Cassie (full name Casandra Ventura). “I wasn’t really fond of what I was seeing, so I didn’t really want to meet him right away,” she told the court, claiming that she would get “upsetting” phone calls from Cassie and once saw her friend with a black eye.
During her testimony, Bongolan detailed her previous allegation that Diddy once dangled her over the 17th floor of a high-rise apartment building in Los Angeles. She claimed that the incident occurred when she and her girlfriend were staying at Cassie’s apartment. They were sleeping on the couch when they allegedly heard Diddy banging on the door.
At that point, Bongolan told her girlfriend to hide in the bathroom. When asked why she did that, Bongolan replied, “I didn’t want to expose her to the things that I see.”
After her girlfriend went into the bathroom, Bongolan walked out onto the balcony and tried to “act casual” as Diddy came into the apartment. She claimed the rapper then grabbed her from behind and “lifted me up and then put me on top of the rail.”
Bongolan went on to say she was “trying not to slip” as Diddy allegedly yelled, “You know what the f*** you did.” When asked how long she was held there, she estimated that it was about 15 seconds.
The jury was then shown photos of her injuries, which included a large bruise, and of her wearing a neck brace. She claimed she sustained the injuries when Diddy held her over the balcony and then threw her into patio furniture.
Bongolan told the court that the alleged incident left her with feelings of “paranoia” and caused “night terrors” that made her scream in her sleep.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Nicole Westmoreland asked Bongolan to name the drugs she did with Cassie during that period in their lives, and Bongolan listed marijuana, GHB, ecstasy and ketamine, among other things. Westmoreland also pointed out seeming discrepancies in the balcony story, noting that Bongolan told prosecutors she was smoking weed when she was allegedly attacked but said in her lawsuit that she was smoking a cigarette.
The defense also questioned Bongolan about her relationship with Cassie, which she said resumed in late 2023, around the time Cassie filed her own lawsuit against Diddy. Bongolan said that the pair discussed the balcony incident and Cassie asked whether she could use Bongolan’s name in her lawsuit, but Bongolan said no. (Cassie and Diddy settled out of court in November 2023, and he denied all the allegations in the suit.)
Cassie mentioned the alleged balcony altercation in her own testimony last month, telling the court that it happened early in the morning. She also claimed Diddy threw Bongolan onto patio furniture after dangling her over the rail.
Diddy was arrested in September 2024 and charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and has denied all of the allegations against him.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Diddy’s attorney Marc Agnifilo said in a statement at the time. “He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal. To his credit Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
Since his arrest, Diddy has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. His four requests for bail were denied by Judge Arun Subramanian.
Last year, Bongolan sued Diddy for sexual battery. That lawsuit included the allegation that he dangled her over a balcony at Cassie’s apartment in September 2016.
“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 lawsuit read. “Ms. Bongolan refuses to allow this fear to control the rest of her life and brings this action to demand that Mr. Combs takes responsibility for the trauma he intentionally and maliciously [inflicted].”
Diddy, meanwhile, denied Bongolan’s claims in a statement shared with Rolling Stone via his legal team.
“Anyone has the right to file a lawsuit, regardless of the evidence they may or may not have,” the spokesperson told the outlet. “Since last year, Ms. Bongolan has expressed an intention to sue Mr. Combs and has sought legal representation to pursue her claims. Mr. Combs firmly denies these serious allegations and remains confident they will ultimately be proven baseless.”
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support. If you or someone you know is a human trafficking victim, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
