Sean Combs trial updates: Court adjourned until Tuesday after Kid Cudi testimony

Working for Sean Combs left quite an impression on George Kaplan, who is now 34.

"He pushed me to depths I didn't know I had," Kaplan said 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."

Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo said, "You still remember Combs' birthday." Kaplan immediately responded, "November 4".

He said it 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."

At Combs Enterprises, the May 21 birthday of Biggie Smalls is a paid company holiday.

When Kaplan left due to the alleged 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 incident on the plane, Kaplan said he did not recall seeing physical injuries but heard a glass breaking and "he was holding one."

Kaplan also testified on cross-examination he did not trust housekeeping staff to clean up after Combs at hotels because he feared they were looking for a "payday."

The defense showed a note Kaplan sent Combs after Kim Porter's death "because I was heartbroken for him." Kaplan also said he has respect for Combs but the alleged violence he witnessed "shook me tremendously."

On re-direct, Kaplan said even though he saw no physical injuries to Cassie, "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 is over and Scott Mescudi has taken the stand.

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, who is seated in court in a light-colored crew neck sweater, prepared to testify that he witnessed his former boss throw apples at a woman named Gina in 2015.

Kaplan, who was Combs' personal assistant for a 15-month period, has already testified he stocked hotel rooms with baby oil, Astroglide lubricant and other items prosecutors said were used for "freak offs."

He also testified he "tidied" the rooms to make them look "as close as I could to look like it was the way that it was found when he came in."

Asked why he did that instead of the hotel staff, Kaplan said "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, Scott Mescudi, the rapper better known as Kid Cudi, will testify about a meeting he and Cassie Ventura brokered with Sean Combs at the SoHo House after federal prosecutors said, "there was a Molotov cocktail in his car."

Outside the jury's presence, there was some debate about whether Kid Cudi could be asked about the trauma 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 tried 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.

George Kaplan, 34, who spent two years working for Combs Enterprises and 15 months as one of his personal assistants, testified that Combs threatened his job "maybe monthly."

Kaplan testified about setting up hotel rooms for Combs in Los Angeles, New York and Miami, sometimes with only a "matter of hours" notice.

"There was a hotel bag," Kaplan told the court. The bag contained clothes, a speaker, candles, liquor, baby oil, and Astroglide. On subsequent occasions, Kaplan testified, "I just tried to recreate the bag."

According to Kaplan's testimony, Combs "would have guests" in the hotel rooms, often a "female partner" and when his stay was over Kaplan testified that he would see "lots of empty bottles" and baby oil "on the table, on the floor, on the bed." On one occasion, Kaplan testified about seeing a crystalized powder on the bathroom sink.

He testified it was his job to clean up the rooms.

"I tidied them," he told the court. "I made it as close as I could to the way it was found when he came in." Asked why he cleaned up after his boss instead of asking hotel staff to do it Kaplan replied, "I think that it was implied in the role as you continued to work closely with Mr. Combs that you protected him."

Prosecutor Maureen Comey asked, "How was cleaning up these hotel rooms related to your job of protecting Mr. Combs?" Kaplan replied, "I would see often that hotels would sell videos and images and try and embarrass celebrities and other figures and that was something I wanted to avoid."

On two occasions, Kaplan alleged Combs asked him to procure drugs.

Once, in Miami, "He gave me a number to call and some cash to pick up what he wanted." Kaplan testified, "The guy came and I paid him for drugs." He testified it was a bag of MDMA that he gave to Combs.

According to Kaplan's testimony, the second time was in Los Angeles at the Bel-Air Hotel.

"It was a very similar exchange. Call this number, meet this person, bring this back to me," Kaplan testified. "I arranged to meet the person in Hollywood." The exchange went down the same way as the Miami exchange, according to Kaplan's testimony. "I gave him money. He gave me a bag. I didn't know what the bag was," Kaplan testified. "I gave it to Mr. Combs."

Court is over for the day, but Kaplan will continue his testimony Thursday, followed by rapper Kid Cudi, who had a brief relationship with Cassie Ventura, prosecutors said.