(At the sidebar)
MS. STEINER: Your Honor, the government believes that Ms. Westmoreland, through her repeated line of questioning regarding Ms. Richard's employment, why she was dissatisfied, why she left has opened the door in several respects to testimony that we did not elicit about forced labor, specifically asked her why things didn't work out, why she was dissatisfied, that she had no reason to leave, that she not once, but twice had asked the defendant to return to working for him. Ms. Richard, if asked, would testify that the defendant had on numerous occasions overworked her, underpaid her, groped her, had not permitted her to take any respite, leading to her hospitalization, and that he would make continuous threats if she failed to perform, work the hours that he required. All of that is going to be omitted from what's proven to the jury currently and leave the jury with a false impression that Ms. Richard simply was asking the defendant about work or was dissatisfied with work without giving the appropriate context.
MS. WESTMORELAND: Your Honor, not true. First, just want to make sure that we had a discussion yesterday about what I would go into.
MS. STEINER: Just to clarify, we never discussed this issue.
MS. WESTMORELAND: Can I finish real quick? That's number one. Number two is the government asked Ms. Richard Friday, you started your career what 2004, it ended 2011, it was with Mr. Combs, she introduced Danity Kane, she introduced Dirty Money. If I could go one by one, if I could see your pad or if you want to say it again.
MS. STEINER: You can look at the notes.
THE COURT: Just ask you a basic question. My understanding, and I'll go back and look at the transcript, is that on direct examination, the witness indicated that after her employment had ended, she just responded to Mr. Combs's outreach in a way that would keep her safe, and to undermine that, you asked questions concerning Ms. Richard's career to show that she was still interested in talking to Mr. Combs because of gripes about her career essentially. So this issue of undermining the witness's credibility, given what had been elicited on direct, that's what I understood it to be. But Ms. Steiner, I think you're suggesting that it was broader than that, that there were questions that went to the reasons why Ms. Richard left Bad Boy Records in the first place.
MS. STEINER: Correct.
THE COURT: I don't remember that. But --
(Indiscernible crosstalk)
MS. WESTMORELAND: No, I did not ask that and I did respond to that. I said that he closed the group down. I didn't say why did you leave, Ms. Richard, or you were unhappy or --
THE COURT: I think you said it was dismantled.
MS. WESTMORELAND: The group was dismantled. I didn't say why did she leave. I said Mr. Combs dismantled the group. I didn't say why did you leave the group. She didn't leave the group anyway, the group was dismantled.
THE COURT: Ms. Steiner.
MS. STEINER: A couple of points, your Honor. Sorry to interrupt. With respect to dismantling of the group, again, I do think that does speak to the circumstances surrounding that. Ms. Richard would testify that it was dismantled on live TV after she had received a series of threats by the defendant, that she had sustained these very difficult work conditions. Ms. Westmoreland, through her line of questioning, also attempted to paint a picture that Ms. Richard made more money, had greater success in Danity Kane and Dirty Money than she's ever had since, and that calls into question what her experience actually was in those groups, which was not as has been elicited that she made a ton of money. In fact, Ms. Richard would testify she was underpaid, at times not paid, is actually the subject matter of her current suit.
THE COURT: I think there's a narrower issue here. I don't think Ms. Westmoreland has opened the door to all the forced labor allegations. However, there was an attack on her credibility, fair?
MS. WESTMORELAND: Fair.
THE COURT: And Ms. Steiner, on redirect, you can rehabilitate the witness in any way that you believe is appropriate given what Ms. Westmoreland asked about. I take it, Ms. Westmoreland, you are anticipating and happy to have Ms. Steiner do that?
MS. WESTMORELAND: Absolutely.
THE COURT: I don't know if there's a real issue here because, to the extent that Ms. Westmoreland, for instance, suggested reasons why Ms. Richard did certain things after she left Bad Boy Records that were related to her efforts to try to get money from Mr. Combs, and your response is, actually, there are legitimate reasons why she acted the way she did; that's fair game, correct?
MS. WESTMORELAND: I agree.
MS. COMEY: I want to make sure the record is clear about what's allowed here. I want to make sure we're following your Honor's order and responding appropriately. So it would be about the fact that she felt she was underpaid, did not receive fair compensation to respond to that line of cross, but not the allegations of being overworked, not the allegations of being hospitalized?
THE COURT: I don't believe -- maybe I need to understand what's going on. So I don't believe there was any questioning on cross-examination concerning what happened in the employment to the witness. I don't remember that.
MS. WESTMORELAND: I didn't.
THE COURT: That's what's missing. I think there was questioning about what happened after the employment ended and the communications to suggest that, essentially, the witness had come up with these things after the lawsuit was filed and after she proceeded to get money; is that a fair characterization?
MS. WESTMORELAND: Yes.
MS. COMEY: I thought there was questioning about how many songs they put out, how many records they sold, how they went platinum with Danity Kane and Dirty Money, and the implication was she made money from that and being successful like that, the redirect would be, well, how much were you paid for that.
THE COURT: I don't think that was in bounds.
MS. COMEY: That's what I wanted to check.
THE COURT: Thank you for asking that. I do think if you want to rehabilitate the witness by saying, why did you file your lawsuit, what was involved in the lawsuit, to show that it was not an effort simply to just get money from Mr. Combs in the wake of Ms. Ventura's lawsuit, but that she believed that these things happened or if there's something in the communications, you could say that, well, the reason why she was having these communications was X or Y reason, I think that that's within bounds; correct, Ms. Westmoreland?
MS. COMEY: If she's asked why did you file a lawsuit, she will say, because I was underpaid, because he didn't pay me for the work I did, and because he worked me to the bone to the point I was hospitalized.
THE COURT: I think defense opened the door to that by asking about the lawsuit. But keep the questioning brief to respond to what was a brief questioning on cross-examination.
MS. COMEY: Understood. Thank you, your Honor.
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