In May, however, CNN released hotel security video showing him punching and stomping Cassie, just as her lawsuit alleged. In an Instagram video, Combs offered a weak, self-centered apology, saying, “My behavior in that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video.” That apology was later removed from his page.

Between Cassie’s initial court appearance in November and Richard’s trial last week, federal agents searched Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles. A source familiar with the matter told NBC News that federal agents interviewed multiple witnesses about allegations of sex trafficking, sexual abuse, and the sale and distribution of illegal narcotics and firearms.

Two other women also filed suit in November. One said she was a college student in 1991 when Combs drugged her and recorded himself assaulting her. Combs denies the allegation. Another woman alleges that when she was 16, in 1990 or 1991, Combs and R&B singer Aaron Hall offered her multiple drinks before Combs forced her to have sex and Hall then sexually assaulted her. Combs denies the allegation. Hall did not respond to a request for comment from NBC News.

In December, a woman who says she was 17 in 2003 alleged in a lawsuit that she was sexually abused and gang raped by Combs and Harve Pierre, a former president of Combs’ record label. Combs has denied the allegations, and Pierre has called the lawsuit “a fiction.” Pierre is also named as a defendant in Richard’s lawsuit. She alleges that he and Combs locked her in a company vehicle for hours. Pierre did not respond to NBC News’ request for comment.

Richards alleges in her lawsuit that after she was selected to be a member of Danity Kane, Combs groped her without her consent and touched her breasts and buttocks. She also alleges that Combs attended meetings in his underwear, routinely asked her to strip down to her underwear during rehearsals, and offered her a breast augmentation as a Christmas gift.

She alleges that when she confronted Combs about his behavior, he retaliated by pulling her from songs and performances, ruining her career. She also says he controlled when and what she ate and had her hospitalized when she reached a dangerously low weight. Even as she was dealing with multiple medical diagnoses, she says, Combs still demanded that she work. It was one winter night, she says, when Combs, angry that she was late, locked her in a car with blacked-out windows and no emergency exit or heat for more than two hours and that he was angry when she called her father in Baltimore, who came to her aid. She says he told her, “You don’t call your dad unless you’re in the hospital.”

Also disturbing is that her lawsuit describes a situation in which there were multiple witnesses to Combs’ alleged abuse, including other celebrities and police officers she alleges were on Combs’ payroll but who she alleges did nothing.

One of the most disturbing allegations in Cassie’s lawsuit was her claim that in 2012, Combs became so enraged over her relationship with rapper Kid Cudi that he promised to blow up Kid Cudi’s car. “Around that time,” she wrote in her lawsuit, “Kid Cudi’s car exploded in his driveway.” Through a spokesperson, Kid Cudi confirmed to The New York Times that his car had exploded, saying, “This is all true.”

His confirmation gives us even more reason to believe Richard when she says Combs told her she could disappear if she continued to encourage Cassie to leave him.

Although Combs disputes all of Richard’s allegations, her attorney, Lisa Bloom, said in a statement, “We will not rest until we achieve full and complete justice for Dawn in this case.”

As should be clear by now, the complaint alleges that those in Combs’ inner circle enabled what it describes as his violence against women to go unchecked or addressed. “In the decades following his rise to fame, Mr. Combs’ star-studded, larger-than-life persona overshadowed his vicious temper and pervasive violent acts directed at those in his inner circle — specifically women,” the complaint reads.

This is how intimate partner violence continues: if the people who are supposed to stop the violence are intimidated, exposed to unequal power relations, or thwarted by others, the violence can continue and eventually escalate.

By alleging that Combs abused Cassie in front of other celebrities and industry executives, Richard is alleging that the entire music industry allowed Combs to abuse women with impunity while he continued to amass fame, power, and wealth. I’d like to express my surprise at the accusation here, but in an industry that continues to treat hip-hop figures accused of abuse as icons — rather than walking warning signs in need of help — there’s no surprise there.