Singer Cassie is the important thing witness within the prosecution’s case towards Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The pair had been in an on-off relationship for about 11 years, from 2007 to 2018, after she signed to his label, Dangerous Boy Information.
She has alleged she was bodily, sexually and mentally abused by Combs for many of this time, accusing him of forcing her into “hundreds” of drug-fuelled intercourse classes with male escorts, referred to as “freak offs”, whereas he watched.
However his attorneys argue the singer, whose full identify is Casandra Ventura, was a prepared participant who consented to a “swingers lifestyle”.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial: Week 1 – All the pieces that is occurred to this point
Combs, 55, is charged with sex-trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to interact in prostitution. He has pleaded not responsible to all fees and denied any allegations of sexual abuse.
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Combs and Ms Ventura on the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork Costume Institute Gala in 2015. Pic: Reuters/Lucas Jackson
The trial in Manhattan, New York, is anticipated to final about eight weeks, with proof from extra ladies who will stay nameless to return.
It’s not but recognized whether or not Combs himself will take the stand.
Ms Ventura, 38, has consented to being named and her testimony – together with allegations about an alleged assault at a resort in 2016, the place Combs was filmed on CCTV seemingly beating and dragging her as she tried to go away a freak off – is central to the case.
Here’s what we have now realized from her testimony.
‘Freak offs grew to become like a job’
Throughout her first day of proof, Ms Ventura advised the trial that after signing what was an enormous 10-album cope with Combs’s Dangerous Boy Information, she solely ever launched her first, referred to as Cassie, in 2006.
As a substitute, she stated, freak offs with escorts grew to become so frequent – and required restoration time – that they had been like a job.
She was 22 when, in the course of the first yr of their relationship, she stated the hip-hop mogul first proposed the thought. Her “stomach churned”, she stated, and she or he was “confused, nervous, but also loved him very much”.
To jurors, she gave graphic particulars of those drug and drink-fuelled encounters with male escorts, saying Combs would watch and masturbate, and infrequently document the encounters and watch the movies again.
They may final for hours and even days, she stated – the longest allegedly for 4 days. She says she would get no sleep throughout these encounters, so used medicine to maintain herself awake, but additionally disassociated.
“Freak offs became a job where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again,” Ms Ventura stated. Every time, she added, she needed to recuperate from lack of sleep, alcohol, medicine “and other substances”, and “having sex with a stranger for days”.
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Jurors had been proven photos of bruises on Ms Ventura’s physique. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
Combs ‘used violence and blackmail’
Ms Ventura advised jurors Combs was violent to her over the course of their relationship, giving her black eyes and bruises, kicking her and dragging her.
The hip-hop star grew to become more and more controlling, she stated, and was allegedly abusive over the smallest perceived slights. “You make the wrong face, and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face,” she advised the courtroom.
When requested how regularly Combs grew to become violent together with her, Ms Ventura responded: “Too frequently.”
She stated she started feeling as if she couldn’t say no to Combs’s calls for as a result of “there were blackmail materials to make me feel like if I didn’t do it, it would be held over my head in that way or these things would become public”.
Ms Ventura described a number of alleged violent incidents, together with one when she allegedly suffered a “pretty significant gash” above her left eye after the rapper threw her right into a mattress body.
Fairly than go to hospital for stitches, his safety workers took her to a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills, she stated.
Jurors proven specific photos
Through the second day of Ms Ventura’s testimony, the courtroom fell silent as photos from freak offs had been proven to jurors.
These had been stored personal from the general public gallery in order that solely those that wanted to see them may achieve this.
Combs requested Marc Agnifilo, certainly one of his attorneys, to see a binder of the pictures, and thumbed by means of it for just a few moments earlier than handing it again.
The images included photos of Ms Ventura with escorts.
Alleged rape after relationship ended
Ms Ventura advised the courtroom that Combs raped her at her house in Los Angeles, after she advised him she was ending issues.
“I just remember crying and saying no, but it was very fast,” she stated, her voice trailing off.
She advised jurors she did have consensual intercourse with the rapper on a subsequent event. “We’d been together for over 10 years. You just don’t turn feelings off,” she stated.
All through her testimony she described a posh relationship with a person she liked and was determined to please, however was additionally frightened of. She has maintained she by no means needed to have intercourse with strangers, however needed to please him.
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Combs watches as Ms Ventura leaves for a break in her testimony. Pic: Reuters/Jane Rosenberg
Why is Cassie testifying?
Telling the courtroom, and subsequently the world, about her experiences, over 4 days of questioning, was humiliating and tough – prosecutor Emily Johnson requested why she put herself by means of it.
Ms Ventura had remained pretty calm and composed all through her time on the stand, with just a few emotional moments, however at this level she broke down as she described her “personal shame” to jurors.
“I can’t carry this anymore,” she advised the courtroom. “I can’t carry the shame, the guilt, the way he treated people like they were disposable. What’s right is right, what’s wrong is wrong. I came here to do the right thing.”
Early in 2023, she stated she began affected by “flashbacks” and had suicidal ideas, so went to rehab and trauma remedy.
Ms Ventura sued Combs in November 2023, and settled inside 24 hours. She obtained £20m, the trial was advised.
Combs ‘threatened Cassie and Child Cudi’
Ms Ventura’s second day of testimony additionally included particulars of how she briefly dated Scott Mescudi, higher referred to as singer and rapper Child Cudi, throughout a low level in her relationship with Combs in 2011.
Combs lunged at her with a corkscrew and kicked her within the again when he discovered, jurors heard, and threatened to explode Mescudi’s automotive.
These allegations had been additionally detailed in her lawsuit, which alleged his automotive did “explode in his driveway” round this time.
The resort CCTV ‘assault’
CCTV from the InterContinental Lodge in Century Metropolis, Los Angeles, filmed on 5 March 2016, was first launched by CNN in Could 2024 – six months after Ms Ventura filed her lawsuit and 4 months earlier than Combs was charged with the crimes he’s now on trial for.
It confirmed Combs, carrying simply socks and a towel round his waist, allegedly beating and dragging Ms Ventura in a hallway.
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CCTV footage reveals Diddy ‘attacking’ Cassie in resort
She advised the courtroom this occurred after she tried to go away a freak off after being hit by Combs in the course of the session. She had the premiere arising for her first movie, The Good Match, the courtroom heard.
Regardless of the incident, the pair had been pictured on the occasion collectively.
Messages paint a posh image
Underneath cross-examination from the defence, sexually specific messages between Ms Ventura and Combs had been learn in courtroom.
Some confirmed her expressing obvious enthusiasm in regards to the freak off intercourse classes she alleges she was compelled into.
“I’m always ready to freak off,” the courtroom heard Ms Ventura wrote in a single message in August 2009.
In one other, she advised Combs a few freak off: “Can’t wait.”
And in one other, jurors had been advised she described a video of 1 intercourse session with an escort as “dope”.
Messages from 4 March 2016, the day earlier than the InterContinental Lodge incident, had been additionally learn in courtroom.
One stated: “Baby I want to FO so bad but I dont want to f*** myself up.”
Ms Ventura advised the courtroom this was harm limitation and that she needed to maintain him pleased because of her upcoming movie premiere.
She advised him “the last time was a mistake but since has made me feel a little dirty, and grimy as opposed to sexual and spontaneous”.
This was the rationale she was going “back and forth in my mind with wanting and not wanting to do it”, she wrote. “I get nervous that I’m just becoming the girlfriend that you get your fantasies off with.”
Diddy ‘overdosed at Playboy Mansion’
Drug use got here up rather a lot throughout Ms Ventura’s testimony, and she or he admitted to utilizing medicine together with ketamine, ecstasy, MDMA and opiates, saying she wanted them so as to get by means of the freak offs.
She additionally claimed Combs used medicine and stated she believes he was hooked on opiates after they had been collectively.
Ms Ventura advised the courtroom he was taken to hospital after overdosing on opiates on the Playboy Mansion in 2012 – one thing which was reported by media retailers together with TMZ on the time, when it was stated he had suffered a migraine.
The trial continues.
