NOTE: The following article contains disturbing details and video footage. Please read at your own discretion.
As the sex trafficking trial for Sean “Diddy” Combs enters its third day, Combs’ ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, took the stand Wednesday to resume her testimony after a day spent recounting grotesque and humiliating details of her life with him.
Ventura is considered a star witness for the prosecution and her testimony is particularly valuable. Combs was captured on security video violently assaulting Ventura in a hotel hallway in 2016.
Ventura sued Combs in 2023, alleging years of rape and abuse. The suit was settled within hours, but was followed by dozens of similar legal claims and touched off a criminal investigation.
During her first day of testimony, on the second day of the blockbuster trial, Ventura described being pressured into degrading sexual encounters with paid sex workers. She also recounted being beaten numerous times by Combs when she did things that displeased him — like smiling at him the wrong way.
“You make the wrong face and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face,” she said.
Ventura accused Combs of gaining her subservience by threatening to publicly release videos of her with male sex workers.
Combs’ lawyers have acknowledged the rapper could be violent but maintain that the sexual acts were consensual. They say nothing he did amounted to sex trafficking or racketeering (the charges he faces), but insisted he just has unique sexual proclivities.
Day 3
Ventura returned to the witness stand shortly before 10 a.m. on Wednesday during Combs’ sex-trafficking trial, answering questions posed by prosecutor Emily Johnson for a second day.
For a third day in a row, the jury watched the hotel surveillance footage of Combs’ 2016 assault on Ventura but the video had no sound. She said she recalled Combs throwing a vase with flowers in it.
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“I didn’t get hit. I remember it hitting the wall. He was yelling at me and threw it at me,” she said.
Ventura said that as she was trying to leave the hotel, Combs told her “that I wasn’t going to leave him there. That I couldn’t.”
The prosecution showed two photos of Ventura following the hotel assault and text messages between the former couple.
Ventura said that she took selfies on her Uber ride away from the hotel. She had a swollen lip and testified that under her sunglasses, she had a black eye.
Combs texted Ventura after the assault and said, “the cops are here,” begging her to call him. In response to Combs, Ventura said that she had a movie premiere for “the biggest thing I’ve ever done in my life” and now she had a “fat lip” and black eye.
“Please stay far away from me,” she texted him.
Ventura said Combs claimed police were about to arrest him and told her if she didn’t answer his phone calls she’d “never hear my voice again.”
Ventura’s friend called the police following the assault and they showed up to her apartment to question her, but she said that she did not want to say who assaulted her.
“Did you want to protect Sean?” Johnson asked.
“Yeah, of course,” Venture replied. “In that moment, I didn’t want to hurt him that way. I wasn’t ready.”
Ventura said that after the assault, Combs showed up to her apartment and she heard “chaos outside of the door” including “banging, kicking, yelling.”
She said that she went to the home of one of Combs’ security guards, D-Roc, not too long after the assault “to feel safe.” She then went to Combs’ house to do a fitting for her upcoming move premiere for a romantic comedy she starred in called The Perfect Match.
The premiere took place two days after the hotel assault and the jury was shown a photo of Combs and Ventura at the afterparty. She pointed out a bruises on her body that were visible in the photographs and said she was unable to cover up all the damage with makeup.
The prosecution showed a 2016 text message from Combs to Ventura about the freak-offs. He proposed they have a “proper” freak-off without the drug ketamine involved.
In a text message, he wrote that a “successful” freak-off was “when we remember.”
“I won’t bring up again until you are in that mood,” he wrote.
Ventura told the court ketamine was her preferred drug during the freak-offs because “it was very dissociative.”
She then discussed how videos of the freak-offs were turned into “blackmail materials.” She said that when Combs was angry with her, he often reminded her of the sexually explicit videos he had saved.
“One time I dated someone else and that’s what it was all about — ‘I’m going to put out two embarrassing videos of you,’” she said, adding that she believed Combs “just wanted to hurt me.”
She said the videos could ruin everything she’d worked for and “make me look like a slut.”
“I feared for my career. I feared for my family. It’s just embarrassing. It’s horrible and disgusting. No one should do that to anyone,” she said.
In a 2013 text message, she wrote to Combs: “Please delete any video out of your iPhone if you have. Too many ppl have access to your stuff.”
Combs told her that he had deleted them but there were times in their relationship that she said she saw the videos he claimed to have deleted.
When Johnson asked Ventura if she ever tried to fight back when Combs picked a fight with her, she said she tried earlier in their relationship but learned “it could escalate the fight more, make it worse for myself.”
What he’s on trial for
U.S. prosecutors allege that for 20 years, behind the scenes, Combs was coercing and abusing women with help from a network of associates who helped silence victims through blackmail and violence.
Combs faces an indictment that includes descriptions of freak-offs, which are defined in the court doc as “elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded.”
Numerous witnesses have come forward to accuse Combs of terrorizing people into silence by choking, hitting, kicking and dragging them, according to prosecutors. One indictment alleges that Combs dangled someone from a balcony.
Although dozens of men and women have alleged in lawsuits that Combs abused them, this trial will highlight the claims of four women.
Combs is charged with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He has denied all the charges against him and has rejected a plea deal, choosing to go to trial instead.
If found guilty in the New York court, he could face life in prison.
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Day 2 testimony summary
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Global News will be covering the Diddy trial in its entirety. Please check back for updates.
— With files from Global News’ Michelle Butterfield and The Associated Press
