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A year and a half after Casandra “Cassie” Ventura filed her explosive lawsuit against ex-boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs, the R&B singer took the stand Tuesday in front of a packed courtroom to testify against the man she claimed emotionally, physically, and sexually abused her for more than a decade.
Ventura’s court appearance marks the first time she and Combs have seen each other in person since their 2018 breakup. She arrived in court wearing a long brown dress with brown suede heels, and when she walked in, Combs turned around and stared at her.
Ventura is considered the key witness in the Southern District of New York’s criminal case, referred to in the charging indictment as Victim-1. Combs has pleaded not guilty to five felony counts against him.
On the stand, Ventura’s voice was quiet, but her demeanor confident. She chose her words carefully as she detailed what she called “frequent” instances of physical abuse. “He would smash me in my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me in the head if I was down,” she said of Combs.
Ventura also described, in great detail, the nature of the “freak-offs” — sexual encounters Combs allegedly orchestrated, and which could last anywhere from 36 hours to four days. Ventura said she was 22 years old when she had her first freak-off, adding, “eventually it became a job for me.” She called the encounters “a very choreographed experience,” testifying that there would sometimes be blood on the sheets because Combs forced her to have sex while she was menstruating.
On multiple occasions, Ventura testified, both Combs and a male sex worker would urinate on her and in her mouth against her will. She says it was obvious she did not want it based on her facial expressions.
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Ventura further testified that she felt responsible to “make [Combs] happy” and didn’t know how to refuse the freak-offs. “I didn’t feel like I had much of a choice, I didn’t know what ‘No’ could look like,” she said. Asked by prosecutors why she went along with it, she said the freak-offs were where she felt she was winning his affection and could be rewarded with one-on-one time. “When you are really in love with someone, you don’t want to disappoint them,” she testified.
Still, Ventura broke down in tears as she testified that the freak-offs made her feel “disgusting” and “humiliated.”
“My self-worth took a hit,” she said at one point. The freak-offs were “all I was good for to him.” She would often stay awake for days at a time, she testified, per Combs’ orders. Of the copious amount of drugs she said Combs made her take — including cocaine, mushrooms, ecstasy, and ketamine — Ventura said they were “dissociative and numbing.”
“I couldn’t imagine myself doing any of that without having some sort of buffer or just way to not feel it for what it really was,” Ventura said, per reports.
Prosecutors asked Ventura to detail the beginning of her relationship with Combs. She said she first met him around 2005, when she was 19, describing her view of him at the time as “this larger-than-life entrepreneur musician. They had sex for the first time two years later during a trip to Miami, not long after Ventura’s 21st birthday. Ventura said Combs also gave her ecstasy during the trip, and the jury was shown a photo of the pair: Ventura wearing a robe and sunglasses, with Combs draped around her.
Of Combs, Ventura said, “Sean is a very polarizing person, he’s also very charming. It can be hard to decide what you need when he’s telling you his needs.”
After the Miami trip, Ventura said, she became a “little shadow to Sean.” Ventura described herself as being naive and young at the beginning of their relationship, acknowledging that she was “enamored” with him at first, until things started to turn. Ventura said Combs’ moods could swing wildly: “Make the wrong face, and the next thing I knew, I was getting hit in the face,” she testified. She says she “began to experience a different side of him: the abusive side. But there was still love there.”
Ventura went on to describe the control Combs wielded over her life. He kept tabs on her whereabouts and sent staffers out to look for her; decided what she wore and where she lived; and often gave her, what she described, as types of “busy work” — random tasks that kept her occupied when she wasn’t with Combs.
“He had control over what I did every minute of the day,” Ventura added. That included constant comments about Ventura’s appearance, including nails, hair, wardrobe and discussions about breast implants.
As for Combs’ control over her music career, Ventura said she recorded hundreds of songs, many of which “didn’t see the light of day.” She added: “My career was stifled.”
The jury was shown emails between Ventura and Combs in which Ventura refers to Combs as “Pop Pop.” She testified that Combs chose that nickname because it’s what she called her grandfather, per media reports. “I thought it was weird,” she testified.
Before her testimony, Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, was worried jurors would be biased against his client if they saw Ventura, who is eight-and-a-half months pregnant, walking into the courtroom. On Monday, Agnifilo asked U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian if Ventura could already be sitting in the witness box when jurors entered. (Ventura eventually walked into the courtroom with the jury present.)
“I think there is a prejudicial quality,” Agnifilo said in a closed-door meeting ahead of Monday’s opening statements. “Pregnancy is beautiful and wonderful. It also is a source of potential sympathy.” Prosecutors objected, arguing it would be “deeply inappropriate” for the court to treat any witness with a medical condition differently.
Ventura is expected to testify for the duration of the trial’s first week. She’ll provide testimony that mirrored her harrowing and graphic civil lawsuit from November 2023 that launched the federal investigation that saw Combs go from a seemingly untouchable billionaire mogul who now faces the possibility of life in prison if he’s convicted of the counts against him.
Prior to her testimony, Combs’ team asked that Ventura’s husband, Alex Fine, be barred from hearing her testimony, noting they may want to call him as a witness, per media reports. The two sides agreed that Fine could listen to a majority of Ventura’s testimony, but not the allegation that Combs raped her in 2018.
Ventura is the third witness to testify in the high-profile trial that expected to last eight weeks. On Monday, jurors heard from Israel Florez, a former security manager who worked at the since-shuttered InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles. Florez testified he was present in the immediate moments after Combs kicked and dragged Ventura by a set of elevator banks in March 2016.
Surveillance video of the attack, which CNN published last year and was shown to jurors on Monday, shows Combs chasing after Ventura before throwing her to the ground. Florez claimed that Combs had a “devilish stare” and offered what he described as a cash “bribe” to keep the incident quiet, which he refused. Florez claimed he observed Ventura with a purplish eye as she left the hotel, and he questioned if she wanted him to call the police, which she declined.
Male escort Daniel Phillip also testified on Monday, giving detailed and explicit testimony about the multiple freak-offs he had with Ventura and Combs between 2014 and 2016.
Although initially excited by being “involved with people with such notoriety,” Phillip testified that his enthusiasm waned the first time he claimed to witness Combs attack Ventura during a freak-off. Combs called for Ventura to come to the bedroom, but when she didn’t immediately comply, Phillip claimed Combs threw a liquor bottle in her direction, with the bottle smashing into the wall. Combs then allegedly dragged a screaming Ventura by her hair back to the room, where he heard sounds of slapping and Ventura apologizing and saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”
After that incident, Phillip said he had trouble performing sexually during freak-offs with Ventura and Combs. During one moment they were left alone in another freak-off, Phillip said he tried to warn Ventura of the “danger” that he perceived she was in, asking why she was staying with Combs when he was “hitting” her. Phillip said Ventura attempted to reassure him, saying she’d be OK.
When Ventura first met a 37-year-old Combs in 2005, she was an aspiring 19-year-old singer, excited to sign a record deal with Bad Boy. By the time she turned 21, Combs had begun to romantically pursue her, culminating with an alleged forced kiss in the bathroom the night of her 21st birthday party.
Eventually, prosecutors said, Combs forced Ventura to engage in sex with male escorts while he watched and masturbated. If she refused, prosecutors allege Combs would beat her and regularly supplied her with drugs to keep her awake and compliant. Ventura claimed she would have to camp out in hotels and Combs’ mansion until the bruising from physical beatings faded.
When Ventura said she tried to escape Combs, his team helped track her down and encouraged her to return to her allegedly abusive label boss. Outside the bedroom, Combs allegedly controlled all aspects of Ventura’s life and career.
While Combs’ team admitted in opening statements that the mogul was physically abusive to Ventura, they reminded jurors that Combs was not being prosecuted for domestic violence in this case. Instead, they claim Ventura was a consenting adult and had personal motivations for being in a relationship with Combs and later pursuing litigation against him. “Ask yourself why,” Geragos said. “The answer is money.”
Last week, Combs’ lawyers claimed that Ventura was a fully capable woman and independent, suggesting that it wasn’t in her nature to be forced into anything. Subramanian quickly shot down the notion. “Strong people can be coerced just like weak people,” the judge said.
This is a developing story.
From Rolling Stone US
