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Regina Ventura, mother of Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, said that while Sean Combs was fuming over Cassie’s relationship with Kid Cudi, the mogul demanded Regina pay him $20,000 to “recoup money” he’d spent on Cassie’s career.
While testifying at Combs’ sex-trafficking trial Tuesday, Regina was asked to recall a letter Cassie sent her in December 2011 (which Cassie also discussed during her own testimony last week). In the letter, Cassie told her mother that Combs was threatening to release videos from their freak-offs after learning about her relationship with Cudi (real name Scott Mescudi). Cassie also told her mother that Combs was threatening to have someone “hurt” her and Mescudi, with Combs allegedly saying he would be out of the country when it happened.
Recalling how she felt reading the letter, Regina said: “I was physically sick. I did not understand it, the sex tape threw me. He was trying to hurt my daughter.”
Around the same time, Regina testified, Combs contacted her and asked for the $20,000. Regina said that she and her husband took out a home equity loan to pay the mogul.
“That’s the only way we could get the money,” Regina said, adding that she went through with the request because she was “scared about my daughter’s safety” and because Combs “demanded it.”
Regina said that she wired the money to a Bad Boy account, per instructions from Combs’ bookkeeper. And about five days later, she said, the money was returned to her account. She did not have any further communication with Combs about the money.
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Regina spent no more than 40 minutes testifying Tuesday, with Combs’ defense notably declining to cross-examine her. After the prosecution finished their line of questioning, Combs’ defense attorney Marc Agnifilo greeted Regina before saying, “I don’t have any questions for you.” (This is the first witness in the case so far that the defense has not cross-examined.)
While Combs has often been active and engaged during the trial — exchanging confidences with his attorneys and turning to look at witnesses as they enter the courtroom — he avoided looking at Regina when she passed by him on the way to the stand. And as Regina left the courtroom, she tried to make eye contact with Combs, who continued to ignore her.
Elsewhere during her testimony, Regina spoke about photos she took of her daughter in December 2011 after Combs had allegedly assaulted her. This was the first time, Regina said, that Cassie had told her about Combs being physically violent with her. Regina recalled of the photos: “She was bruised, and I wanted to make sure that we memorialized it.”
Near the end of her brief time on the stand, Regina also testified about a “bitter argument” she had with Combs in August 2016, while visiting her daughter in Los Angeles for her 30th birthday. The argument, Regina said, erupted outside of Cassie’s apartment after Combs allegedly “stole” Cassie’s phone.
“We were arguing about the phone, I wanted the phone back and he was holding it,” Regina said. Noting that one of Combs’ bodyguards was standing between them, Regina said, “I was yelling, screaming, and trying to hit him but I wasn’t successful.”
Eventually, Regina said, Combs relinquished the phone, but then left in Cassie’s car.
While on the stand last week, Cassie testified that, along with threatening to release the explicit videos of her and “hurt” her and Mescudi, Combs allegedly discussed blowing up Mescudi’s car, and wanting Mescudi’s friends to see the explosion. In 2012, a Porsche owned by Mescudi was set on fire by an “incendiary device,” as a contemporaneous police report put it. And Mescudi himself previously shared a statement with The New York Times confirming that his car had exploded.
Tuesday began with the continued testimony from David James, one of Combs’ former assistants. While on the stand, James said Combs hired a former FBI agent to give lie-detector tests to his staff after some of his money and possessions went missing. He also spoke at length about an incident in which Combs allegedly took three handguns to confront his rival Suge Knight (an incident that Cassie Ventura detailed during her own testimony).
“I was really shook by it,” James said. “This was the first time as his assistant that I realized my life was in danger.”
While being cross-examined, Combs’ defense attorney Marc Agnifilo asked James if he had objected to driving Combs while he had the three hand guns on him, to which James replied, “Respectfully, sir, you have someone with three guns that close proximity, I didn’t think I had the option to say something.”
Combs’ defense had tried earlier to bar James’ testimony on grounds that it was not relevant, but the judge ultimately sided with the prosecution, who said it supported their racketeering charge. To that end, Agnifilo pressed James about a meeting he’d had with the government, where he was instructed not to provide more details on the Knight incident. James said he obliged because he was told “not to say anything that would incriminate himself.”
Agnifilo later asked James if he was granted immunity for his testimony. James said he was not sure of the specifics, but said he believed his attorneys arranged a proffer agreement, which would provide him some protection from prosecution. (There has so far been no evidence, however, that a crime was committed during the trip to the restaurant.)
Later in the day, the court heard testimony from Sharay Hayes, a male escort known as “The Punisher,” who was hired by Combs and Ventura on numerous occasions for freak-offs. Hayes offered more insight into how these highly choreographed sexual encounters were carried out, recalling how Combs would give Ventura “subtle directions” regarding everything from the lighting to the positioning of her body.
While being questioned by the prosecution, Hayes said he understood these encounters as Ventura “creating a sexy scene that was enjoyable to her partner.” While Ventura never refused Combs’ directions, Hayes said that he “did observe sometimes a sigh, a wince, that seemed to be frustration at the frequency” of Combs’ directions.
During cross-examination, Combs’ defense lawyer, Xavier Donaldson, asked Hayes if Ventura ever appeared uncomfortable during the freak-offs. “I did not get any cues that there was a discomfort with what was going on,” Hayes replied. Later, he said, everything seemed consensual, and when Donaldson asked him if his reading of the situation, and Ventura’s comfort level, was based on “25 years experience doing dry humping on hundreds of thousands of women,” Hayes replied, “Correct.”
From Rolling Stone US
