Sean “Diddy” Combs’s ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura, a rhythm and blues singer known as “Cassie”, testified at the hip-hop mogul’s sex trafficking trial on Tuesday, telling the jury he would often beat her, leaving her with black eyes and bruises all over her body.
“He would bash my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me in the head if I was down,” Ms Ventura, her voice breaking slightly, said as the prosecution’s star witness on the second day of testimony.
Asked how frequently Mr Combs was physical with her, Ms Ventura, wearing a brown dress and visibly pregnant, said: “Too frequently.”
Mr Combs (55) has pleaded not guilty to five felony counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted on all counts, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and could face life in prison.
Prosecutors say Mr Combs, who sported a grey beard and wore a beige sweater on Tuesday, lured women into romantic relationships, forced them to take part in days of drug-fuelled sex parties and then blackmailed them with videos he recorded of the encounters.
Mr Combs “viciously attacked” women when they resisted taking part in the parties, known as “Freak Offs” or otherwise upset him, prosecutor Emily Johnson said during her opening statement on Monday in Manhattan federal court.
Ms Ventura (38) told jurors she did not want to engage in the Freak Offs but did so to avoid making Mr Combs angry.
“I was confused and nervous, but I also loved him very much and wanted to make him happy,” Ms Ventura said.
Prosecutors have alleged Mr Combs used his clout in the music industry to bend victims to his will and keep them silent about his abuse. Throughout Ms Ventura’s testimony, the prosecution repeatedly emphasised the power imbalance between the Bad Boy Records founder and Ms Ventura, who was in her early 20s when they started dating.
Ms Ventura said Mr Combs controlled much of her life and career at the time.
“And I just felt like I didn’t have much say in it at the time, being very young, naive, a people pleaser,” Ms Ventura said. She testified that she continued to participate in the Freak Offs because Mr Combs used videos of the encounters as blackmail.
Mr Combs’s lawyers say prosecutors want to criminalise the rapper’s “swingers” lifestyle in which he and his girlfriends invited other men to join them for sex.
Defence lawyer Teny Geragos conceded to jurors on Monday that Mr Combs had a bad temper and jealousy problems, but said this had nothing to do with sex trafficking or racketeering.
“Domestic violence is not sex trafficking,” Ms Geragos said. “He is not charged with being a flawed individual.” Prosecutors introduced a video of Mr Combs and Ms Ventura on Monday, the first day of evidence in the high-profile trial. In the video, Mr Combs throws her to the ground and kicks her in the hallway of a Los Angeles area hotel when she tries to leave.
Mr Combs, wearing only a towel, is then seen grabbing Ms Ventura’s belongings and dragging her into the hallway. Mr Combs apologised after the video first aired on CNN last year.
Marc Agnifilo, Mr Combs’s lead lawyer, has said the 2016 hotel incident depicted the aftermath of a dispute over infidelity. In a court hearing on Friday, Mr Agnifilo said Ms Ventura had a history of domestic violence, signalling he plans to use that to undermine Ms Ventura’s credibility.
Over the course of a two-month trial, jurors are expected to hear testimony from Ms Ventura and two or possibly three of Mr Combs’s other female accusers, as well as his former employees who prosecutors say helped arrange and cover up his actions.
Ms Johnson told jurors they would hear testimony from victims who said Mr Combs routinely beat them and exploded with rage at the smallest slights.
“They will tell you about some of the most painful experiences of their lives. The days they spent in hotel rooms, high on drugs, dressed in costumes to perform the defendant’s sexual fantasies,” Ms Johnson said.
Defence lawyer Ms Geragos said on Monday that prosecutors were trying to twist Mr Combs’s romantic relationships into a racketeering and sex trafficking case.
“Sean Combs is a complicated man, but this is not a complicated case. This case is about voluntary choices made by capable adults in consensual relationships,” Ms Geragos said in her opening statement. – Reuters
