NEW YORK (AP) — Sean “Diddy” Combs’ former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, took the witness stand in his sex trafficking trial on Tuesday and testified about being abused and sexually exploited by him for years, a day after prosecutors showed jurors video of the music mogul beating her in a hotel in 2016.
Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, is the central witness in prosecutors’ attempts to portray Combs as using his status as a powerful executive to orchestrate a deviant empire of exploitation, coercing women into abusive sex parties he called “freak-offs” and becoming violent if they refused.
Lawyers for three-time Grammy winner argue that although he could be violent, Combs never veered into sex trafficking and racketeering, telling jurors the sexual acts were consensual. Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty.
Cassie sued Combs in 2023 alleging years of abuse. The suit was settled within hours, but was followed by dozens of similar legal claims and touched off a criminal investigation.
Testimony in the trial began Monday. An attorney for Combs, Teny Geragos, told the jury during opening statements that Combs’ accusers were after his money, adding that jurors might think he’s a “jerk” and might not condone his “kinky sex,” but that “he’s not charged with being a jerk.”
Combs has been jailed in Brooklyn since his arrest in September. If convicted, could get at least 15 years and up to life in prison.
Cassie testifies about ‘violent arguments’
Cassie, 38, told the jury Tuesday that her relationship with Combs ran the gamut from good times to arguments and physical altercations. They met in 2005 when she was 19 and he was 37. He signed her to his Bad Boy Records label and, within a few years, they started dating.
“If they were violent arguments, it would usually result in some sort of physical abuse and dragging, just different things,” Cassie said. Asked how frequently Combs became violent with her, Cassie softly responded: “Too frequently.”
She said Combs “would mash me in the head, knock me over, drag me, kick me. Stomp me in the head if I was down,” leaving her with bruises and black eyes.
Cassie, noticeably pregnant on the witness stand, was emotional from the start, taking deep breaths and sometimes pausing as she spoke. She said she was barely 22 when Combs first asked her to do “freak offs.” She said she was “confused, nervous, but also loved him very much.”
Over time, Cassie said she began feeling as if she could not say no to demands for “freak offs” because “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.” She said it was always in “the back of my mind that I’ll be hurt by him.”
“Sean is a really polarizing person, also really charming,” Cassie said. “It’s hard to really be able to decide in that moment what you need when he’s telling you what he wants. I just didn’t know. I didn’t know what would happen.”
Elaborating on why she felt it was so difficult to refuse Combs’ demands, she reiterated her fears of violence and blackmail videos from “freak-offs” being disseminated on the internet.
The Associated Press doesn’t generally identify people who say they are victims of sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has done.
Hotel video is a key piece of evidence
A surveillance video made public last year showed Combs beating her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. CNN aired the video last year, leading Combs to apologize. The video, which was played for jurors Monday, shows Combs wearing only a white towel, punching, kicking and dragging Cassie in a hotel hallway.
Israel Florez, a former security officer at the hotel, testified Monday that he came across Combs while responding to a call about a woman in distress, and found Combs sitting in a chair with “a devilish stare.” Florez said he refused when Combs offered him a stack of money and said “Don't tell nobody."
Earlier Tuesday, the trial resumed with Combs' lawyer questioning Daniel Phillip, a male stripper who says he was paid to have sex with Cassie while Combs watched. Phillip testified on Monday that he stopped seeing the couple after Combs assaulted Cassie.
In opening statements Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson said Combs sexually exploited and beat other women, including a woman identified only as Jane, who Combs is accused of attacking after she confronted him about the “freak-offs.”
Judge Arun Subramanian said Tuesday that he’s inclined to grant a request by media organizations to view what a defense lawyer described as pornographic videos that will be shown to the jury as evidence in the case. But he’s giving the parties another day to make submissions on the matter.
Combs is among the most influential hip-hop producers and executives of the past three decades. The founder of Bad Boy Records is a three-time Grammy winner who has worked with a slew of top-tier artists including Notorious B.I.G., Mary J. Blige and Usher.
He also created the fashion clothing line Sean John and produced the reality show “Making the Band” for MTV, and once presided like a prince over his White Parties in the Hamptons that attracted A-list celebrities and gossip columnists.
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Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.
Michael R. Sisak And Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press
