NEW YORK (TNND) — R&B singer Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, has taken the stand on Tuesday to testify as a key witness in day two of the sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The National News Desk’s Geoff Harris is outside the courtroom in Manhattan, where the embattled music mogul is facing charges of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, transportation for purposes of prostitution, and racketeering conspiracy.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment and faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted on all charges.
PHOTOS DAY 1: Outside the sex trafficking trial of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
Ventura, 38, who is visibly pregnant and avoided the press outside the courtroom, told prosecutors that she met Combs 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 platonically.
While laying the groundwork for their relationship, she stated that Combs kissed her for the first time in 2007, and she cried and ran off, saying she was “really confused.” Shortly after, the two developed a more comfortable relationship, eventually leading to sex on a boat in Miami, where Ventura claims she took ecstasy that Combs gave her.
Ventura told prosecutors she became one of his girlfriends, fell in love, and moved to Los Angeles to be with him.
She said that at first, she was “enamored by him,” but began to “experience a different side of him, which was his abusive side.”
The alleged abuse of Ventura came to light when she filed a civil lawsuit against Combs in November 2023, accusing the artist of rape and repeated physical abuse over roughly a decade. The lawsuit was settled privately without Combs commenting on the allegations or admitting wrongdoing.
In 2024, hotel surveillance video made public by CNNshowed Combs beating her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
The judge in the case ruled that the video can be shown as evidence during the trial despite Combs’ lawyer’s attempts to get it excluded, arguing in part that it is “wholly inaccurate” and altered. CNN has strongly denied any claims altering the footage. After the video was aired, Combs posted a video to Instagram apologizing and said he was “disgusted” by his actions. He did not name Ventura during his apology.
Ventura told the jury some of the couple’s arguments would be violent and result in “some sort of physical abuse,” according to CNN, which was permitted access to the courtroom.
PHOTOS DAY 2: Family enters Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs trial ahead of Cassie testimony
“He would smash me in my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me in the head if I was down,” Ventura told Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson, adding she would get knots on her forehead, busted lips and “bruises all over my body.”
As Ventura’s husband, Alex Fine, sat in the courtroom, she went on to explain that a still image from the hotel surveillance footage showed her leaving after “an encounter that we called a ‘Freak Off.'”
She testified that she was barely 22 when the “freak offs” began within the first year of their relationship.
“Within the first year of our relationship, he proposed this idea, this sexual encounter that he called voyeurism, where he would watch me be in intercourse with a third party, specifically with another man,” she told Johnson. “Eventually, it became a job for me, pretty much, so I knew if it was something he wanted me to do, I had the contacts to set it up and get a hotel room and all of that, but in the beginning, Sean set it up. He was in charge.”
As she sat noticeably emotional on the stand, according to CNN, Ventura said she didn’t feel like she had much say in it.
“I knew it wasn’t something I wanted to be doing, especially as regularly as it became, but again, I was just in love and wanted to make him happy,” she testified. “And I just didn’t feel like I had much say in it at that time, being really super young, naive, total people pleaser. I didn’t know if he would be upset enough to be violent or if he would write me off and just not want to be with me at all.”
Over time, Ventura 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.”
She told prosecutors that the “freak offs” could last anywhere from 36 to 48 hours, forcing her to spend a “big chunk of her life” recovering from drugs or dehydration, CNN reported.
“Freak offs became a job where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again,” she said.
When asked how she would stay awake that long, she said, “The drugs honestly helped.”
Daniel Phillip, who said Cassie paid him for sex multiple times, often in Combs’ presence, was first on the stand Tuesday to finish cross-examination. He testified on Monday that he stopped seeing the couple after Combs assaulted Ventura.
Defense lawyer Xavier Donaldson pointed to Phillip’s past statements to federal prosecutors as he attempted to show inconsistencies in his recollection of events. Donaldson finished his cross-examination after suggesting that Phillip had developed a crush on Cassie and wanted to isolate her from Combs so he could be with her romantically. Phillip denied that, but admitted: “I was attracted to her. If she ever gave me the chance to date her, I absolutely would have.”
On Monday, a 12-person jury was selected, followed by opening statements and testimony. Prosecutors claimed that for years, Combs used his status as a powerful executive to coerce women into abusive sexual encounters and became violent if they refused.
Prosecutors immediately showed the CNN video as proof of violence when calling the trial’s first witness to the stand, Israel Florez, a former security guard at the Intercontinental Hotel in Century City, where the alleged abuse happened.
Florez testified Monday that he was called to the floor where the couple was staying and found Combs sitting in a chair with a “devilish state.” Florez mentioned Combs offered him a bribe and said, “Don’t tell nobody.”
Florez said he refused the cash and told Combs, “I don’t want your money. Just go back into your room.”
Lawyers for Combs argued he could be violent but never participated in sex trafficking and racketeering, telling jurors that the sexual acts were consensual.
Johnson told the Manhattan jury at the beginning of the trial that they would “hear about 20 years of the defendant’s crimes.”
Prosecutors added that Combs allegedly beat another woman last year, identified only as Jane, when she confronted him about enduring years of “freak offs.”
An attorney for Combs, Teny Geragos, told the jury 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 was arrested in September 2024, about roughly six months after federal authorities raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami. He has been jailed in Brooklyn since his arrest.
If you or someone you know is struggling with abuse, contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline for help.
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Editor’s note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.
