The singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, a former girlfriend of Sean “Diddy” Combs and a key witness in the federal sexual traffic and racketeering trial of the musical magnate, will return to the witness stand on Wednesday morning, while the high -level trial enters her third day.
Ventura, who is eight and a half months pregnant, said on Tuesday that, during her decade and deactivation relationships with combs, she endured years of physical violence, control and violence and detailed sexual encounters fueled by drugs involving male escorts which, according to her, were led by combs.
She described Combres as having control over almost all aspects of her life and testified that the arguments would sometimes become violent, saying in court that the combs “crushed my head, overturned me, dragged me, bothered me”.
Ventura, 38, filed a complaint in 2023 against Combs, accusing him of physical and sexual abuse. Although the two settled this trial for an undisclosed sum, this caused a federal investigation which led to the arrest of Combs in September 2024.
Combs faces accusations, including racketeering, sex trafficking and transport to engage in prostitution. He pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations.
Tuesday, during her testimony of several hours, Ventura became emotional at times, stopping to resume deeply or cry. She stamped her eyes with a fabric and put her hands periodically on her pregnant stomach.
Ventura recounted the sexual sessions fueled by drugs of several days, known as “freak-offs”, which she said that Combs directed and “choreographed”.
Ventura testified that she did not want to engage in the meetings that involved a male escort, and that each time she took drugs, often MDMA or Ecstasy, that she said that Combs provided, which would help her stay awake, and also for her to “dissociate”, she said.
The “freak-offs”, told Ventura to the jury, made him feel “horrible”, “worthless” and “humiliated”. But, she said that she was young and in love with the combs, and felt forced to participate because she did not want to put “angry” combs.
“I wanted to make him happy,” she said. “I didn’t know what” no “could become.”
At one point during the testimony, she declared in court: “Make the bad face, and the next thing I knew, I would be struck in the face.”
Ventura also told when she met Combres for the first time in 2005 at the age of 19, describing him as a “larger than life, musician entrepreneur”. She told the court how she signed an agreement of 10 album with the COMBS DISCS HOUSE, BAD BOY Records, but ended up released only one album.
Just before the Tuesday court session, prosecutors began to question Ventura on a critical evidence in the case: a video surveillance of the 2016 hotel corridor showing strikes and dragging Ventura.
Ventura testified that she, Combs and a male escort had been engaged in a “freak-off” in the hotel room when, at one point, the Combs hit her, and she therefore caught her things and left the room.
Ventura will continue her testimony on Wednesday, with a counter-interrogation to follow.
The trial, which should last at least eight weeks, is not a television.
If he is found guilty, Combs, who was imprisoned since his arrest last year, could spend the rest of his life in prison.
