Combs, 55, was arrested in September 2024, charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation for prostitution.
Teny Geragos, Combs’ lawyer, described the trial as a misguided overreach by prosecutors. She said that while her client could be violent, the state was trying to turn consenting sex between adults into a prostitution and sex trafficking case.
Janice Combs, mother of Sean Combs, and other family members leave on the first day of the rapper’s trial in New York City (Photo: Jeenah Moon/Reuters)
Geragos conceded that Combs’ violent outbursts, often fueled by alcohol, jealousy and drugs, might have warranted domestic violence charges, but not sex trafficking and racketeering counts. She told jurors they might think Combs is a “jerk” and might not condone his “kinky sex,” but “he’s not charged with being mean. He’s not charged with being a jerk.”
The trial’s first witness, Israel Florez, who worked hotel security in 2016 but is now a Los Angeles police officer, said he knew who Combs was when he encountered him sitting by the hotel’s elevators as he responded to a report of a woman in distress.
He said that he then escorted Cassie and Combs to their room and the singer indicated that she wanted to leave. Combs told her: “You’re not going to leave.” Florez said he responded: “If she wants to leave, she’s going to leave.”
Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, was expected to testify later Monday or Tuesday.
Sean Diddy Combs, left, stands as his defence attorney, Teny Geragos, gives her opening statement (Photo: Elizabeth Williams/AP)Prosecutors question Israel Florez about a video from a hotel at Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s sex trafficking trial (Photo: Jane Rosenberg/Reuters)Phillip said he stopped meeting with them after he saw Combs throw a bottle at Cassie and then drag her by her hair into a bedroom as she screamed.
He has pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment that could result in a 15-year-to-life prison sentence if he is convicted. Since his September arrest, he’s been held at a federal jail in Brooklyn.
Lawyers for the three-time Grammy winner say prosecutors are wrongly trying to make a crime out of a party-loving lifestyle that may have been indulgent, but not illegal.
In her opening, Johnson said Cassie was far from the only woman Combs beat and sexually exploited.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, seen at the 2018 Met Gala, is charged with kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex crimes, bribery and obstruction (Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP)The sex parties are central to Combs’ sexual abuse, prosecutors say. Combs’ company paid for the parties, held in hotel rooms across the US and overseas, and his employees staged the rooms with his preferred lighting, extra linens and lubricant, Johnson said.
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Combs would beat Cassie over the smallest slights, such as leaving a “freak-off” without his permission or taking too long in the bathroom, Johnson added.
Cassie sued Combs in 2023, and the lawsuit was settled within hours, but it touched off a law enforcement investigation and was followed by dozens of lawsuits making similar claims.
She also conceded that Combs is extremely jealous and “has a bad temper,” telling the jury that he sometimes got angry and lashed out when he drank alcohol or “did the wrong drugs.” But, she said, “Domestic violence is not sex trafficking.”
With additional reporting from Associated Press.
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