Sean “Diddy” Combs’s longtime girlfriend Cassie took to the stand as the court’s key witness on day two of the rapper’s sex trafficking trial in New York.
The hip hop mogul faces charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution in what prosecutors have described as a decades-long criminal enterprise. If convicted, Combs faces a sentence of life in prison, with a minimum of 15 years.
Combs denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty. Lawyers for the three-time Grammy winner argue that he has “a bad temper” and “sometimes gets so angry or so jealous that he is out of control” but that “domestic violence is not sex trafficking”.
Cassie met Combs in 2005 when she was 19 and he was 37. He signed her to his Bad Boy Records label and a few years later they started dating. According to Cassie what ensued during their on-off relationship between 2007 and 2018 was a decade of physical abuse and sexual exploitation where she would be forced weekly into sexual encounters with male escorts.
Cassie alleged that Combs, 55, forced her into days-long sexual encounters with male escorts and subject her to years of physical abuse and sexual exploitation during their on-off relationship between 2007 and 2018.
Cassie, whose legal name is Cassandra Ventura, sued him in 2023 alleging years of abuse. The suit was settled within hours but triggered dozens of similar legal claims and sparked a criminal investigation.
During her testimony on Tuesday, the R’n’B singer shared never-before-heard details about these “freak offs” and her relationship with Combs.
In the stand, Cassie described her life with Combs and all the things he paid for – cars, houses, luxury trips – and those he took away to “punish” her – her phone, her laptop, jewellery.
She said that Combs controlled every aspect of her physical appearance and if he was dissatisfied with it he would instruct his staff to take away her belongings.
Cassie said she would eventually get the items back – “It depended how long I was being punished for, I guess.”
Cassie, who is eight months pregnant, gave her testimony on the second day of the high-profile trial. (Photo: Jane Rosenberg/Reuters)Sean “Diddy” Combs watches as his former girlfriend Cassie reacts during testimony to prosecutor at Combs’ sex trafficking trial in New in this courtroom sketch. (Photo: Jane Rosenberg/Reuters)Freak offs ‘became a job’ and could last days
Cassie told the court she was 22 when Combs first proposed a “freak-off” with a male escort. It was the first year of their relationship and she said she was “confused, nervous, but also loved him very much”.
After the first one, she said they became a weekly ritual and she was scared he would get angry if she refused and that the video tapes he took of the sessions were “blackmail materials”.
The encounters lasted anywhere from 36 to 72 hours, with the longest taking four days – with no sleep. She said they took priority over her music career: “The freak-offs became a job, where there was no space to do anything else but recover.”
Each time, she added, she had to recuperate from lack of sleep, alcohol, drugs “and other substances”, and “having sex with a stranger for days”.
She signed a 10-record album deal with Combs’s Bad Boy Records label in 2006 but only released one album.
Cassie described seeing handguns in safes in Combs’s homes in New York, Los Angeles and Miami.
She recalled an incident during a “freak-off” in Los Angeles, one of Combs’s security guards came to tell him that rival music mogul Suge Knight was at a diner nearby. She said they had grabbed guns and left the house. “I was crying, I was screaming, ‘Don’t do anything stupid.’ I just was really nervous for them,” Cassie said.
Cassie told the jury that she was once handed a gun by one of Combs’s security guards on the way to a club in downtown Los Angeles after she had taken hallucinogenic mushrooms. She was “terrified” that the firearm would go off during the 90 minutes it was in her possession, she said.
Cassie said Combs would often produce guns as a “scare tactic”.
Cassie searched for escorts on Craigslist
Combs tasked her with hiring men for the “freak-offs”, Cassie told the court, and she used websites like Craigslist, a online platform for classified ads, and escort services to find male sex workers. Combs had specific physical requirements and would always have to give final approval, she added.
The male escorts would be paid $1,500 – $6,000 for their services and the “freak-offs” took place in hotel rooms all over the world – Las Vegas, Ibiza, Turks and Caicos. She testified that some of the men were flown to destinations to have sex with her – touching on the prosecution’s allegations of transporting people for the purpose of prostitution.
square NEWS Sean 'Diddy' Combs lured women into violent, degrading abuse over 20 years, jury told
Read MorePair were engaged in ‘freak-off’ before viral clip of him beating her
Not long into her testimony, prosecutors showed the viral CCTV footage of Combs beating Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016.
She told the court that they were having a “freak-off” prior to the altercation and that she was attempting to leave. She said she ran out when he was distracted but then he caught up with her.
On Monday, a former security guard described being called to reports of a woman in distress. He said 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 left, and Florez said Combs called out while holding a stack of money with a $100 (£75) bill on top, telling him, “Don’t tell nobody.”
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