Sean “Diddy” Combs’ heavily pregnant ex-girlfriend for a decade, Cassie Ventura, stepped down from the her arduous week on the witness stand at a lower Manhattan federal courthouse on Friday afternoon, having recounting in often harrowing detail the alleged coercive control, manipulation, blackmail, drug use and unwanted sex with male prostitutes that she says he forced her into for his sexual pleasure. Yet despite the darkness — now very public knowledge — in their relationship, toward the end of her sensational, sad and, at times, salacious testimony, Ventura told Combs’ attorney when asked point blank that, despite the violence and many allegations she detailed this week, she does not have animosity toward Combs.
“I don’t hate him,” Ventura told attorney Anna Estevao. When asked on the stand if she still has love left for the beleaguered rap and fashion mogul, she replied, “I have love for the past, and what it was.”
The complicated answer to a difficult question sums up Ventura’s week of testimony, where shocking details of her and Combs’ sex life, with the infamous “freak-offs” sex marathons as a central topic, were discussed at length alongside accounts (and footage) of violence and various tales of cruelty, jealousy and revenge within the couple’s personal life. The jury hearing Combs’ case is tasked with comprehending the relationship’s complexity and Ventura’s role — whether she was a victim forced into drug-fueled sexual marathons, or if some small, acknowledged details indicate she was a willing participant throughout their decade-plus together, or if the truth is somewhere in between.
Friday’s cross-examination featured frequent squabbles between U.S. District Court Judge Arun Subramanian and Combs’ team of defense lawyers as the federal prosecutors moved the questioning along to ensure Ventura, who is eight months pregnant, finished testifying on Friday. As Combs’ defense team closed out their cross-examination, the implication was apparent that the jury should see Ventura was a willing participant in all of the sexual exploits she laid out for the jury, including the often days-long “freak-offs” where Combs would watch as a drug-fueled and baby oil-soaked Ventura engaged in sex acts with male escorts. Her career was not held hostage, the defense implied, saying she gained great access to the world of celebrity through the defendant.
“You said it was a world of chaos? ‘Freak-offs,’ drugs and partying? By being with him, you could meet other people in the entertainment industry and go to fascinating places,” Estevao said to Ventura, who was a teenager when she was signed to Combs’ Bad Boy Records label and soon after entered a tumultuous relationship with the mogul.
Having Ventura read aloud many text messages between the couple over the years, trying to show her agency, the defense questioned her about the benefits she enjoyed; she conceded that being with Combs had perks, like attending the Met Gala with him, and she was able to lock in “a lot of studio time” through many influential entertainers such as Kid Cudi, Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne and Rick Ross.
But during Ventura’s testimony, the context around that infamous 2016 video where the terrified R&B singer is seen fleeing a Los Angeles hotel room, then being savagely beaten by Combs, was also fully realized. Ventura had been looking forward to attending a premiere for a film she’d worked on a decade ago, and as she testified this week, she’d attempted to get ahead of a potential post-“freak-off” hangover — a days-long process, she said — by setting one up in advance of the event. Instead, she was beaten badly while fleeing the hotel room “freak-off” when Combs suddenly turned violent on her.
“During the ‘freak-off,’ he hit me in the eye and I left before he said it was over,” Ventura testified. “He followed me to the hallway and he dragged me back, he was wearing a towel and socks.”
Following the attack, Combs handed some cash to a security guard at the hotel in what the guard testified he saw as a bribe for his silence on the matter. Ventura suffered bruising to her eye, a fat lip and another notable bruise. Prosecutors displayed images to the jury that show this was visible during the premiere, two days after the incident.
Ventura also testified this week that in 2018, as the couple was finally breaking up, Combs raped her in her home after a lunch date for closure. But during cross-examination on Friday, she also said that weeks after this alleged incident, she had consensual sex with him.
Participating in “freak-offs” took time and snuffed out her music career, she said.
Ventura’s testimony laid the foundation for the jury to understand what prosecutors say in Combs’ five-count indictment amounts to recruiting women under the notion of beginning a romantic relationship, and then, allegedly, via force, threats of force, coercion and controlled substances, getting the women to engage in sex acts with male prostitutes as Combs, and sometimes his friends, would watch.
The feds have two more witnesses to show how this was a pattern that involved a “criminal enterprise” that consisted of several of his staff members.
During Friday’s cross-examination, the defense consistently attempted to poke holes in Ventura’s version of the couple’s history, questioning her motivations by asking about the settlement to the tune of $20 million in her civil case against Combs and the monetary figure she’ll receive from a settlement in a lawsuit she filed against the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles, where the infamous attack by Combs occurred. Ventura is motivated by money alone, the defense argues; their opening statement said it: This is a case about “love, jealousy, infidelity and money.”
By 3:30 p.m. local time Judge Subramanian was telling Ventura to “have a great weekend” as she walked away from a punishing week in court and from Combs, who she had not seen in years before taking the stand.
Two more witnesses took the stand following Ventura’s exit: Special Agent Yasin Binda, who handled logistics of Combs’ arrest in September, testified that $9,000 in cash was found in a black fanny pack in his hotel room that day. The jury was able to see the money as he pulled it from the evidence bag. They were also able to hold two bags of ketamine and “pink cocaine” powder found in the room.
Next was Dawn Richard, who was part of the group Danity Kane. The group was mentored by Combs as part of MTV’s Making the Band TV series; she knew him professionally from 2004 to 2011 and says she saw Combs attack Ventura in 2009.
“He came downstairs screaming, belligerent, asking where his food was and proceeded to hit her over the head, kicked her and beat her to the ground in front of us,” she testified.
Richard said that she was “scared to do anything in fear of what that might mean for me, too.”
A sidebar over her testimony closed out the day as the jury was told to return at 8:30 a.m. on Monday.
