Why Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’s trial hinges on ex-girlfriend Cassie’s testimony

In a trial that’s undoing the legacy of one in every of music’s greatest moguls of the 2000s, the main target of the opening week of proceedings was not Sean “Diddy” Combs himself – however his ex-girlfriend.

R&B singer Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura took the witness stand for 4 days, describing in emotional particulars the years of beatings and drug-fuelled intercourse encounters with prostitutes that she alleges she endured by the hands of the rap celebrity, who she dated for greater than a decade.

However whereas her story clearly left an impression on these within the courtroom, which one onlooker described as an “aura of disappointment”, it is only one piece within the puzzle that prosecutors should current to show that Mr Combs was not simply an abuser, however a mastermind of a felony, sexual enterprise.

On Tuesday, gasps erupted in a Manhattan overflow courtroom when prosecutors referred to as Ms Ventura – their star witness – to the stand. All eyes had been fastened on the eight-months pregnant singer, as she strolled previous her ex-boyfriend, whom she had not seen in six years.

Ms Ventura was there to testify within the federal intercourse trafficking, racketeering and prostitution case towards Mr Combs, whom she accuses of abusing her and coercing her into undesirable intercourse acts – so-called “freak-offs” – throughout their 11-and-a-half 12 months relationship.

Mr Combs is charged with racketeering conspiracy, intercourse trafficking and transportation to have interaction in prostitution – all of which he has vehemently denied.

Surrounded by his youngsters and dozens of household and mates, Mr Combs has watched Ms Ventura from his chair on the defence desk just some dozen ft away.

All of the whereas, US District Choose Arun Subramanian has pushed attorneys to remain on schedule, as prosecutors have expressed fear their star witness might go into labour together with her third youngster as quickly as this weekend.

On her first day on the stand, Ms Ventura started by taking prosecutors via the beginning of her tumultuous relationship with Mr Combs, whom she met when she was a 19-year-old aspiring musician. Mr Combs, 17 years her senior, signed her onto his file label.

Their romantic relationship started quickly after, when Ms Ventura fell in love with the “larger-than-life” musician and entrepreneur, she mentioned. Nevertheless it was not lengthy earlier than she observed a “totally different” aspect to him, Ms Ventura testified, at occasions wiping the tears from her eyes.

Mr Combs, she mentioned, needed to regulate each side of her life. He paid for her lease, her automotive, and her cellphone, generally taking the gadgets away to “punish” her when he was upset, she mentioned.

Finally, the connection turned violent. She testified in regards to the time when he attacked her as a result of she was sleeping, slashing her eyebrow as he threw her onto the nook of her mattress as her two mates tried to cease him. The courtroom was proven a photograph of the gash that Ms Ventura mentioned Mr Combs employed a plastic surgeon to repair secretly. There was one other time at a celebration the place he kicked her head as she cowered behind a rest room in a toilet stall, she mentioned.

Whereas jurors remained targeting her testimony and the proof, betraying little emotion, some within the courtroom wiped away tears or seemed away from the graphic images and movies – together with the viral video of Mr Combs beating and dragging Ms Ventura within the hallway of the InterContinental Resort in Los Angeles in 2016.

Printed by CNN final 12 months, the video has been seen by thousands and thousands – together with lots of the jurors earlier than they had been seated within the trial – and Ms Ventura, who was compelled to rewatch the incident of abuse a number of occasions this week.

Ms Ventura testified that the lodge incident passed off after she tried to go away a “freak-off”, a sexual encounter by which the couple would rent male escorts to have intercourse with Ms Ventura whereas Mr Combs watched and recorded from the nook.

Ms Ventura mentioned the rapper launched her to freak-offs round a 12 months into their relationship, and at first, she did it to make him pleased.

However over time, the encounters humiliated her, she mentioned. They might generally final so long as 4 days, and require Ms Ventura to take numerous medication to remain awake, she mentioned. She endured accidents like painful urinary tract infections – and as soon as even blacked out, waking up within the bathe, she mentioned.

“It made me really feel nugatory,” she advised the courtroom. “Freak-offs turned a job the place there was no house to do anything however to get better and simply attempt to really feel regular once more.”

The couple would go on to have “a whole bunch” of freak-offs, Ms Ventura estimated.

After years of non permanent break-ups – some fuelled by Mr Combs’ affairs – Ms Ventura ended her relationship with Mr Combs for good in 2018, the identical 12 months she alleges the rapper raped her in her residence as she cried.

Ms Ventura went on thus far and marry her private coach, Alex High quality, with whom she has two youngsters, however the trauma of her relationship has stayed together with her.

By means of tears, Ms Ventura advised the courtroom of a time two years in the past when she thought of taking her personal life, when traumatic flashbacks of her time with Mr Combs turned an excessive amount of to deal with. Her husband helped her search remedy to get better, she mentioned.

Get all the most recent trial updates on the BBC Sounds ‘Diddy on Trial’ podcast obtainable wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

All through Ms Ventura’s harrowing story of home violence, prosecutors have tried to string in parts of their bigger intercourse trafficking and racketeering case towards Mr Combs.

Mr Combs’s attorneys have already conceded that the rapper was abusive – and have argued they might not have fought a home violence case towards him. However, “home violence will not be intercourse trafficking”, Mr Combs’ legal professional Teny Geragos argued this week.

The federal authorities has charged Mr Combs with transportation to have interaction in prostitution and intercourse trafficking by drive, fraud, or coercion.

He’s additionally charged with main a racketeering conspiracy, or directing an unlawful enterprise beneath the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). The statute was created to tackle mob bosses, however has since been utilized in different circumstances, together with intercourse trafficking, such because the case towards disgraced R&B singer R Kelly.

Assistant US Legal professional Emily Johnson used elements of Ms Ventura’s story to spice up this case, asking her in regards to the weapons the rapper had entry to and the methods he allegedly blackmailed her.

Ms Ventura advised the courtroom of a time when she mentioned Mr Combs pulled up movies he recorded of their freak-offs on his laptop computer, in view of others on a industrial flight. She mentioned he advised her he would launch them if she did not behave.

“I felt trapped,” Ms Ventura mentioned.

Arick Fudali, a lawyer who represents an unnamed sufferer within the authorities’s case towards Mr Combs, mentioned “the worry of what would occur in the event that they did not comply” is an important component of the federal government’s case.

“Somebody can consent to a sexual act in fact,” Mr Fudali advised the BBC. “However somebody will also be coerced into being compliant, and that is totally different.”

The federal government has additionally used Ms Ventura’s testimony to attempt to construct up their racketeering argument – the allegation that Mr Combs used his loyal community of associates to run a felony enterprise and canopy up his alleged crimes.

Prosecutors have requested Ms Ventura about safety guards who she mentioned stood by whereas Mr Combs abused her. Ms Ventura has testified about Mr Combs’ workers’ involvement in organising freak-offs with provides like child oil, and reserving journey for the male escorts they employed.

After a day and a half on the stand, it was Mr Combs’ attorneys flip to query Ms Ventura.

The rapper’s lawyer, Anna Estevao, relied on a whole bunch of pages of textual content messages between Mr Combs and Ms Ventura to assist push her staff’s broader arguments: that Ms Ventura was a prepared participant in freak-offs in a poisonous relationship fuelled by medication and jealousy.

Mr Combs’ authorized staff confirmed messages from Ms Ventura to Mr Combs by which she mentioned she was “all the time prepared” for a freak-off, and one other time when she mentioned she wished they may have had one.

Ms Ventura acknowledged writing the messages whereas including that these had been “simply phrases at that time”.

Ms Estevao additionally saved bringing Ms Ventura again to the couple’s moments of infidelity, like when Mr Combs would spend holidays along with his household and former girlfriend Kim Porter, or when Ms Ventura started relationship rapper Child Cudi whereas she and Mr Combs had been on a break.

She repeatedly requested Ms Ventura about her drug use and the way each she and Mr Combs struggled with opioid dependancy at occasions.

In these moments, the defence was attempting to point out jurors that it was a poisonous, violent and sophisticated relationship – however not a case of racketeering or intercourse trafficking, former federal prosecutor Sarah Krissoff advised the BBC.

The defence additionally made efforts to attempt to chip away on the authorities’s racketeering case, asking Ms Ventura whether or not Mr Combs’ workers had really witnessed the freak-offs, to which Ms Ventura mentioned she didn’t suppose so.

In the end, Mr Fudali mentioned, the prosecution’s case will hinge on this query of compliance versus consent – whether or not Mr Combs’ girlfriends had been prepared individuals in his sexual fantasies or acted out of worry.

“Did Ms Ventura consent or was she coerced into complying?” Mr Fudali mentioned. “That appears to be the query for the jury.”