Cassie feared release of 'freak-off' videos, she testifies at Sean (Diddy) Combs trial
R&B singer wraps 2nd of testifying in Combs's sex trafficking trial, cross-examination expected Thursday
WARNING: This story may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
The R&B singer Cassie testified Wednesday that her ex-boyfriend Sean (Diddy) Combs kept her in a cycle of abuse and exploitation by threatening to release videos of her in multi-day, drug-fuelled sex parties he orchestrated and called "freak-offs."
Addressing the New York courtroom for a second day in Combs's federal sex trafficking trial, Cassie said that even though she loathed having drugged-up sex with strangers, she couldn't reject Combs's demands because he would make her "look like a slut."
"I feared for my career. I feared for my family. It's just embarrassing. It's horrible and disgusting. No one should do that to anyone," said Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura.
Prosecutor Emily Johnson continued her questioning throughout the afternoon Wednesday. Court adjourned for the day without defence lawyers beginning their cross-examination, which they're expected to begin Thursday.
Teny Geragos, a lawyer for Combs, told U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian, who is overseeing the trial, earlier in the day that the prosecution's questioning of Cassie had "gone differently than we expected."
She didn't elaborate except to say the defence will have to adjust its strategy as a result.
Prosecutors in the sex trafficking and racketeering trial have accused Combs of exploiting his status as a powerful music executive to violently force women participate in the freak-offs.
Combs is charged with five counts, including sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion. He denies all of the allegations.
What the jurors saw but not the public, media
Prosecutors showed jurors seven still photos of Ventura and various escorts that were taken from videos of "freak-offs." The images shown Wednesday afternoon were only on monitors in the jury box and witness stand, and the feed was cut to the public gallery and overflow rooms because of their sensitive nature. The photos were not shown to spectators or the press.
One juror swallowed hard upon seeing one image and another jerked his head back.
Prosecutors provided binders with printed copies to the judge and defence counsel. At one point, Combs asked his lawyer Mark Agnifilo for the binder.
Combs discretely thumbed through the images, keeping them out of view of the public in the gallery behind him. After a few moments, Combs closed the book and handed it back to Agnifilo.
Cassie took selfies after hotel beating
Cassie also described a vicious beating Combs gave her that was caught on surveillance video at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
The footage showed Combs hitting, kicking and attempting to drag Cassie back to their room. She said it happened as she was leaving one of the degrading freak-offs.
After the footage was leaked last year, Combs apologized.
Combs's attorneys have acknowledged he could be violent, but they say he engaged in consensual sex and that nothing he did amounted to sex trafficking or racketeering.
Jurors on Wednesday were shown photographs of Cassie's swollen lip after the 2016 hotel attack. She testified that she took the selfies during an Uber ride after leaving the hotel and that she wore sunglasses because she had a black eye.
Once home, she said a friend saw her injuries and was "super upset" because she'd "seen me with black eyes and busted lips before."
Cassie said her friend called police but that after police arrived, she declined to reveal who had injured her, so they left. "In that moment, I didn't want to hurt him that way," Cassie said. "I wasn't ready."
She also testified that Combs kept texting her after she left the hotel. She said he claimed police were about to arrest him.
Cassie lays out other violent abuse against her, friends
Prior to a Christmas trip home in 2011, Cassie said, Combs had lunged at her with a corkscrew and kicked her in the back when he learned that she had started dating rapper Kid Cudi during a low point in her relationship with Combs.
Cassie said that she went home with bruises. She lied to her mother that it was the first time he'd hit her.
"I couldn't hurt her like that," Cassie testified. "And it was terrifying. It's not normal, constantly being bruised up by the person you love — who says they love you."
Jurors saw photos showing a large, dark bruise on Cassie's lower back and other bruises on her shoulder and thigh that she said she sustained in the altercation.
The photos shown to jurors were taken at her family home in Connecticut after she flew cross-country from Los Angeles.
On another occasion in 2013, while she was packing to go to rapper Drake's music festival in Canada, she said Combs scuffled with her friends and threw her into a bed frame.
She said she suffered a "pretty significant gash" above her left eye. Combs's security personnel brought her to a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills to get the wound stitched up.
Afterward, she texted Combs a photo of her injured face and wrote: "So you can remember."
Combs replied: "You don't know when to stop. You pushed it too far. And continued to push. Sad."
Cassie alleged Combs was violent with her friends, as well.
She testified that she saw Combs bring her friend back over the railing of a balcony at her Los Angeles apartment before he "threw her on the patio furniture."
On another occasion, she said, she saw him hit a different friend, whom she had been close to for 17 years, in the head with a hammer. "It just ended our friendship," she said.
She hasn't spoken to the friend since.
Cassie testified in the morning session that she complained to Combs once about the sexual acts he made her perform and the abuse that came with it by telling him: "You treat me like you're Ike Turner."
Ike Turner was described in singer Tina Turner's autobiography and a film adapted off of it as an abusive lover.
Cassie felt 'empty' and 'gross' after sex with 'freak-offs'
Earlier Wednesday, prosecutors showed Cassie a binder of photos and she identified 13 as male sex workers she said she recruited at Combs's behest for encounters in Las Vegas, Miami and Los Angeles.
She said she'd had sex with all of them, though she couldn't remember all of their names. She identified a half-dozen other sex workers in court on Tuesday.
She testified Tuesday that Combs would pay the men thousands of dollars to have sex with her for 36 or 48 hours, and the longest lasted four days.
The freak-offs took place in private, often in dark hotel rooms — unlike Combs's very public white parties in the Hamptons that attracted A-list celebrities.
The encounters left her feeling emotionally "just really empty, and I felt just gross."
"It was something I hated doing," she said, but she endured them because she was in love with Combs and "felt like I did my job."
Cassie testified Wednesday she would recover by getting IV fluids, massages and having a chef cook meals. She said she developed an opioid addiction from using them after the encounters as a coping mechanism.
She said she experienced post-traumatic stress disorder before ending her relationship with Combs in 2018, and that she was blacking out and sleepwalking.
"In my mind, my body was telling me I just needed to chill out," Cassie testified.
Cassie, now 38, met Combs in 2005, when she was 19 and just at the start of a career as a singer, model and actor. She had a hit song, Me & U, in 2006 off an album released by Combs's Bad Boy Records.
Combs, who was 37 when they met, nurtured her career early on and also became her boyfriend for a decade.
Cassie left Combs's record label in 2019 and then sued him in 2023, accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse.
The suit was settled within hours but dozens of similar legal claims followed, sparking the criminal investigation against him.
Combs, 55, has been jailed since September. He faces at least 15 years in prison if convicted. The trial is expected to last about two months.
Support is available for anyone who has been sexually assaulted. You can access crisis lines and local support services through this Government of Canada website or the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. If you're in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.
With files from Reuters and CBC News