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The singer Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, a former female friend of Sean “Diddy” Combs and central persona within the case towards him, took the stand on Tuesday because the high-profile federal trial of Combs enters its 2d day in decrease Manhattan.
She is anticipated to testify towards her former spouse for a number of days.
Visibly pregnant and in her 3rd trimester, Ventura was once to start with requested to explain her courting with Combs: “There were violent arguments that would usually result in some sort of physical abuse. Dragging, different things of that nature.”
Early in her testimony, Ventura was once requested to explain Combs’s “freak-offs”.
“It basically entails the hiring of an escort and setting up this experience so that I could perform for Sean,” she stated, including that it allowed Combs “to watch me with the other person and actually direct us on what we were doing. Eventually it became a job for me, pretty much.”
Ventura emphasised that she felt a “responsibility” to make Combs satisfied.
“I was confused, nervous, but also loved him very much,” she stated, later including that he “controlled a lot of my life” and used most of the movies he took of her all the way through those “freak-offs” as “blackmail materials”.
She then recalled her first assembly with Combs, in 2005, when she was once 19.
“I just knew that he was this larger-than-life entrepreneur, musician. Was a fan of the music. I didn’t know too much about him personally,” she stated, including that she went directly to signal a 10-album maintain Combs’s file label.
Combs, who was once arrested ultimate September, faces fees together with racketeering conspiracy, intercourse trafficking and transportation to interact in prostitution. He has pleaded no longer responsible and denied all allegations.
Wearing a light-colored sweater, Combs hugged a few of his legal professionals and greeted members of the family upon getting into court docket on Tuesday.
Daniel Philip, the second one witness referred to as on Monday and a former supervisor of a “male revue show”, was once again at the stand on Tuesday morning after no longer completing his testimony on Monday.
In his previous testimony, Philip stated that one day in 2012, Ventura paid him to have intercourse together with her in entrance of Combs, and that identical encounters happened a couple of instances over the next 12 months or so.
During greater than an hour of graphic testimony, Phillip stated he as soon as witnessed Combs throw a liquor bottle at Ventura and, on any other instance, drag her by means of the hair right into a bed room. He testified that he then heard what gave the impression of slapping and her screaming coming from the bed room.
On Tuesday, Combs’s legal professional Xavier Donaldson requested Philip if Casandra Ventura “was in complete control of everything she did” with Combs.
“I cannot say that,” Phillip stated.
Phillip later testified about Ventura’s drug use and famous its infrequency all the way through their encounters. He additionally printed that he had larger emotions for her: “Had she ever given me the chance to date her, I absolutely would have.”
On Monday, a jury of 8 males and 4 girls heard opening statements, and testimony from the primary two witnesses referred to as to the stand by means of the federal government.
Prosecutors allege that Combs ran a “criminal enterprise” via his trade empire, aided by means of friends and staff, that engaged in crimes akin to intercourse trafficking, kidnapping, arson, bribery, enticement to interact in prostitution and obstruction of justice – allegedly courting again to no less than 2004.
In opening remarks, prosecutors accused Combs of the use of threats, violence and coercion to pressure girls into intercourse acts with male escorts at drug-fueled events that he orchestrated – occasions referred to as “freak-offs”.
Combs’s protection legal professionals stated that Combs perpetrated home violence up to now, however denied any involvement in intercourse trafficking or a racketeering conspiracy, and portrayed any team intercourse as consensual, describing it as a part of a “swinger’s lifestyle”.
Following opening statements, the prosecution referred to as two witnesses.
The first was once a Los Angeles police officer, Israel Florez, who was once running as a safety guard on the InterContinental resort in March 2016 when Combs was once stuck on surveillance video assaulting his then female friend, Ventura.
Florez testified that he spoke back to a lady in misery at the 6th ground, and located Combs seated in a towel, immobile and with what he described as “a devilish stare”. Ventura, Florez testified, had a “purple eye”.
Combs presented him a wad of money, which he understood to be a bribe, Florez informed the court docket. Florez stated: “He [Combs] was telling me, ‘Don’t tell nobody.’”
Combs’s circle of relatives, together with his mom, Janice Combs, and his kids, have been seated within the court’s entrance row on Monday. During Phillip’s testimony, Combs’s 3 teenage daughters left the room.
In accordance with federal court docket regulations, the trial isn’t being televised. If convicted, Combs, who has been jailed since his arrest ultimate 12 months, may spend the remainder of his lifestyles in jail.
