‘I just felt trapped’: Cassie Ventura testifies for 2d day about existence with Diddy – National | Globalnews.ca

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As the intercourse trafficking trial for Sean “Diddy” Combs enters its 3rd day, Combs’ ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, took the stand Wednesday to renew her testimony after an afternoon spent recounting gruesome and humiliating main points of her existence with him.

Ventura is thought of as a celebrity witness for the prosecution and her testimony is especially precious. Combs used to be captured on safety video violently assaulting Ventura in a lodge hallway in 2016.

Ventura sued Combs in 2023, alleging years of rape and abuse. The swimsuit used to be settled inside of hours, however used to be adopted via dozens of an identical criminal claims and touched off a legal investigation.

During her first day of testimony, on the second one day of the blockbuster trial, Ventura described being stressed into degrading sexual encounters with paid intercourse staff. She additionally recounted being overwhelmed a large number of instances via Combs when she did issues that displeased him — like smiling at him the incorrect means.

“You make the wrong face and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face,” she mentioned.

Ventura accused Combs of gaining her subservience via threatening to publicly unlock movies of her with male intercourse staff.

Combs’ attorneys have said the rapper might be violent however take care of that the sexual acts have been consensual. They say not anything he did amounted to intercourse trafficking or racketeering (the fees he faces), however insisted he simply has distinctive sexual proclivities.

Day 3

Ventura returned to the witness stand in a while ahead of 10 a.m. on Wednesday right through Combs’ sex-trafficking trial, answering questions posed via prosecutor Emily Johnson for a 2d day.

For a 3rd day in a row, the jury watched the lodge surveillance pictures of Combs’ 2016 attack on Ventura however the video had no sound. She mentioned she recalled Combs throwing a vase with plants in it.

“I didn’t get hit. I remember it hitting the wall. He was yelling at me and threw it at me,” she mentioned.

Ventura mentioned that as she used to be seeking to go away the lodge, Combs informed her “that I wasn’t going to leave him there. That I couldn’t.”

The prosecution confirmed two pictures of Ventura following the lodge attack and textual content messages between the previous couple.

Ventura mentioned that she took selfies on her Uber trip clear of the lodge. She had a swollen lip and testified that underneath her shades, she had a black eye.

Combs texted Ventura after the attack and mentioned, “the cops are here,” begging her to name him. In reaction to Combs, Ventura mentioned that she had a film premiere for “the biggest thing I’ve ever done in my life” and now she had a “fat lip” and black eye.

“Please stay far away from me,” she texted him.

Ventura mentioned Combs claimed police have been about to arrest him and informed her if she didn’t solution his telephone calls she’d “never hear my voice again.”

Ventura’s buddy referred to as the police following the attack and so they confirmed as much as her condo to query her, however she mentioned that she didn’t need to say who assaulted her.

“Did you want to protect Sean?” Johnson requested.

“Yeah, of course,” Venture answered. “In that moment, I didn’t want to hurt him that way. I wasn’t ready.”

Ventura mentioned that once the attack, Combs confirmed as much as her condo and she or he heard “chaos outside of the door” together with “banging, kicking, yelling.”

She mentioned that she went to the house of one in every of Combs’ safety guards, D-Roc, now not too lengthy after the attack “to feel safe.” She then went to Combs’ space to do a becoming for her upcoming transfer premiere for a romantic comedy she starred in referred to as The Perfect Match.

The premiere happened two days after the lodge attack and the jury used to be proven a photograph of Combs and Ventura on the afterparty. She identified bruises on her frame that have been visual within the pictures and mentioned she used to be not able to hide up the entire harm with make-up.

The prosecution confirmed a 2016 textual content message from Combs to Ventura concerning the freak-offs. He proposed they’ve a “proper” freak-off with out the drug ketamine concerned.

In a textual content message, he wrote {that a} “successful” freak-off used to be “when we remember.”

“I won’t bring up again until you are in that mood,” he wrote.

Ventura informed the courtroom ketamine used to be her most well-liked drug right through the freak-offs as a result of “it was very dissociative.”

She then mentioned how movies of the freak-offs have been became “blackmail materials.” She mentioned that once Combs used to be offended together with her, he steadily reminded her of the sexually specific movies he had stored.

“One time I dated someone else and that’s what it was all about — ‘I’m going to put out two embarrassing videos of you,’” she mentioned, including that she believed Combs “just wanted to hurt me.”

She mentioned the movies may just spoil the whole thing she’d labored for and “make me 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,” she mentioned.

In a 2013 textual content message, she wrote to Combs: “Please delete any video out of your iPhone if you have. Too many ppl have access to your stuff.”

Combs informed her that he had deleted them however there have been instances of their dating that she mentioned she noticed the movies he claimed to have deleted.

When Johnson requested Ventura if she ever attempted to battle again when Combs picked a battle together with her, she mentioned she attempted previous of their dating however discovered “it could escalate the fight more, make it worse for myself.”

Ventura testified that she had an “off-and-on” habit to opiates. She mentioned she took them to return down off birthday party medicine, together with ecstasy, which she mentioned she’d use right through freak-offs.

“Opiates made me feel numb, which is why I relied on them so heavily,” she informed the courtroom, including, “I didn’t want to feel what was actually going on in my mind, in my life, in real time. It was just an escape for me.”

She additionally testified that she had continual urinary tract infections (UTIs) when she and Combs have been having freak-offs. She mentioned she would proceed to participate within the freak-offs in spite of the infections, calling the ache “horrible.”

In some other textual content message between Ventura and Combs, she informed him that she had sores on her tongue. Ventura informed the courtroom that she idea the sores have been from taking medicine and acting oral intercourse right through the freak-offs.

Combs spoke back to Ventura, writing, “I’m sorry.”

After freak-offs, Ventura mentioned, she felt emotionally “just really empty and I felt gross.” She additionally mentioned she “felt like I did my job.”

Ventura mentioned that Combs would “put his hands on me” right through freak-offs with different male escorts.

“He would grab me up. Push me down. Hit me in the side of the head. Kick me. You name it,” Ventura mentioned.

On one instance in 2013, whilst packing to visit Drake’s OVO tune competition in Toronto, Ventura mentioned Combs “attacked” her pals and threw her right into a mattress body.

She mentioned when Combs went to “attack” her, her pals “jumped on his back.”

Venture mentioned she suffered a “pretty significant gash” above her left eye, and Combs’ safety introduced her to a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills to get the wound stitched up.

She texted Combs a photograph of her damage after and wrote: “So you can remember.”

“You don’t know when to stop. You pushed it too far. And continued to push. Sad,” Combs answered.

Ventura mentioned that she has an enduring scar on her eyebrow from the 2013 altercation.

She additionally spoke about attending the Cannes Film Festival in 2013 and published that Combs had kicked her off the yacht they have been staying on once you have right into a battle.

Combs accused Ventura of taking medicine from him and made her go away the boat with out footwear, her passport and different property.

She mentioned she ended up staying at a lodge the place Combs’ staff have been staying.

She testified that after they have been on a airplane getting back from the competition, Combs pulled up freak-off movies on his computer and informed her that he used to be going to “embarrass” her “and release them.”

“I just felt trapped,” she informed the courtroom.

After the airplane landed in New York, she mentioned, Combs mentioned he sought after to have a freak-off.

“At that point, whatever was going to make him not be angry at me and threatening me, I was willing to do,” she mentioned. “I just didn’t want to feel scared anymore. It was the one thing he made me feel like I was good at.”

Ventura learn a textual content message she despatched to Combs in 2017, during which she wrote that “nothing good” comes out of the freak-offs.

“You treat me like you’re Ike Turner,” she wrote, regarding Tina Turner’s former husband, who used to be bodily abusive in opposition to the singer.

There used to be dialogue between prosecutors and the pass judgement on about appearing sealed proof to simply the jurors, attorneys and Ventura whilst the use of privateness monitors.

The prosecutor mentioned movies of Ventura thinking about sexual scenarios would now not be proven right through direct exam nevertheless it’s unclear whether or not the defence will display the pictures.

Ventura used to be proven 5 pictures from freak-offs that most effective she and the jury may just see.

In probably the most pictures, Ventura known a long term witness for the prosecution who has been known as “Mia,” however is indexed in courtroom paperwork as “Victim-4.”

Ventura additionally known pictures of herself having sexual touch with “Jules,” “Dave” and “Greg,” 3 of the escorts she has referred to in her testimony.

She mentioned the photographs have been taken from movies that have been stored on an digital instrument that she idea used to be damaged, however used to be grew to become over to the federal government as proof.

Ventura mentioned that a couple of staff of Combs witnessed him abusing her over the route in their dating. She testified that one assistant informed her they hand over as a result of the best way Combs handled her.

She conceded that she initiated bodily fights with Combs now and then right through their dating, however claimed he used to be now not injured right through the ones fights. Ventura added that once Combs used to be bodily together with her, there can be bruises that will require her to cover out with a view to save you someone from seeing them.

Ventura additionally spoke concerning the first time Combs bodily abused her, after she witnessed him flirting with any individual else at a gaggle dinner in 2007 or 2008. She mentioned she shrugged her shoulders when any individual else who noticed it checked out her.

She mentioned after they were given into his Escalade after the dinner, “he knocked me around and was just really mean.” She added that he hit her within the facet of the top, which despatched her flying onto the ground of the automobile.

“I was just shocked,” she added.

When recounting yet again she used to be overwhelmed via Combs, she recalled hiding out at a lodge for per week so her wounds may just heal. She mentioned she sought after to visit her mom’s space however knew she used to be now not allowed.

“It wouldn’t be safe. I understood Sean’s capabilities, his access to guns, the threats he made prior to that. I was privy,” she informed the courtroom.

Ventura additionally spoke about an incident in 2011 when Combs found out that she had begun courting rapper Kid Cudi, whose actual identify is Scott Mescudi.

Combs went thru Ventura’s telephone right through a freak-off and lunged at her with a “wine bottle opener” after he learn textual content messages between the 2.

Ventura and Mescudi. She mentioned that Combs threatened to harm her and Mescudi, in addition to unlock two freak-off movies.

Ventura mentioned Combs “attacked” her at his house and when she returned to her lodge room, it have been trashed, with urine and feces strewn in the toilet.

She informed the jury that she in the end went to peer her mom in Connecticut, the place she allowed her to take pictures of the bruises on her decrease again and proper thigh.

“I believe I told her this was the first time, and I didn’t tell her about the freak-offs,” Ventura mentioned, including that she felt she couldn’t “justify it to anyone, especially not your mom.”

Ventura changed into emotional and asked a smash after talking about mendacity to her mom.

When she returned to the stand after a 10-minute smash, Ventura testified that she ended issues with Mescudi following Combs’ threats towards them on the finish of 2011.

“Too much danger, too much uncertainty of what could happen if we continued to see each other,” she mentioned.

Ventura mentioned that Combs threatened to explode Mescudi’s automotive and that he sought after Mescudi’s pals to be there when it came about.

The courtroom used to be proven a close-up image of Ventura’s eyebrow and black eye. When requested who gave her the black eye, Ventura spoke back: “Sean.”

Combs didn’t need his circle of relatives to peer Ventura after she had sustained any accidents, she mentioned.

“He told me to make sure his son couldn’t see me like that, the bruises on my face,” Ventura mentioned.

As she endured her testimony about notable acts of violence she mentioned she witnessed, Ventura introduced up an incident the place she mentioned she noticed Combs cling one in every of her pals over a balcony railing at her Los Angeles condo.

On some other instance, she mentioned, she noticed him hit a special buddy — with whom she have been as regards to for 17 years — within the head with a wood hanger.

“It just ended our friendship,” Ventura mentioned, including that she hasn’t spoken to her since.

She additionally testified that her existence reached a climatic second in early 2023 when she had “horrible flashbacks” as she used to be taking pictures a tune video.

She mentioned she later informed her husband at house that “you can do this without me. You don’t need me here anymore.”

She mentioned she couldn’t take the ache anymore and “tried to walk out the front door into traffic and my husband would not let me.”

Weeks later, she used to be present process rehab and trauma remedy.

Asked why she used to be attesting at Combs’ legal trial, she mentioned: “I can’t carry this anymore. I can’t carry the shame, the guilt.”

What he’s on trial for

U.S. prosecutors allege that for 20 years, at the back of the scenes, Combs used to be coercing and abusing ladies with assist from a community of comrades who helped silence sufferers thru blackmail and violence.

Combs faces an indictment that comes with descriptions of freak-offs, which might be outlined within the courtroom document as “elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded.”

Numerous witnesses have come ahead to accuse Combs of terrorizing other people into silence via choking, hitting, kicking and dragging them, in line with prosecutors. One indictment alleges that Combs dangled any individual from a balcony.

Although dozens of women and men have alleged in proceedings that Combs abused them, this trial will spotlight the claims of 4 ladies.

Combs is charged with intercourse trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to interact in prostitution. He has denied the entire fees towards him and has rejected a plea deal, opting for to visit trial as an alternative.

If discovered in charge within the New York courtroom, he may just face existence in jail.

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Day 2 testimony abstract

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Global News will probably be protecting the Diddy trial in its entirety. Please test again for updates. 

— With information from Global News’ Michelle Butterfield and The Associated Press

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