NEW YORK: The first week of testimony in the sex trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy“ Combs included a witness core to the case: Casandra Ventura, the music mogul’s ex-girlfriend who accuses him of harrowing abuse, coercion and rape.
Combs, 55, is facing federal charges of sex trafficking and leading an illegal sex ring that enforced its power with crimes including arson, kidnapping and bribery — and faces life in prison if convicted.
Here are takeaways from the trial’s first week, which is expected to last upwards of another two months.
Key witness Ventura
Ventura, the 38-year-old singer known as “Cassie,“ took the stand as a star witness mere weeks before she is due to give birth to her third child.
She was largely composed but at times openly wept as she recounted degrading sex parties she said Combs coerced her into for years, at times weekly.
Combs would direct her to take drugs before the elaborately choreographed sex that routinely involved male escorts, which he dubbed “freak-offs.”
The drugs were a “buffer” to withstand the “humiliating” and often-filmed sexual encounters, Ventura said.
The jury was repeatedly shown disturbing surveillance footage of Combs brutally beating and dragging Ventura.
It was a regular experience, she told jurors.
“He would mash me in my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me on the head if I was down.”
Drugs, sex and violence
The defense acknowledged violence played a role in the relationship but said both of them were party to it.
They showed jurors reams of text messages in a bid to cast Ventura as a willing participant in the freak-offs.
Their relationship was tumultuous and had toxic qualities, the defense admitted, but they showed loving — and sexually graphic — texts to indicate that it was still based on a foundation of love.
Ventura didn’t deny that, but she said that love — along with her reputation and career — was also a chip Combs played to control her and force her into freak-offs against her will.
The defense spent significant time on issues of drug abuse, with Ventura testifying that both she and Combs were opioid addicts.
Combs’s counsel implied that withdrawal symptoms and “bad” batches of party drugs could have resulted in erratic behavior.
Domestic abuse vs trafficking
There’s no question that physical assault was part of Combs and Ventura’s relationship: it’s evident in the widely publicized surveillance footage from the hotel incident that was already seared into the public consciousness prior to trial.
But the defense contends that while Ventura’s relationship with Combs included domestic abuse, it did not amount to sex trafficking. She behaved erratically and even violently herself, they said.
Ventura was the first of two anticipated witnesses — the other is anonymously identified as Jane — included in the sex trafficking charges Combs faces.
During opening statements Combs’s defense lawyer Teny Geragos called Combs’s accusers “capable, strong adult women,“ and said his situation with Ventura was a “toxic relationship” but “between two people who loved each other.”
Combs familial entourage
Lawyers on both sides as well as Ventura have described Combs as “larger than life.”
The artist made hundreds of millions in the music, fashion, media and liquor industries and is often credited with helping to take hip-hop mainstream.
But the rap producer and global superstar once famous for his lavish parties now appears visibly aged after months in prison, his once jet-black hair now gray.
His court entourage has included his mother along with a rotating cast of his seven children, including his 18-year-old twin daughters.
What’s next
To successfully convict Combs prosecutors must prove that he ran a criminal enterprise in which he and employees conspired to do his bidding at all costs.
The government also alleges that Combs sex-trafficked Ventura and Jane through coercion or force.
The prosecution is expected to show that Combs’s inner circle committed or helped with crimes at his behest, including sex crimes but also arson and kidnapping.
Other witnesses have included a former hotel security guard who responded to a distress call from Ventura after a freak-off, a male escort who participated in the sex parties, and a special agent who was present for Combs’s arrest last year.
Currently on the stand is Dawn Richard — a singer who found fame on MTV’s reality show “Making the Band,“ which Combs produced. Richard previously filed a separate civil suit against Combs alleging sexual assault and battery.
After that, prosecutors indicated Kerry Morgan, Ventura’s former but longtime best friend, and Ventura’s mother are expected to testify.
