Online Reporter
NEW YORK. — In a trial that is undoing the legacy of one of music’s biggest moguls of the 2000s, the focus of the opening week of proceedings was not Sean “Diddy” Combs himself – but his ex-girlfriend.
R&B singer Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura took the witness stand for four days, describing in emotional details the years of beatings and drug-fuelled sex encounters with prostitutes that she alleges she endured at the hands of the rap superstar, who she dated for more than a decade.
But while her story clearly left an impression on those in the courtroom, which one onlooker described as an “aura of sadness”, it is just one piece in the puzzle that prosecutors must present to prove that Mr Combs was not just an abuser, but a mastermind of a criminal, sexual enterprise.
On Tuesday, gasps erupted in a Manhattan overflow courtroom when prosecutors called Ms Ventura — their star witness — to the stand.
All eyes were fixed on the eight-months pregnant singer, as she strolled past her ex-boyfriend, whom she had not seen in six years.
Ms Ventura was there to testify in the federal sex trafficking, racketeering and prostitution case against Mr Combs, whom she accuses of abusing her and coercing her into unwanted sex acts — so-called “freak-offs” — during their 11-and-a-half year relationship.
Mr Combs is charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution – all of which he has vehemently denied.
Surrounded by his children and dozens of family and friends, Mr Combs has watched Ms Ventura from his chair at the defence table just a few dozen feet away.
All the while, US District Judge Arun Subramanian has pushed attorneys to stay on schedule, as prosecutors have expressed worry their star witness could go into labour with her third child as soon as this weekend.
Throughout Ms Ventura’s harrowing story of domestic violence, prosecutors have tried to thread in elements of their larger sex trafficking and racketeering case against Mr Combs.
Mr Combs’s attorneys have already conceded that the rapper was abusive – and have argued they would not have fought a domestic violence case against him.
But, “domestic violence is not sex trafficking”, Mr Combs’ attorney Teny Geragos argued this week.
The federal government has charged Mr Combs with transportation to engage in prostitution and sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion.
The rapper’s lawyer, Anna Estevao, relied on hundreds of pages of text messages between Mr Combs and Ms Ventura to help push her team’s broader arguments: that Ms Ventura was a willing participant in freak-offs in a toxic relationship fuelled by drugs and jealousy.
Mr Combs’ legal team showed messages from Ms Ventura to Mr Combs in which she said she was “always ready” for a freak-off, and another time when she said she wished they could have had one.
Ms Ventura acknowledged writing the messages while adding that those were “just words at that point”.
Ms Estevao also kept bringing Ms Ventura back to the couple’s moments of infidelity, like when Mr Combs would spend holidays with his family and former girlfriend Kim Porter, or when Ms Ventura began dating rapper Kid Cudi while she and Mr Combs were on a break.
She repeatedly asked Ms Ventura about her drug use and how both she and Mr Combs struggled with opioid addiction at times.
In these moments, the defence was trying to show jurors that it was a toxic, violent and complicated relationship — but not a case of racketeering or sex trafficking, former federal prosecutor Sarah Krissoff told the BBC. — BBC.
