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R&B singer Cassie testified Wednesday that her ex-boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs raped her when she ended their decade-long relationship, after he locked her in a lifetime of bodily abuse by threatening to launch degrading sexual movies of her.
Addressing the court docket for a second day in Combs’ federal intercourse trafficking trial in Manhattan, Cassie mentioned Combs compelled his means into her Los Angeles house and raped her on the lounge ground after she mentioned she was breaking apart with him.
Cassie mentioned she noticed Combs on a subsequent event and had a consensual encounter with him, explaining: “We’d been together for over 10 years. You just don’t turn feelings off … like, I didn’t hate him.”
Cassie additionally mentioned she did not really feel she might refuse Combs’ calls for for her to have “hundreds” of encounters with male intercourse employees — which he watched and managed for hours and even days — as a result of he would make her “appear to be a slut” if he made the movies public.
“I feared for my profession. I feared for my household. It’s simply embarrassing. It’s horrible and disgusting. Nobody ought to do this to anybody,” mentioned Cassie, whose authorized title is Casandra Ventura.
Prosecutors confirmed the jury 5 nonetheless photos from the intercourse movies on Wednesday. Cassie mentioned the pictures depicted her at numerous levels of the encounters Combs referred to as “freak-offs.” One juror’s eyes widened, and one other shook his head back and forth.
The pictures have been proven solely on screens within the jury field and witness stand. The feed was reduce to the general public gallery and overflow rooms due to their delicate nature. Prosecutors offered binders with printed copies to the decide and protection counsel.
At one level, Combs requested his lawyer Mark Agnifilo for the binder. Combs discretely thumbed via the pictures, conserving them out of view of the general public within the gallery behind him. After a couple of moments, Combs closed the e-book and handed it again to Agnifilo.
She sued Combs in 2023, accusing him of years of bodily and sexual abuse. Inside hours, the swimsuit was settled for $20 million — a determine Cassie disclosed for the primary time Wednesday — however dozens of comparable authorized claims adopted from different girls, sparking the felony investigation towards him.
Prosecutors accuse Combs of exploiting his standing as a robust music government to violently drive Cassie and different girls to participate in sexual encounters. He’s charged with 5 counts, together with intercourse trafficking by drive, fraud or coercion. A number of different accusers are set to testify.
Combs denies the entire allegations and has pleaded not responsible. His attorneys acknowledge he might be violent, however say the intercourse he and others engaged in was consensual and that nothing he did amounted to intercourse trafficking or racketeering.
Combs’ legal professionals have been anticipated to start cross-examining Cassie on Thursday, when they’ll get the possibility to problem her credibility or poke holes in her account of what occurred. After the jury was despatched residence for the day, legal professionals squabbled over floor guidelines for the cross-examination of Cassie. Combs lawyer Marc Agnifilo mentioned infidelity can be the featured topic of the questioning that’s anticipated to stretch till day’s finish Friday.
“We have worn our defense on our sleeves since the first bail hearing,” Agnifilo mentioned. “Everybody knows we are going to bring up infidelity and text messages of infidelity.”
Combs, 55, has been jailed since September. He faces at the least 15 years in jail if convicted. The trial is anticipated to final about two months.
Cassie exposes the darkish aspect of a star relationship
Cassie’s testimony is exposing the darkish underside of a relationship that, for years, performed out publicly in footage of the couple smiling on pink carpets and celeb occasions. She mentioned she met Combs in 2005, when she was 19 and he was 37. Combs signed her to a 10-year contract along with his Dangerous Boy Data label. Inside a couple of years, they began courting, Cassie mentioned.
They have been photographed in 2016 attending the premiere of the movie “The Perfect Match,” solely two days after Combs beat and kicked Cassie at a Los Angeles resort after a freak-off — an assault captured on safety digicam footage performed on TV and in court docket. After the footage was leaked final yr, Combs apologized. Jurors have been proven that footage in addition to pictures of the couple on the premier.
Cassie, now 38, calm and poised after an emotional first day of testimony, mentioned she used make-up to coverup her bruises and wore sun shades to cover a black eye for the premiere. She mentioned she sneaked right into a popcorn closet on the movie show to change clothes for an afterparty so bruises on her legs wouldn’t be seen.
On one other event in 2013, whereas she was packing to go to Drake’s music competition in Canada, Cassie mentioned Combs scuffled along with her pals and threw her right into a mattress body. She sustained a “pretty significant gash” above her left eye. Combs’ safety personnel introduced her to a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills to get the wound stitched up, she mentioned.
Afterward, she mentioned she texted Combs a photograph 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.”
Combs accused of a historical past of violence
Cassie testified about a number of different violent episodes. Early of their relationship in 2007, she mentioned he repeatedly hit her and knocked her to the ground of a car with a blow to her head.
That got here after she mentioned she was at a dinner with “Sean and friends” when she noticed Combs flirting with anyone. She mentioned she shrugged her shoulders when anyone else who noticed it checked out her. However then, she mentioned, Combs attacked her in a automotive after they left the venue.
“I was just shocked,” she mentioned. “I didn’t necessarily understand what happened and why he was so angry.”
In 2011, when he discovered she began courting rapper Child Cudi, she mentioned Combs lunged at her with a corkscrew and kicked her within the again.
After the 2011 assault, she mentioned she lied to her mom at Christmas that it was the primary time Combs 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 noticed pictures exhibiting a big, darkish bruise on Cassie’s decrease again and different bruises on her shoulder and thigh that she mentioned she sustained within the altercation.
Cassie additionally testified that she noticed Combs pull considered one of her pals again over the railing of a balcony in Los Angeles. She mentioned she noticed him hit a special pal of hers within the head with a hammer.
“It just ended our friendship,” Cassie mentioned, including that she hasn’t spoken to the pal since.
Cassie mentioned she was experiencing post-traumatic stress dysfunction earlier than ending her relationship with Combs in 2018, and was blacking out and sleepwalking.
Cassie says she had a breakdown in 2023
Cassie testified that her life reached a climatic second in early 2023 when she had “horrible flashbacks” as she was taking pictures a music video.
She mentioned she went residence after the video shoot and her two children have been asleep however her husband was there. Cassie mentioned she remembered “telling him you can do this without me. You don’t need me here anymore.”
With that, Cassie 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 was present process rehab and trauma remedy.
Requested why she’s testifying at Combs’ felony trial, she mentioned: “I can’t carry this anymore. I can’t carry the shame, the guilt.”
For those who or somebody you understand is experiencing home violence, contact the Nationwide Home Violence Hotline by calling 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), visiting www.thehotline.org or texting LOVEIS to 22522.
Sources for victims of sexual assault can be found via the Nationwide Sexual Violence Sources Heart and the Nationwide Sexual Assault Phone Hotline at 800-656-4673.
