Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised
Cassie Ventura was grilled by Sean “Diddy” Combs’ defense team, who deny all charges.
a contentious day in the trial of sean diddy combs with the defense putting the mogul’s now ex -girlfriend cassie ventura under cross – examination.
just a warning , this story contains accounts ,descriptions , and visual content of actual and alleged events that some may find disturbing….
in a new york city courtroom, star witness cassie ventura took the stand for the third day in sex trafficking and racketering conspiracy case against her former boyfriend , hip hop mogul sean diddy combs.
cassie was ghrilled for 6 hours by the defense trying to paint a picture that she was a willing participant in the alleged freakoffs that are central to the prosecution’s case .
the whole point of the cross -examination was to get jurors to believe that cassie ventura was not a victim of sex trafficking.
she may have been the victim of domestic violence or assault.
but they were hoping to raise doubt in the minds of jurors that there could have been other reasons cassie ventura engaged in sexual conduct she did .
comb’s laywer , anna estevao leading the cross – examination said ;
to make him happy you told him that you wanted to do freakoffs ,right?
cassie replying ,”no ,theres a lot more to that .
estevao going through old texts and confronting cassie with a message from august 2009 in which she told combs:
i’m always ready to freakoff . LOL.”
the defense reading another of cassie’s messages suggesting she became reluctant only when she felt,in her words:
quote;dirty and grimy a opposed to sensual and spontaneous….
going on to say,” i get nervous that i’m just becoming the girlfriend that you get your fantasies off with and that’s it.
the cross -examination did meander and appear to get bogged down at times , the whole defense is that cassie was not coerced into this kind of sexual activity.
so, the defense is hoping the jury in those text messages sees enthusiasm on the part cassie ventura , a willingness , an eagerness to participate in the kind of lifestyle that sean comb’s was leading.
they wanted to cast doubt,reasonable doubt on her credibility and they wanted to cast these encounters as consensual encounters and there is evidence to support that notion that they were in this relationship, that she agreed to this swinging lifestyle.
the defense questioning cassie about texts she sent to combs on the day this video was recorded showing diddy beating and dragging her after she allegedly tried to escape a f reakoff.
..i want to freakoff so bad ,but i don’t want to fuck myself up what am i to do
the defense trying to suggest the freakoff could be cassie’s ide.
even though the text messages appear to be friendly,the sex appears to be consensual over a decades long relationship that there can still be evidence of sexual abuse and sex trafficking.
sex crimes and sexual trafficking are generally the result of grooming by a defendant , someone that continues to push boundaries andmake behavior that is coervice, that is non- consensual ,appear to be normal.
another theme the defense pushed throughout the day,jealousy.
defense attorney anna estevao got ventura to agree she could be jealous.
cassie ventura said she had some jealousy of kim porter- the mother of four of comb’s children.
she wanted to be the one to develope a relationship with his family that she did not have.
cassie was asked about a moment at freakoff where combs went through her phone and discovered she had been sheating on him with rapper kid cuddy, whos real name is scott mescoudi.
estevao asked cassie ;
did you feel justified in cheating on him with mr mescudi because of mrcomb’s infidelities?
cassie answering,” i could have possibly,i dont know.
that jealousy cut two ways, cassie ventura talked about some pretty scary arguments she had with sean combs over her infidelity with rapper kid cuddy.
combs was violent towards her for reasons having nothing to do with sex,but because of jealousy and infidelity.
in 2015,when cassie was filming” honey 3″,she learned combs was dating another woman.
so she began a relationship with actor michael B jordan.
cassie testifying,” i was definitely angry ,yeah.”
cassie is expected to take the stand again.
judge wants her finished with her testimony by the end of friday after federal prosecutors told him that she could give birth as soon as this weekend.
combs is pled not guilty and denies all charges.
in court, comb’s mother and his three son’s sitting through a fourth day of graphic lurid testimony.
comb’s support system extending beyond family as well,including friend of 35 years charlucci finney now a member of diddy’s inner circle, defending his friend.
charlucci says he shows up to court every day, rain or shine,often wearing a free puff hoodie.
in a addition to the federal trial, comb’s is fighting more than 60 lawsuits ,depecting an alleged pattern of sexual violence and abuse.
comb’s lawyers have denied all allegations and said ;
he never sexually assaulted anyoune.
lisa bloom represents two people suing combs in civil court.
and one government witness in the federal case.
one of her clients is singer songwriter Dawn Richard was a member of danity kane and collaborated with diddy over the years.
she filed a civil suit against combs just days before he he was indicted and arrested last september.
richard accused combs of sexual battery ,forced labor,gender motivated violence , hostile work environment, and copyright infringement.
she also claims she witness combs becoming violent towards ventura on numerous occasions .
the alleged abuse , uncluding choking and strangling,punching her and throwing items at her , including scalding hot pan.
lisa bloom filed her suit one week before this case was brought against sean diddy combs.
she was suprised and frankly very pleased to see that the government filed a case that was strikingly similar to her case.
keep in mind, the government has a lot of power that lisa bloom dont have mainly ….
they had the power of the FBI to go in and conduct raids of mr combs’s home but knowing what the government knows that they filed a case that’s so similar to bloom’s and she saw that as a very positive sign.
combs lawyers have denied the allegations and accused Dawn Richard of trying to transform a straightforward commercial dispute into a headline graving sex trafficking conspiracy.
for many people ,this trial is about unchecked power. this trial is about the underbelly of the music industry.
guilty or not guilty , will his life be the same?
he’s a man in his mid -50s. can he rebuild if he is acuitted….?
After testifying for two days that Sean Combs forced her into sexual encounters with male prostitutes under threats of violence and harm to her reputation, Cassie Ventura was confronted on cross-examination by messages that appeared to show her reluctance was only because she wanted more from the relationship.
the defense getting to question sean diddy combs’s ex cassie ventura.
che spent two days telling the jury about how he force her into drugfueled freakoffs against her will with male prostitutes.
combs’s defense now trying to paint a very different picture of their decade long relationship.
cassie grilled about explicit text messages with combs as the defense tried to show the jury the freakoffs were defining feature of their relationship.
this as the judge told the defense to wrap this up because cassie, who is 8 and a half months pregnant,could go into labor any minute now.
combs fases the possibility of life in prison if convicted .
he’s pleaded not guilty and has denied all wrongdoing.
the defense is finally getting to question cassie ventura.
the questioning was very intense, allthough it was relatively gentle.
but here was a woman who is a mother now, expecting her third child at any moment with her husband in the courtroom,
reading aloud the most personal and intimate text messages you could ever imagine being read in open in court about the sex she desired ,the orgasms she had and what she wanted to do with her intimate partner at the time, sean combs.
and this was , if embarrassing for her , she seemed kind of resigned to it because she read it in matter of fact rather kind of calm flat tone and she never wavered, she never lost her composure.
the reaction in the courtroom as she read those text messages some of the jurors , one women shook her head ,but most of them appeared to lean in toward their screen so they could read along and follow along
as some of the messages maybe the less eye popping ones ,but nonetheless pointed toward the evidence where she said ;
i’m always ready to freakoff i love to “f.o.s” to freakoff”
because the idea on the defense side is to say that cassie was not coerced into these sexaul encounters with male prostitutes under threat of violence or humiliation the way prosecutors described .
but was a willing , even eager participant in the swinger’s lifestyle that they say sean combs led.
some pretty surprising testimony about comb’s drug use, allegations that he was addicted to opiates and one point overdosed….
this was part of the defense strategy to concede that he’s a drug user. now , maybe the public didn’t know the extent, but the defense was pretty frank that at one point he was addicted to opioids.
at one point he flew to mexico to try what cassie ventura called a plant medicine type remedy that’s not legal in united states.
that the two together tried just about every drug , MDMA, ecstasy,ketamim.
that the night of the now infamous freakoff in 2016 in los angeles intercontinental hotel where an assault was then captured on video that maybe combs was high on a bad bad batch of MDMA.
but the idea here, was to say that the violence from combs was not to coers cassie ventura into into sex .
it was the resultof drugs or in another aspect was the result of jealousy and her infidelity because of her dating kid cuddy,and her dating the actor michael B jordan.
and how that led to some pretty scary arguments as ventura put it with sean combs.
the defense asked her on the stand about drugs in the baby oil .
that was kind of a throwaway,and just right before a break , but there’s been some rumor about that there had been drugs in the baby oil or the baby oil was tainted.
but cassie ventura said there were no drugs in the baby oil.
she said plenty of other things about the baby oil during the course of her testimony ,but drugs weren’t apparently part of it.
now let’s break down some of the testimony from the cross examination of cassie ventura.
what was the standout moment?
to narrow it down to just one is very difficult,so….
of course ,those salacious text messages that everyone’s was talking about , details that are hard to get into , just the text messages ,but the order in which they came about.
the defense making the argument that cassie and combs had decided to have a freakoff some days in advance, and the days leading up to those aare wehere those salacious text messages came in,making it seem that cassie really wanted to participate in them .
in the end of the morning , the defense made it seem like these two might have been two addicts participating in sexual encounters and that’s where the violence came from .
cassie testifying that she believed at some point in times was an addict trying to get out of it and that the withdrawal made him very irritable and angry at times.
the jealousy that she talked about there on the stand in their relationship and cassie’s concerned about being a side piece, not the main girl.
don’t forget, kim porter, whose children and that she shares with sean combs are in the court.
the argument thar w’re having here is we see text messages like this.
kim porter is still in the scene. she is the quote unquote main girl.
and the argument here is that cassie is indulging in these fantasies hoping that if she keeps doing it that sean combs will pick her.
and the defense , is making the argument that she’s not getting the attention or the love that she wants.
it’s the jealousy that is fueling the violence,not the fact that sean combs is trafficking her.
again , in the text messages . the conversation about freakoff were about a part of their conversations,how they talked about going out and having a good time,but also plan the freakoffs.
and the freakoffs seem to be part and parcel with the relationship.
looking at the dates, again let’s just go back to this message. 2009 where she says she nervous about just being a girlfriend.
and 2017, some years later ” i love the freakoffs when we both want it.
it seems like the issue wasn’t about freakoffs or not freakoffs ,but that she wanteda and enjoyed the freakoffs where they had a freakoff and then they had sexual relations afterwards or vice versa.
but they had an intimate time as a part of the freakoffs,not just that the freakoffs were bad althogether.
not just of something he wanted to do , something she wanted to participate in as well.
the defense attorney has taken the lead in the questioning.
so , anna estevao, she is the defense attorney who cross -examining cassie ventura.
from a factaul standpoint,yes ,you may see a defense attorney meander in the way they ask questions , meander in the way that they trying to argue, but the issuethat stood out is some of the difficulties that she had in terms of getting the evidence in fron of the court.
the judge helping her out, sometimes making mistakes, and antoher thing,the amount of notes that were handed up to her from combs, at one point , it was just pink note after pink note .
she had about 10 or so sitting next to her at some point the pink notes ran out , they started giving her yellow notes.
just so much information to help her get along with this cross- examination.
she’s doing a good job of getting the facts, just getting there seems to be a little difficult.
still ahead, after four days of testimony and one day of cross-examination ….
will trump pardon diddy?
that’s one of the top searches about this trial ….
day four has wrapped up .
the first day of cassie ventura’s cross-examination.
the defense peppering her with questions about infidelity and jealousy in their relationship,showing the jury sexually explicit evidence concealed by privacy screens from the rest of the court.
as this point is 50/ 50 and as a defense attorney ,50/ 50 means there’s reasonable doubt and that means that the defense wins .
cassie is not the star witness that we all been talking about she is the star victim .
she would not know herself if she was traffic or abuse because she was so into this,what has to happen the star witness would be someone inside of sean combs’s inner circle to say
“this wasn’t a drug fueled relationship.we all knew she was trafficked,combs told me this, this person knew it, that person knew it she was so wrapped in it. she didn’t know she was being trafficked.”
so until that person comes and testifies and get that information..
know one know who’s winning this case so far..
the government has the power ,not concerned as a prosecutor because you have the whole government behind you and resources as well .
so, while diddy was a billionaire and does have a lot of money and wealth and can bring eight firms in .
the government is the government and has pretty much unlimited resources to bring this prosecution and they know that they can’t fall flat so they are giving it their all
and there s still weeks head…..
someon got immunity ,someone’s going to testify.
After four days on the witness stand, Cassie Ventura concluded her testimony Friday at the trial of her ex-boyfriend, Sean “Diddy” Combs. On re-cross-examination, the defense questioned whether Combs coerced Ventura into sexual activity as alleged, confronting her for a second time with some of her explicit text exchanges with Combs. Sean Combs’ trial is still far from over. Court has adjourned for the weekend.