By Jack Queen and Jonathan Stempel, Reuters
Cassie Ventura and Sean 'Diddy' Combs attend an event in New York on 1 May, 2017. Photo: MIKE COPPOLA
Warning: This article contains sexual references
Sean "Diddy" Combs' defence team sought to portray Casandra Ventura on Thursday (US time) as a willing participant in his drug-fuelled sex performances known as "Freak Offs," in a bid to undercut prosecutors at the hip-hop mogul's sex trafficking trial.
Ventura, a rhythm and blues singer known as Cassie, is the star government witness against Combs, who has pleaded not guilty to five felony counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
The 38-year-old Ventura had told jurors that Combs coerced and blackmailed her throughout their 11-year relationship, which ended in 2018, into Freak Offs that he orchestrated and that she hated, while betraying her in favour of other women.
Combs' legal team wants to show the 12 jurors and six alternates in Manhattan federal court that the relationship was complicated, with Ventura at fault for her own actions including infidelity, and being financially motivated to get back at him.
Defence lawyer Anna Estevao showed emails and text messages from early in Combs' and Ventura's relationship, some of which were sexually explicit, where they professed love for each other and Ventura said she was always ready for a Freak Off or sex.
"I wanted to spend so much time with him, at this point in 2010, because I'd fallen in love with him and I cared about him very much," Ventura said.
US producer-musician Sean "Diddy" Combs poses during a music awards ceremony on 12 September, 2023, in New Jersey, in the US. Photo: Angela Weiss / AFP
Impact of drug use
Ventura acknowledged being jealous of Kim Porter, a former model who had three children with Combs. Porter died in 2018.
Estevao also asked about an alleged relationship that Combs suspected Ventura had with the actor Michael B Jordan while she was in South Africa in 2015.
Ventura said she didn't know Combs' reaction, having broken off contact with him because he was seeing another woman.
Evidence also included a text from 2017 where Ventura told Combs she still loved Freak Offs, and a text where Combs said there was no pressure to participate.
Ventura told jurors not to take what she wrote literally. "Loving FOs were just words, at that point," she said.
She addressed her years-long struggle with drug abuse, saying Combs would express concern about unusual behaviour and side effects she suffered, and in 2017 recommended she see a doctor for her symptoms.
But Ventura said Combs, like her, had also been addicted or close to addicted to opiates, and that opiate withdrawal sometimes made his behaviour erratic. She also said he would get angry at times if he learned she took drugs without him.
Ventura testified on Wednesday that she quit drugs in 2022.
Felt shame
Combs, 55, has been held since September in a Brooklyn jail when not in court. If convicted on all counts, the rapper and founder of Bad Boy Records could face a minimum 15 years in prison and life behind bars.
Ventura married personal trainer Alex Fine in 2019, and is in a late stage of pregnancy with her third child.
US District Judge Arun Subramanian expressed irritation during the cross-examination with its slow pace.
He plans to give the defence one to one and a half days to question Ventura, the same amount of time prosecutors needed. Ventura may finish testifying on Friday.
Part of the criminal case stems from Ventura's November 2023 civil lawsuit against Combs. She testified that he agreed after 24 hours to settle for US$20 million (NZ$34m).
Asked on Wednesday why she decided to testify against Combs, Ventura said she could no longer bear the emotional burden of years of his physical and emotional abuse, and "came here to do the right thing".
Combs has also been known as Puff Daddy and P Diddy.
He founded Bad Boy Records, and is credited with helping turn artists like Mary J Blige, Faith Evans, Notorious B.I.G. and Usher into stars in the 1990s and 2000s.
The trial began on Monday and could last two months.
-Reuters
