NOTE: The following article accommodates disturbing particulars and video footage. Please learn at your personal discretion.
The mom of Cassie Ventura testified on Tuesday in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex-trafficking and racketeering trial, revealing that she paid the hip-hop mogul US$20,000 after he threatened to launch specific intercourse tapes of her daughter.
Combs turned indignant that Cassie was relationship another person, her mom, Regina Ventura, testified on the trial on May 20.
Regina mentioned that she felt “physically sick” when she obtained an e mail from her daughter in late 2011 saying that Combs was planning to launch two specific movies of her and ship somebody to harm her and rapper Kid Cudi, the person Cassie was seeing, whose full identify is Scott Mescudi.
Day 7
Regina was on the stand for about quarter-hour and answered the prosecutor’s questions on her daughter’s relationship with Combs.
She mentioned that her daughter had despatched her an e mail earlier than Christmas in 2011 to let her know that Combs was threatening to launch intercourse tapes.
“I did not understand a lot of it. The sex tapes threw me,” Regina informed the Manhattan federal court docket.
Regina mentioned she then obtained a requirement from Combs for $20,000 “to recoup money he had spent on her because he was unhappy she was in a relationship with Kid Cudi.”
Kid Cudi performs at 2015 Lollapalooza at Grant Park on Aug. 1, 2015, in Chicago, Ill.
Michael Hickey/Getty Images
“He was angry that he had spent money on her and she went with another person,” she mentioned.
Regina testified that she had to make use of a house fairness mortgage to make the cost to Combs and wired it to an account related to Bad Boy, Combs’ firm.
“I was scared for my daughter’s safety,” she added.
Days later, she mentioned, the cash was returned, and Cassie and Combs started relationship once more shortly after.
During her testimony, the jury was proven 4 images of Cassie with bruises on her physique, together with on her thigh and higher again. Regina mentioned she took the images of her daughter on Christmas Eve 2011 when she first informed her that Combs had overwhelmed her.
Regina Ventura, mom of Cassie Ventura, departs the Manhattan Federal Court throughout the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ trial on May 20, 2025, in New York City.
John Lamparski/Getty Images
Combs’ lawyer Marc Agnifilo declined to cross-examine Regina. As she left the witness stand, she stared straight at Combs, who appeared straight forward.
Before the jury arrived on Tuesday, Agnifilo tried to influence Judge Arun Subramanian to disallow the testimony, saying it was “purely prejudicial” as a result of it illustrated the vast distinction between the monetary standing of the Ventura household and Combs. The choose allowed it, saying the threats to launch intercourse tapes and hurt Cassie made it an occasion of “potential extortion.”
Combs’ private assistant felt his ‘life was in danger’
Earlier Tuesday, David James, Combs’ private assistant from 2007 to 2009, informed the court docket that he give up when he realized that his life had been put in peril after he was compelled to drive a automotive wherein Combs sat within the again seat with three handguns on his lap.
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James mentioned his job typically required him to make sure that resort rooms the place Combs stayed underneath the identify “Frank Black” have been stocked with the rapper’s comforts, together with contemporary underwear, an iPod, applesauce, vodka, child oil, Viagra and condoms.
He informed the jurors that Combs didn’t journey gentle and his Louis Vuitton commonly carried $10,000 in money “and sometimes much more.”
James recalled a time in 2008 when Combs requested him to convey an iPod from his Miami residence to a resort room. Upon coming into, James mentioned he noticed Cassie on the mattress with a white comforter pulled as much as her neck and an unfamiliar bare man with lengthy hair strolling throughout the room.
He mentioned that he by no means spoke to Cassie or Combs about what he noticed and that he by no means had conversations with them about their private affairs.
Another time, he mentioned Combs summoned him to his workplace to point out him a video he had recorded at a celebration of James dancing wildly and informed him: “OK. I’m going to keep this footage in case I ever need it.”
James admitted that he was excessive on ecstasy at a New Year’s Eve social gathering within the video and he took it as a risk to maintain him in line.
“He thought it would be embarrassing for me,” James added.
James additionally described being required to take lie detector checks twice when Combs was looking for out who stole money in a single occasion, and a watch in one other.
“It was very intimidating,” James mentioned. “I had never taken a lie detector test before.”
He mentioned Combs was on medicine practically every single day, typically taking Percocet by day and ecstasy by evening. When he stocked Combs’ resort rooms, he mentioned, medicine have been in a bag dropped off by safety, together with the capsule meant to seem like then-president Barack Obama.
The second when James noticed the three weapons on Combs’ lap — he testified that he was concerned in Combs’ try to confront his music business rival Suge Knight at a Los Angeles diner in November 2008 — he knew he needed to give up, which he did shortly thereafter. (Cassie additionally testified in regards to the diner incident earlier within the trial.)
“I was real shook up by it,” James testified. “This was the first time being Mr. Combs’ assistant that I realized my life was in danger. I told them I want to leave but give six months’ notice so I could train the next assistant.”
David James, witness for the prosecution, arrives at Manhattan Federal Court for the trial of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs on May 20, 2025, in New York City.
John Lamparski/Getty Images
Taking over the cross-examination, Agnifilo requested James why he didn’t present extra particulars on the incident with Knight.
James mentioned that he was instructed “not to say anything that would incriminate himself.”
He testified that Combs’ safety element typically included a second automotive when he was travelling. James mentioned Combs’ workforce was “suspicious” of anybody “pulling up on him to shoot him.”
James mentioned that folks would attempt to ask Combs for his autograph in public, which he wouldn’t signal. He mentioned workers would signal the objects and ship them out on Combs’ behalf.
“I don’t think ‘gracious’ is a word I would use to describe him,” James mentioned.
More testimony about freak-offs
Before Tuesday’s lunch break, Sharay Hayes, an unique dancer often called “The Punisher,” testified that Combs and Cassie introduced him into the freak-offs world. He mentioned a lady — Cassie utilizing the pseudonym of “Janet” — referred to as and informed him it was her birthday and that her husband mentioned she ought to rent a dancer.
Hayes, 51, mentioned he arrived at a Manhattan resort room anticipating to carry out a striptease for a small group of individuals however as an alternative discovered the lady who employed him — whom he later came upon was Cassie — alone with an in any other case bare man who hid his face with a burqa-like fabric. That man, he mentioned, turned out to be Combs.
Hayes recalled seeing bottles of child oil in bowls of water and getting handed a stack of $800 in money. Later, after Combs watched him have a sexual encounter with Cassie, he mentioned he was handed an extra $1,200. He mentioned he was a fan of Combs however didn’t notice it was him within the room till a subsequent encounter at one other resort the place the message on the TV display screen mentioned: “Essex House would like to welcome Mr. Sean Combs.”
Hayes mentioned that Cassie informed him to not acknowledge Combs, to attempt not to take a look at him or talk with him throughout the encounter.
He testified that in a dozen or extra sexual performances with the couple, Hayes by no means had the sense that Cassie was uncomfortable with it, including that he believed it appeared consensual.
Prosecutor Meredith Foster requested Hayes whether or not Cassie’s focus was on him or Combs.
Hayes mentioned that there was a constant consciousness of Combs and his notion.
A federal agent describes a raid of Combs’ residence
Jurors additionally noticed components of two AR-15 rifles that federal brokers discovered final yr whereas looking Combs’ mansion on Star Island, a celeb enclave off of Miami.
Special agent Gerard Gannon, of Homeland Security Investigations, testified that brokers executing a search warrant for the property in March 2024 used an armoured car to bust by Combs’ safety gate and had groups on boats close by.
In addition to weapons, he mentioned they discovered platform excessive heels and objects that prosecutors say Combs regularly used throughout his freak-off intercourse marathons, together with lingerie, intercourse toys, child oil, lubricant and condoms.
What Combs is on trial for
U.S. prosecutors allege that for 20 years, behind the scenes, Combs was coercing and abusing ladies with assist from a community of associates who helped silence victims by blackmail and violence.
Combs faces an indictment that features descriptions of freak-offs, that are outlined within the court docket doc as “elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded.”
Numerous witnesses have come ahead to accuse Combs of terrorizing folks into silence by choking, hitting, kicking and dragging them, in accordance with prosecutors. One indictment alleges that Combs dangled somebody from a balcony.
Although dozens of women and men have alleged in lawsuits that Combs abused them, this trial will spotlight the claims of 4 ladies.
Combs is charged with intercourse trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to have interaction in prostitution. He has denied all the costs in opposition to him and has rejected a plea deal, selecting to go to trial as an alternative.
If discovered responsible within the New York court docket, he might face life in jail.
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Global News shall be overlaying the Diddy trial in its entirety. Please examine again for updates.
— With recordsdata from The Associated Press
