R&B artist Cassie Ventura's film premiere was texting her in March 2016 from her then-boyfriend Sean Diddy's comb, asking what she was doing.
She told a federal jury in New York this week that she had felt "trapped," outlining 11 years of beatings, sexual blackmail and rape.
She claimed that the comb threatened to leak videos of sexual encounters with numerous male sex workers, while watching and orchestrating the incidents, called Freak offs, were infected and glittered with baby oil.
"If I'm happy with him, then my premiere will go well," she said, according to a report in the Associated Press Manhattan Court.
What happens next may eventually become the beginning of the end of comb public life.
Video footage from the evening of March 2016 showed a comb punching and kicking while horns and trying to protect itself in front of the Los Angeles hotel elevator bank. He then dragged her hooded sweatshirt into the hall and headed towards their hotel room. Another camera captures the comb throws a vase at her from the second angle. Her eyes suffered bruises, fat lips, and the bruises displayed by prosecutors remain visible during the film's premiere two days later. She said wearing sunglasses and thick makeup on the red carpet.
Ventura's testimony was the center of a federal trial, accusing comb of conspiracy, sexual trafficking and transport prostitution.
The federal indictment says comb and his colleagues usually seduce female victims with the pretense of romantic relationships. The comb allegedly used force, threats of force, coercion and controlled substances that allowed women to engage in sexual acts with male prostitutes, while he occasionally watched the comb as a party called "freaks." During the show, Combs gave women ketamine, ecstasy and GHB to “make them obedient and compliant.”
According to the indictment, prosecutors say the freak discount that sometimes lasts for days is elaborate sex performances that are arranged in combs, directed, masturbating and often recorded. Prosecutors claimed in a detention memorandum filed in court that freak discounts occurred regularly from at least 2009 to 2023, and that their hotel rooms were often subjected to heavy losses.
The COMUTORS judicial person said members of his business engaged in sexual trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation, engaged in prostitution, coercion and temptation to engage in prostitution, botulinum abuse, kidnapping, kidnapping, condonation, condonation, bribery, bribery and obstruction of judicial judges. Prosecutors said Combs was assisted by cadres from company employees, security personnel and assistants, the so-called RICO allegations. They allegedly helped organize crimes and "freaks" and then covered up the incident. The comb is by far the only person facing criminal charges related to the investigation.
Combs' lawyer said this week that her client was far from perfect, but the allegations were exaggerated.
"Sean Combs is a complex person. But it's not a complicated case. This situation is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money," Teny Geragos, the attorney for Combs, told the jurors. "There has been a huge noise around this situation over the past year. It's time to cancel this noise."
Jurors heard that Ventura, who was only 19 when she met a 37-year-old comb in 2005, signed a 10-year contract with his Bad Boy Records. She said that about two years later, he had Britney Spears attend her 21st birthday party, Ventura and Combs kissed and their relationship began. She testified that the geek's shift became a way of life and she even left her birthday party.
Left CASSIE VENTURA and SEAN "DIDDY" combs premiere at the Writers Association Theater (Chris pizzello/Invision/ap) in Beverly Hills, California on Wednesday, June 21, 2017 at the Los Angeles premiere at the Writers Association Theater on Wednesday, June 21, 2017.
（Chris Pizzello/Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP）
She told the juror that the comb asked her to let the male sex worker urinate in her mouth. She told the jury that the man and the others were paid tens of thousands of dollars, lasting 36 to 48 hours.
In the stands, Ventura identified 13 male sex workers through photos presented by prosecutors, who said Combs' recruited freaks. She testified that her relationship with the comb would end on a day in 2018, where she met him for supper and he raped her on the living room floor.
Of the four-day testimony, Ventura, who was eight and a half months pregnant, was raped at least six times, the worst in 2009.
In the 2009 attack, she testified that the comb “stomped” in her face after she found out she was dating rapper Kid Cudi. Kid Cudi's real name is Scott Mescudi, and his car burned down soon after. Prosecutors claimed in court documents that the comb ordered.
Legal experts say the testimony aims to establish a federal case against the comb, even if it appears to be directly related to the allegations he faces.
"Why should the government talk about rape and attacks when the allegations are RICO and sex trafficking?" said former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani. Well, he said: “The defense lawyer argues about sexual trafficking among adults with consensus what sexual behavior is force, fraud or coercion.”
"Ventura's testimony was that she was thrown into the point of vomiting by drugs...being forced to have sex during menstruation or uti is evidence of coercion," he said.
Rahmani said Ventura's comb depicted as a gun-armed tycoon who beat her several times, tracked her movements and sent a security team to find evidence that she was forceful.
Then there is the so-called threat. On a commercial flight in 2013, she said Combs pulled out his laptop and started playing records while they sat together. She said the comb told her that he would embarrass her and release them.
"I'm worried about my career. I'm worried about my family. It's really embarrassing. It's horrible and disgusting. No one is doing this to anyone."
Authorities raided the Los Angeles House in Diddy’s comb as part of an ongoing sex trafficking investigation (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
(Eric Thayer/AP)
Rahmani said the racket charges against the comb require prosecutors to prove that there is a criminal enterprise.
"People usually think of mobs, street gangs or drug cartels, but any loose connection between more than two groups is like a comb entourage," the former federal prosecutor said. They must show two or more predicate behaviors within a decade.
"That's why bribery, kidnapping, blockage, witness tampering and prostitution are important," he said.
Israel Florez, a hotel security guard who faced the comb in 2016 and is now a Los Angeles policeman, testified that the comb flashed a sum of cash at him - a bribe he believed was an attempted one. He said he refused.
Combs' defense is seeking to portray Ventura as an act of engaging in behaviors, recruiting and paying for sexual partners, getting narcotics and texting to promote the geek that is part of the romantic lifestyle. She is one of four alleged victims in the case, and jurors are expected to hear at least three of them.
Defense attorney Anne Estevao asked Ventura to read a series of loving words on Thursday and asked Ventura to testify as she watched the comb having sex with another woman multiple times. In support of the desperate defense, the lawyer produced the 2009 text, and the singer declared: "I am ready to be frightened at any time."
Ventura sued Comb in the fall of 2023, accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse, triggering lawsuits and charges from others who said they were the victim of the Comb, ultimately by the Department of Homeland Security’s Department of Homeland Security’s arrests on his Los Angeles and Miami homes and his arrests. Ventura admitted on Wednesday that she reached a $20 million settlement within days of filing the lawsuit.
In the opening speech of the Manhattan federal court, Geragos, one of Combs' defense attorneys, distinguished the jurors between the testimony they would hear and the allegations they faced, saying that "domestic violence is not sexual trafficking."
She said the video of Ventura's attack in the hotel was irrefutable, but the singer "chosen" the comb for 11 years.
After the attack, a friend called Ventura's home and she testified. But when the officer arrived, she did not consider the comb as the culprit.
The prosecutor asked her why she didn't speak. She replied, "I didn't want to hurt him at that moment. I'm not ready yet."
On Thursday, the defense disk Chinese Ventura attempted to change the narrative using dozens of text messages between Combs and Ventura. During a text message exchange in July 2013, Comb's defense attorney pointed out that Cassie proposed a "freak" idea and wrote to Comb: "Hope we can do it before we leave."
The defense attorney used text messages to communicate, highlighting Ventura's jealousy for the attention he gave to other women.
"You made me look like the work next to me, which is not what I thought," Cassie told Combs in a 2013 text message.
Combs defense team's attorney Anne Estevao attempted to recast the hotel incident by trying to perform a "freakoff" in "freakoff" before the hotel's assault.
In this week's testimony, Ventura testified that the comb allegedly overdoses of opioids during a party at Playboy Building in 2012. Although she wasn't there, she said, he told her.
The Associated Press contributed court testimony to this analysis.