Casandra “Cassie” Ventura concluded her bombshell testimony in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex-trafficking trial Friday, telling a jury through tears that she’d give back $20 million to erase the trauma from more than a decade of his demeaning and disgusting abuse.
“I’d give that money back if it meant I never had to have freak-offs,” an emotional Ventura told prosecutor Emily Johnson in Manhattan federal court, saying her agency and autonomy would be things “I wouldn’t have had to work so hard to get [back].”
Asked how sleeping with strangers for Combs’ sexual gratification made her feel, Ventura, 38, said, “Worthless. Just like dirt. Like I didn’t matter to him. Like I was nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
The disclosures came toward the end of Ventura’s four days on the stand, during which she revealed the massive sum Combs paid to settle a lawsuit she brought in November 2023 within just 24 hours of her filing it.
During nearly two days of cross-examination, Combs’ defense — which called Ventura the most critical witness to discredit — tried to portray her as having consented to the freak-offs, not being coerced, since she was desperate to satisfy Combs, and having an ax to grind over jealousy of his cheating. The jailed mogul’s lawyer, Anna Estevao, sought to characterize toxicity in their relationship as stemming from drug addiction and mental health issues they both battled, revealing through one question that Combs had bipolar disorder.
Estevao also tried to cast doubt on Ventura’s claim that Combs raped her in 2018 after they’d broken up by highlighting how Ventura had dated the incident to September of that year in her suit but now believed it happened in August and that she’d admitted sleeping with Combs consensually once more after that incident. The defense lawyer also tried to paint the singer as motivated by money, highlighting in her last question that Ventura expects to receive a $10 million settlement from the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles, where Combs was captured on surveillance video brutally assaulting her in March 2016 after Ventura had tried to escape a freak-off where he previously assaulted her.
Estevao also introduced scores of text messages showing Combs being kind and loving. Toward the end of cross-examination Friday, jurors saw Combs and Ventura having amicable exchanges after she left him in 2018, with him writing in one text message, “Sending you love and light. Had a dream about you last night. What a difference a year makes.” In another exchange, he said, “I miss my best friend,” and Ventura replied that she missed him, too.
When prosecutors resumed questioning Ventura, Johnson asked whether Combs’ periods of affection ever lasted.
“No,” Ventura said, adding they were always followed by a “downswing,” and frequently by violent and unpredictable outbursts.
Of sexually explicit texts from Ventura to Combs that jurors were shown, which the defense highlighted during cross-examination, Ventura reiterated to prosecutors that she only ever wanted to have sex with Combs.
Raising the possibility of a mistrial, prosecutors had urged the court to ensure a heavily pregnant Ventura’s testimony ended by Friday, saying she could give birth as soon as this weekend. The mother of two disclosed horrific accounts of physical and psychological abuse she suffered under Combs during their nearly 11-year relationship in her testimony, which began Tuesday. She recounted regular, savage beatings and coercion into engaging in dehumanizing sexual performances with male escorts, which Combs directed and masturbated during.
The “Me & U” singer said she first met the powerful music mogul, 17 years her senior, when she was signed to Bad Boy Records at age 19, and that they started dating within two years. She told the court she was sexually inexperienced when they started sleeping together, and that he had presented a warped version of a “swingers lifestyle” and “voyeurism” in introducing the concept of freak-offs. She said Combs was long the dominating force in her life and that the demoralizing sessions took place while the music mogul had complete control over her career and micromanaged every aspect of her day to day. The freak-offs, she said, left her with regular urinary tract infections, painful mouth sores and gastrointestinal issues.
Ventura said she participated in “hundreds” of freak-offs, which could include three days or more of no sleep, sex with multiple men and potent cocktails of narcotics fed to her by Combs. In graphic detail, jurors heard how Combs sometimes directed men to urinate on her and engage in other depraved acts. Ventura testified that she submitted to the sordid performances initially out of love and later to keep Combs’ violence at bay and to stop him from releasing sex tapes of her. Combs’ defense, on cross-examination, tried to push back on Ventura’s claims that he threatened to publicly release tapes of the freak-offs to blackmail her, highlighting how he appeared in some of them, too.
Under questioning by the prosecution Friday, Ventura said her promising music career died out as her life became consumed entirely by performing and participating in sexual performances orchestrated by Combs.
“I had a whole other job,” Ventura said, saying it was, in essence, like being a sex worker.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. He could face life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors say the Bad Boy Records co-founder coerced women into fulfilling his sick sexual desires with help from a network of high-ranking employees, unlimited resources and immense influence from 2004 to 2024.
Combs allegedly coerced Ventura and another woman, Jane, a pseudonym, under the guise of a romantic relationship, to engage in freak-offs with commercial sex workers, and sexually assaulted a former assistant, the feds’ case says. Jane and the assistant, referred to by the pseudonym Mia, have yet to take the stand.
After Ventura, prosecutors called Homeland Security agent Yasin Binda to testify about items recovered from Combs’ room at The Park Hyatt Hotel on W. 57th St. ahead of his September 2016 arrest.
Jurors saw photographs the feds took of several bottles of Johnson’s Baby Oil and Astroglide lubricant, a Louis Vuitton toiletry bag containing prescription drugs labeled for Frank Black — which Ventura previously said was an alias used to book rooms for freak-offs — small bags of pink ketamine, and a bag filled with thousands of dollars. Displaying the cash for the jury, Binda fanned out $9,000.
