Cassie to Testify Today Against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs

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A year and a half after Casandra “Cassie” Ventura filed her explosive lawsuit against ex-boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs, the R&B singer took the stand Tuesday in front of a packed courtroom to testify against the man she claimed emotionally, physically, and sexually abused her for more than a decade. 

Ventura’s court appearance is the first time she and Combs saw each other in person since their 2018 breakup. She is considered the key witness in the Southern District of New York’s criminal case against Combs, referred to in the charging indictment as Victim-1. Combs has pleaded not guilty to five felony counts against him. 

Combs’ attorney, Marc Agnifilo, was worried jurors would be biased against his client if they saw Ventura, who is eight-and-a-half months pregnant, walking into the courtroom. On Monday, Agnifilo asked U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian if Ventura could already be sitting in the witness box when jurors entered. 

“I think there is a prejudicial quality,” Agnifilo said in a closed-door meeting ahead of Monday’s opening statements. “Pregnancy is beautiful and wonderful. It also is a source of potential sympathy.” Prosecutors objected, arguing it would be “deeply inappropriate” for the court to treat any witness with a medical condition differently.  

Ventura is expected to testify for the duration of the trial’s first week. She’ll provide testimony that mirrored her harrowing and graphic civil lawsuit from November 2023 that launched the federal investigation that saw Combs go from a seemingly untouchable billionaire mogul who now faces the possibility of life in prison if he’s convicted of the counts against him. 

Prior to her testimony, Combs’ team asked that Ventura’s husband, Alex Fine, be barred from hearing her testimony, noting they may want to call him as a witness, per media reports. The two sides agreed that Fine could listen to a majority of Ventura’s testimony, but not the allegation that Combs raped her in 2018.

Ventura is the third witness to testify in the high-profile trial that expected to last eight weeks. On Monday, jurors heard from Israel Florez, a former security manager who worked at the since-shuttered InterContinental Hotel in Century City, Los Angeles. Florez testified he was present in the immediate moments after Combs kicked and dragged Ventura by a set of elevator banks in March 2016. 

Surveillance video of the attack, which CNN published last year and was shown to jurors on Monday, shows Combs chasing after Ventura before throwing her to the ground. Florez claimed that Combs had a “devilish stare” and offered what he described as a cash “bribe” to keep the incident quiet, which he refused. Florez claimed he observed Ventura with a purplish eye as she left the hotel and he questioned if she wanted him to call the police, which she declined. 

Male escort Daniel Phillip also testified on Monday, giving detailed and explicit testimony about the multiple freak-offs he had with Ventura and Combs between 2014 and 2016. 

Although initially excited by being “involved with people with such notoriety,” Phillip testified that his enthusiasm waned the first time he claimed to witness Combs attack Ventura during a freak-off. Combs called for Ventura to come to the bedroom, but when she didn’t immediately comply, Phillip claimed Combs threw a liquor bottle in her direction, with the bottle smashing into the wall. Combs then allegedly dragged a screaming Ventura by her hair back to the room, where he heard sounds of slapping and Ventura apologizing and saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” 

After that incident, Phillip said he had trouble performing sexually during freak-offs with Ventura and Combs. During one moment they were left alone in another freak-off, Phillip said he tried to warn Ventura of the “danger” that he perceived she was in, asking why she was staying with Combs when he was “hitting” her. Phillip said Ventura attempted to reassure him, saying she’d be OK. 

When Ventura first met a 37-year-old Combs in 2005, she was an aspiring 19-year-old singer, excited to sign a record deal with Bad Boy. By the time she turned 21, Combs had begun to romantically pursue her, culminating with an alleged forced kiss in the bathroom the night of her 21st birthday party. 

Eventually, prosecutors said, Combs forced Ventura to engage in sex with male escorts while he watched and masturbated. If she refused, prosecutors allege Combs would beat her and regularly supplied her with drugs to keep her awake and compliant. Ventura claimed she would have to camp out in hotels and Combs’ mansion until the bruising from physical beatings faded. 

When Ventura said she tried to escape Combs, his team helped track her down and encouraged her to return to her allegedly abusive label boss. Outside the bedroom, Combs allegedly controlled all aspects of Ventura’s life and career.  

While Combs’ team admitted in opening statements that the mogul was physically abusive to Ventura, they reminded jurors that Combs was not being prosecuted for domestic violence in this case. Instead, they claim Ventura was a consenting adult and had personal motivations for being in a relationship with Combs and later pursuing litigation against him. “Ask yourself why,” Geragos said. “The answer is money.”

Last week, Combs’ lawyers claimed that Ventura was a fully capable woman and independent, suggesting that it wasn’t in her nature to be forced into anything. Judge Subramanian quickly shot down the notion. “Strong people can be coerced just like weak people,” Subramanian said. 

This is a developing story