Sean “Diddy” Combs’ former girlfriend, the R&B singer Cassie, took the witness stand in his intercourse trafficking trial on Tuesday, a day after prosecutors confirmed jurors video of the music mogul beating her in a lodge in 2016.
Testimony within the trial started Monday. Prosecutors informed jurors that, for years, Combs used his standing as a strong government to coerce ladies into abusive sexual encounters and have become violent in the event that they refused.
Cassie, noticeably pregnant on the witness stand, was emotional from the beginning. She would take deep breaths and generally paused as she spoke.
Assistant U.S. Legal professional Emily Johnson began questioning of Cassie by asking her age, which is 38, and her occupation, which she stated is “musician, an entertainer.” She stated she was in a relationship with Combs for simply over 10 years.
Cassie testified that her relationship with Combs ran the gamut from good instances to arguments and bodily altercations.
“In the event that they had been violent arguments, it could normally lead to some type of bodily abuse and dragging, simply various things,” Cassie informed jurors.
She testified that Combs would mash her head, drag her, kick her and stomp her within the head when she was down.
Requested how often Combs turned violent along with her, Cassie softly responded: “Too often.”
When the prosecutor questioned her about “freak-offs,” she stated she was barely 22 when Combs first requested her to do them. She stated she was “confused, nervous, but in addition liked him very a lot.”
Requested how she felt when Combs first proposed partaking in a “freak-off,” Cassie stated: “I simply bear in mind my abdomen falling to my butt. Simply the nervousness and confusion in that second.”
“Freak-offs” had been the extremely orchestrated intercourse events that she stated stemmed from Combs’ curiosity in voyeurism. They’d entail hiring an escort and “organising this expertise in order that I might carry out for Sean,” Cassie stated.
“The freak-offs turned a job,” she stated, noting that different encounters took wherever from 36 or 48 hours. The marathon periods often required durations of restoration from dehydration, fatigue and drug use, she stated.
Proven nonetheless photos from the now-infamous 2016 safety digicam footage of Combs beating her at a Los Angeles lodge, Cassie stated previous to the altercation: “We had been having an encounter known as a ‘freak-off’ and I used to be leaving there.”
She stated she didn’t really feel like she might say no to Combs as a result of she “didn’t know what ‘no’ might be, or what ‘no’ might flip into,” which she stated she discovered might embrace violence and blackmail threats.
“Sean managed a whole lot of my life, whether or not it was profession, the best way I dressed, the whole lot, the whole lot. I simply didn’t have a lot say in it on the time,” Cassie testified.
Elaborating on why she felt it was so troublesome to refuse Combs’ calls for, Cassie reiterated her fears of violence and blackmail movies from “freak-offs” being disseminated on the web.
“Sean is a extremely polarizing particular person, additionally actually charming,” Cassie stated. “It’s exhausting to actually be capable to determine in that second what you want when he’s telling you what he needs. I simply didn’t know. I didn’t know what would occur.”
After pertaining to the violence and “freak-offs” which might be central to the federal fees, Johnson returned to eliciting biographical and historic details about Cassie, together with when she first signed to Unhealthy Boy Data in early 2006.
She stated her interactions with Combs, who owned the label, had been platonic at first. However then he kissed her throughout her twenty first birthday journey to Las Vegas within the lavatory of his lodge suite. “I used to be simply actually confused on the time,” she stated. “And younger.”
After the Las Vegas journey, Cassie stated, she was invited by Combs to resorts in New York, the place they’d discuss music tasks and albums.
When Assistant U.S. Legal professional Johnson requested what else occurred at resorts, Cassie took a deep breath and stated she was launched to the “thought of oral intercourse” on the resorts.
Cassie additionally famous that Combs is 17 years older than her and that she was “sexually inexperienced” once they first acquired collectively.
She stated she finally had intercourse with Combs on a ship throughout a visit to Miami. She stated she had wine within the afternoon after which Combs launched her to ecstasy for the primary time.
After that, she stated, she felt nearer to the rapper and producer, began spending extra time with him, and thought, on the time, that they had been in a monogamous relationship.
In hindsight, she stated, she is aware of that wasn’t the case. Requested why, she responded: “Sean Combs had many girlfriends.”
As Cassie testified, the prosecution launched photographs of her and Combs at occasions within the mid-2000s. The quite a few images included {a photograph} of the boat in Miami. One other depicted the fledgling couple at a strip membership in New York on Halloween 2007, shortly after the journey to Miami. One other image confirmed them at the back of a automotive at the start of their relationship, Combs’ arm wrapped round her.
“I used to be simply enamored by him. We had been simply having a superb time. It was actually enjoyable, at this level,” she stated.
Cassie famous that, early on of their relationship, they weren’t public about it. She stated Combs had expressed issues about perceptions, provided that his firm was additionally producing her music.
Over time, Cassie testified, Combs turned more and more controlling and generally was violent. She stated Combs would get abusive over the smallest perceived slights — if she wasn’t smiling at him the best way he needed, or if he thought she was appearing like a brat.
“You make the improper face and the subsequent factor I knew, I used to be getting hit within the face,” she stated.
Cassie stated that if she didn’t reply to his name instantly, there could be incessant calls till she did and Combs’ employees, together with safety employees, would be part of within the pursuit.
Jealousy was cited throughout opening statements Monday as a supply of a lot of the battle between Combs and Cassie. Johnson elicited from Cassie that she and Combs had been seeing different individuals at instances.
At first, Cassie stated, she was “insanely jealous.” She stated that resulted from being “tremendous younger.”
“I didn’t get that he was him. As he would say, ‘I’m Puff Daddy. Puff Daddy has many guidelines. Likes the corporate of girls,’” she recalled.
She stated that as time handed, she got here to consider “most of the time” that they had been in a monogamous relationship. “He anticipated that of me, so I assumed it was the identical.”
She stated Combs informed her: “I’m not coping with anybody else. It’s simply us.”
She famous that the rap star paid her lease at residences near his residences in New York and later Los Angeles, had his personal units of keys and made “a whole lot of unannounced visits.”
Cassie stated that as a birthday current, Combs rented her a Manhattan residence a number of blocks from the place he lived. One other residence Combs rented for Cassie in Los Angeles was only a three-minute drive from his house and he’d generally drive a golf cart to get from one residence to the opposite.
Earlier than the trial paused for a 40-minute lunch break, Johnson pressed Cassie to elucidate what occurred to her music profession and the 9 albums that had been by no means launched.
Cassie stated she created a whole lot of songs, a few of which had been launched on the web previous to “correct launch and a few simply didn’t see the sunshine of day.” Cassie testified that a lot of her week went towards the “freak-offs.”
“Freak-offs turned a job the place there was no house to do anything however to get better and simply attempt to really feel regular once more,” she stated.
A choose dominated that Cassie’s husband, Alex Advantageous, might be within the courtroom for many — however not all — of her testimony.
Choose Arun Subramanian, appearing on a protection request, stated Advantageous should go away the courtroom when questioning turns to Cassie’s allegation that Combs raped her in 2018. That’s as a result of Combs’ legal professionals say they might name Advantageous as a witness later within the trial in an try and discredit Cassie’s allegation.
Prosecutors argued that Advantageous is a part of the emotional assist system for Cassie, who’s pregnant with their third little one, and needs to be within the courtroom when she testifies.
Cassie, a key prosecution witness, met Combs in 2005 when she was 19 and he was 37. He signed her to his Unhealthy Boy Data label and, inside a number of years, they began courting.
In her 2023 lawsuit, Cassie alleges Combs trapped her in a “cycle of abuse, violence, and intercourse trafficking” for greater than a decade, together with raping her and forcing her to have interaction in intercourse acts with male intercourse employees. Combs settled the lawsuit the subsequent day.
Amongst different issues, Cassie alleges Combs raped her when she tried to go away him and sometimes punched, kicked and beat her, inflicting accidents together with bruises, burst lips, black eyes and bleeding. She additionally alleges that Combs was concerned in blowing up rival rapper Child Cudi’s automotive when he discovered Cudi was romantically keen on her, and he or she alleges that Combs ran out of his house with weapons when he discovered Suge Knight, a rival producer, was consuming at a close-by diner.
The proceedings Tuesday additionally included the hip-hop mogul’s lawyer questioning Daniel Phillip, a male stripper who says he was paid to have intercourse with Cassie whereas Combs watched.
Protection lawyer Xavier Donaldson pointed to Phillip’s previous statements to federal prosecutors as he tried to indicate inconsistencies in his recollection of occasions. Donaldson completed his cross-examination after suggesting Phillip had developed a crush on Cassie and needed to isolate her from Combs so he might be along with her romantically. Phillip denied that however admitted: “I used to be drawn to her. If she ever gave me the prospect up to now her, I completely would have.”
As soon as Donaldson was completed, a prosecutor requested Phillip extra questions, underscoring the witness’ earlier testimony that it was Combs who directed his sexual exercise with Cassie.
Subramanian had beforehand acknowledged that in his opening remarks about whether or not sexually specific movies and pictures anticipated to be proven to the jury throughout testimony by Cassie needs to be considered by members of the media.
He stated that whereas rather a lot had been dealt with underneath seal earlier than the trial, “we at the moment are in trial and there’s a heightened First Modification concern.”
Through the dialogue about whether or not sexually specific movies needs to be accessible for viewing by members of the media, lawyer Robert Balin informed the choose on behalf of media retailers that information organizations weren’t keen on reporting “one thing salacious” and weren’t searching for copies of the reveals.
He additionally prompt in its place {that a} group of pool reporters might be allowed to view the reveals.
Assistant U.S. Legal professional Johnson argued in opposition to letting media retailers see sexually specific movies, saying there was good authorized precedent to maintain such supplies out of the general public document.
Combs’ lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, stated there was no side of the movies that was not “within the nature of grownup pornography.” He stated all of them contained photos of people who find themselves nude having intercourse or about to have intercourse.
On behalf of reports retailers, Balin informed the choose the First Modification is “at a zenith” in any such case and that it was vital that the “individuals, although the press, be capable to see justice is being performed.” He stated the perfect proof of whether or not sexual acts that had been recorded had been coerced — as prosecutors allege — was the movies themselves.
10:48 a.m. Could 13: Up to date with extra of Cassie’s testimony.
