SOURCE :- THE AGE NEWS
By Jack Queen and Jonathan Stempel
Warning: This article contains graphic details that may distress some readers.
New York: Sean “Diddy” Combs’ defence team sought to portray Casandra Ventura as a willing participant in his drug-fuelled sex performances known as “freak-offs” in a bid to undercut prosecutors at the hip-hop mogul’s sex-trafficking trial.
Ventura, a rhythm and blues singer known as Cassie, is the star prosecution witness against Combs, who has pleaded not guilty to five felony counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Sean “Diddy” Combs and Casandra Ventura in 2018.Credit: AP
The 38-year-old Ventura had previously told jurors in Manhattan federal court that Combs coerced and blackmailed her throughout their 11-year relationship, which ended in 2018, into freak-offs that he orchestrated and that she hated.
She said she participated at first because she loved Combs and wanted to make him happy, but that his abuse grew over time.
Combs’ legal team wants to show the relationship was more complicated, with Ventura wanting more attention and at fault for violence and her own infidelity. The defence also wants to show Ventura was financially motivated to get back at Combs.
On Thursday, New York time, defence lawyer Anna Estevao showed the 12 jurors and six alternates a series of emails and text messages from early in the Combs-Ventura relationship, including some that were sexually explicit.
They included early communications where Ventura told Combs she was always ready for a freak-off or sex, and where Ventura and Combs professed love for each other.
“I wanted to spend so much time with him, at this point in 2010, because I’d fallen in love with him and I cared about him very much,” Ventura told the court.
Ventura acknowledged having had jealousy toward Kim Porter, a former model who had three children with Combs. Porter died in 2018.
A courtroom sketch of Ventura walking out past Combs (in blue) after giving evidence.Credit: AP
Estevao also asked about an alleged relationship that Combs suspected Ventura had with the actor Michael B. Jordan while she was in South Africa in 2015.
Ventura said she didn’t know Combs’ reaction, having broken off contact with him because he was seeing another woman.
Evidence also included a text from 2017 where Ventura told Combs she still loved freak-offs, and a text where Combs said there was no pressure to participate.
Ventura told jurors not to take what she wrote literally. “Loving FO’s were just words, at that point,” she said.
She addressed her years-long struggle with drug abuse, saying Combs would express concern about unusual behaviour and side effects she suffered, and in 2017 recommended she see a doctor for her symptoms.
But Ventura said Combs, like her, had also been addicted or close to addicted to opiates, and that withdrawal sometimes made his behaviour erratic. She also said he would get angry at times if he learnt she took drugs without him.
Ventura testified on Wednesday that she quit drugs in 2022.
Combs, 55, has been held since September in a Brooklyn jail when not in court. If convicted on all counts, the rapper and founder of Bad Boy Records could face a minimum 15 years or life behind bars.
In 2019, Ventura married personal trainer Alex Fine and is pregnant with her third child.
US District Judge Arun Subramanian – irritated with the slow pace of the cross-examination – said he planned to give the defence less than two days to question Ventura, the same amount of time prosecutors needed. Ventura may finish testifying on Friday, New York time.
Part of the criminal case stems from Ventura’s November 2023 civil lawsuit against Combs. She testified that he agreed after 24 hours to settle for $US20 million ($31 million).
Asked on Wednesday why she decided to testify against Combs, Ventura said she could no longer bear the emotional burden of years of his physical and emotional abuse.
“I can’t carry the shame, the guilt, the way he treated people like they were disposable,” she said. “I came here to do the right thing.”
Also known during his career as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, Combs is credited with helping turn artists like Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, Notorious B.I.G. and Usher into stars in the 1990s and 2000s.
Testimony began on Monday and the trial could last two months.
Reuters
If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.
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