NEW YORK (AP) — The R&B singer Cassie returned to the witness stand Wednesday after spending the previous day recounting grotesque and humiliating details of life with her ex-boyfriend, music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, was being questioned by the prosecution in Combs' sex trafficking trial. Combs' lawyers were expected to begin their cross-examination of her later in the day — their opportunity to challenge her credibility or poke holes in her accounts of what happened.
During her first day of testimony on Tuesday, Cassie described being pressured into multiday sexual encounters with paid sex workers while Combs watched and gave directions. She also recounted being beaten numerous times by Combs when she did things that displeased him — like smiling at him the wrong way.
“You make the wrong face and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face,” she said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson picked up where she left off on Tuesday, asking Cassie about video images of Combs beating her at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
The video, played in court for a fifth time Tuesday, shows Combs hitting, kicking and attempting to drag Cassie back to their room. She testified it happened as she was leaving one of the sex parties that Combs called “freak offs.” After the footage was leaked last year, Combs apologized.
The “freak offs” took place in private, often in dark hotel rooms, unlike Combs’ very public White Parties in the Hamptons that attracted A-list celebrities.
Cassie accused Combs of gaining her submission by threatening to publicly release videos of her with male sex workers, and she feared more violence if she refused his demands.
Combs’ attorneys have acknowledged Combs could be violent but maintain that the sexual acts were consensual. They say nothing he did amounted to sex trafficking or racketeering — the charges that he faces.
The trial is expected to last about two months.
Prosecutors have accused Combs of exploiting his status as a powerful music executive to violently force women into drugged-up sex parties.
Cassie met Combs in 2005, when she was 19 and just at the start of a career as a singer, model and actor. She had a hit song, “Me & U,” in 2006 off an album released by Combs' Bad Boy Records.
Combs, who was 37 when they met, nurtured her career early on and also became her boyfriend for a decade.
Cassie left Combs' record label in 2019 and then sued him in 2023, accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse. The suit was settled within hours but dozens of similar legal claims followed, sparking the criminal investigation against him.
She told jurors during her testimony Tuesday that there were loving moments during their relationship but that Combs was always controlling and often violent.
Cassie said she was 22 when Combs first asked her to do a “freak off" sexual encounter, with the first one occurring in his Los Angeles home with a male stripper. It left her feeling dirty and confused, but relieved that Combs was happy, she said.
“It was his fantasy,” she said. “He was controlling the whole situation. He was directing it.”
Combs, 55, has been jailed since September. He faces at least 15 years in prison if convicted.
Michael R. Sisak And Larry Neumeister, The Associated Press
