Cassie Ventura has wrapped up 4 consecutive days of explosive testimony within the legal trial of her ex-boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Breaking down in sobs, the singer informed a New York court docket on Tuesday that she would give again a $20 million authorized settlement from the rap mogul if it meant by no means having participated in his “humiliating” drug-fuelled intercourse events, known as “freak-offs”.
Mrs Ventura, the federal government’s star witness, confronted intense questioning from each authorized groups concerning the decade she dated Combs.
Combs faces expenses of racketeering, intercourse trafficking and transportation to interact in prostitution, and will face life in jail. He is pleaded not responsible and denied the accusations.
Mrs Ventura’s testimony revealed graphic particulars about her intercourse life with the rapper, the bodily violence she allegedly endured from him and the posse that she stated aided in protecting up his crimes.
She additionally addressed that after submitting a lawsuit in opposition to him in November 2023, which included a lot of these allegations, he gave her a settlement of $20 million.
The settlement, which got here simply sooner or later after the swimsuit was filed, was public information, however the quantity was beforehand unknown. The defence seemingly tried to hammer dwelling the monetary incentives for Mrs Ventura’s accusations throughout their cross examination of her testimony, which went on all day Thursday and Friday.
Combs’ lawyer Anna Estevao appeared to suggest Mrs Ventura was strapped for money earlier than submitting her lawsuit. The singer had simply moved to her dad and mom home together with her husband and youngsters, for instance.
Mrs Ventura pushed again in opposition to this characterization, later sharing that she would commerce all of it for a life freed from the “freak offs”, which she stated triggered her bodily accidents, would typically go on for days and stifled her profession as a singer.
“I’d have company and autonomy,” she stated.
Combs’ authorized workforce additionally confirmed the jury dozens of messages between the couple from every stage of their relationship, arguing their dynamic was poisonous at instances, however not legal.
The defence additionally supplied one final bombshell minutes earlier than Mrs Ventura was set to depart the stand on Friday: The singer organized one other authorized settlement for $10 million linked to her claims in opposition to the rap mogul.
Mrs Ventura informed the court docket she is anticipating to obtain about $10 million from InterContinental lodge.
The settlement pertains to an incident on the InterContinental in Los Angeles in 2016, wherein viral safety footage confirmed Combs hitting, kicking and dragging Mrs Ventura in a hallway. That footage was performed at size in court docket this week, and is likely one of the most necessary items of proof within the trial.
Although the day had almost come to an finish, the prosecution squeezed in two extra witnesses earlier than court docket adjourned. One was Daybreak Richard, a singer within the group Danity Kane – fashioned on Diddy’s present on MTV Making the Band – and final 12 months had filed a lawsuit accusing him of bodily abuse and withholding her earnings.
Ms Richard testified about an incident in 2009, when she stated she noticed Combs assault Mrs Ventura at his Los Angeles mansion.
“She fell down,” Ms Richard informed the court docket. “She was within the foetal place.”
After the incident, she stated Combs took her apart and informed her what she noticed was “ardour” and that the place he’s from, “individuals go lacking” in the event that they discuss.
US Homeland Safety particular agent Yasin Binda took the stand as effectively, telling the court docket concerning the money, medication and child oil that have been seized from the rapper’s lodge room when he was arrested in New York.
Extra testimony is anticipated from the witnesses known as by prosecutors subsequent week. The Decrease Manhattan court docket has been a media circus for the reason that starting of the trial, with spectators gathering in droves and tenting out in a single day to get a glimpse of the music mogul, his household, and the celebrities testifying.
