After answering questions from the prosecution for two days, Cassie Ventura faced a tougher interrogation Thursday under cross-examination from Sean “Diddy” Combs’ legal team.
Ventura is the prosecution’s star witness, and her testimony Tuesday and Wednesday alleging her ex-boyfriend Combs physically and sexually abused her is key to the charges against the hip-hop mogul. He has pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution and could face up to life in prison.
Prosecutors have said Combs and his inner circle used threats, violence, drugs, bribery, arson, kidnapping and lies to coerce Ventura and another woman into participating in drug-fueled sex parties known as “Freak Offs” and to protect the music mogul’s reputation.
The defense acknowledged Combs has been violent with former girlfriends and has a “different” sex life but said those do not equate to racketeering or sex trafficking. They also said the women consented to these sexual arrangements and said they were truly motivated by money and jealousy.
Combs’ trial is not being televised, per the rules of federal court. CNN has reporting from journalists inside and outside the court.
Here are the key takeaways from Wednesday’s testimony so far.
The defense’s cross-examination began with defense attorney Anna Estevao reading aloud affectionate messages Ventura sent Combs over the years.
“I’m a very lucky woman,” Ventura wrote to Combs in a January 2008 text message. “I miss you so much I’d fly wherever you needed me whenever. I love you.”
Many other messages were sexually explicit.
“I’m always ready to Freak Off lolol,” she said in an August 2009 message.
The jury was shown sexts from 2012 reminiscing on past “Freak Offs” and how they enjoyed when they “made love” after one of them. Ventura also confirmed she and Combs had conversations about the “swingers’ lifestyle,” noting it was “very different” from the “Freak Offs.”
In other messages, Ventura expressed her hesitancy with the “Freak Offs.”
“The last time was a mistake but since has made me feel a little dirty and grimy as opposed to sexual and spontaneous. That’s the only reason why I go back and forth in my mind with wanting and not wanting to do it,” Ventura wrote him in December 2009. “I got nervous that I’m just becoming the girlfriend that you get your fantasies off with and that’s it.”
Some messages also showed her frustrations with her relationship with Combs.
“I never seem to make the right decisions to you,” she wrote in October 2007, a few weeks after her 21st birthday party. Ventura testified Combs kissed her for the first time at that party.
“I am really hurt by the way you deal with me,” she wrote him in April 2010. “I don’t need your money, I need some attention. I am thankful, but I can pay for these things myself.”
Ventura agreed that they had open communication, although she testified it was “usually a go one-way street.” She would send messages being open about her feelings more often than he would, she explained.
Ventura acknowledged she never told her friends or any of Combs’ staff members about the “Freak Offs.”
Ventura said she “definitely didn’t” want his staff to know about them. Assistants would often set up the hotel rooms beforehand, she said, but she didn’t recall a staff member walking in during a “Freak Off” session.
The defense has tried to make the case that these drug-fueled sex parties were consensual and that Combs and his inner circle were not a “criminal enterprise,” as prosecutors have alleged.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the timeline of Ventura and Combs’ relationship. Ventura testified Combs kissed her for the first time at her 21st birthday party.
