Diddy Trial Day 7: Cassie Ventura’s mother called to testify

Diddy Trial Day 7: Cassie Ventura’s mother called to testify

[Music] I’m Eva Pilgrim. Thanks for streaming with us. We could see a Grammy award-winning artist take the stand as soon as tomorrow in the sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial against hip hop mogul Shaun Diddy Combmes. We’ve learned prosecutors plan to call rapper Kid Cuddy as soon as tomorrow. He briefly dated Cassie Ventura. That would be after the wide range of witnesses we saw today. Cassie Ventura’s mom, Regina, testifying about her daughter’s bruised body and the pictures she took after Diddy allegedly beat Cassie, saying she wanted to memorialize it. Ventura’s mother also telling the jury she took out a loan to pay Combs of $20,000 that he demanded to recoup money that he had spent on her, saying she was scared for her daughter’s safety. That money ultimately returned to her by Combmes. Also taking the stand, the male escort known as the Punisher, a nickname he said he earned playing basketball. He went into graphic detail about an alleged sexual encounter with Ventura that included applying baby oil and a nude man in the room, a man he later knew to be Combmes, telling the jury, “I was specifically told to not acknowledge him, try not to look at him.” The jury also hearing about Combmes’s love for Hines 57 ketchup from a former personal assistant as prosecutors try to use his testimony to establish Diddy’s leadership of an alleged criminal enterprise. Coming up, what he said about an alleged incident involving Combmes and rival Shu Knight at a diner that made him feel like his life was in danger. Plus, Don Rashard’s attorney, Lisa Bloom, joins us after her client’s big day in court. But first, let’s start in lower Manhattan outside the federal courthouse. ABC News chief investigative correspondent Aaron Kurski back there again today. Aaron, you were once again there in court. Cassie Ventura’s mother, Regina, took the stand. What did she say? Regina Ventur said she was physically sick by an email that her daughter had sent her just before Christmas in 2011. Eva, it indicated that Shawn Combmes was blackmailing her. Regina Ventura said this email and the jury saw it read that he was going to release two explicit tapes because Colbmes had found out she was dating Kid Cuddy and also threatened to harm both Cassie Ventura and Kid Cuddy. And she said she became scared for her daughter’s safety and agreed to send Col $20,000 that he had apparently demanded to recoup some of the money that he had spent on Cassie. She said she took out a home equity loan to come up with the money and wired it according to instructions sent by Combmes’s bookkeeper. Now, Regina Ventura said the the money ultimately came back, but this testimony backed up Cassie’s assertion that she had in effect been blackmailed and federal prosecutors said that blackmail was meant to coers her into sexual acts. Sean Co’s former assistant, David James, also testified today. How did he describe what it was like working for Diddy? David James’ testimony was like some disjointed Pulp Fiction Twint Quentyn Tarantino film, Eva, because there was the time where he bought an eightball of cocaine off a yacht in Miami. And there he was driving Shawn Combmes to confront his rival record producer Suge Knight at Mel’s Diner in Los Angeles. And the other time when he walked into a freakoff and saw Cassie Ventura lying motionless on her back when as before he said he had only saw her sleeping on her side when he used to walk in and wake up Cassie and Shawn Combmes to start their day. He talked about how exacting it could be to work for Shawn Combmes, how exhausting the the 7-day work weeks were routine and and he talked about all the things he was meant to keep for Shawn Combmes. He remembered traveling in London and Combmes didn’t like the taste of ketchup in in in the UK. So he had to have Hines 57. He talked about stocking baby oil and astroglide lubricant in hotel rooms for Shawn Combmes. I also have to ask you, Erin, about the Punisher. He was one of the people who took the stand today. He actually wrote a book that details some of his experiences with Diddy and Cassie. What did he tell the jury? The book is called In Search of Frozen Meat, and it apparently is now on Amazon the number one best-selling book about male impetence. And he talked about erectile dysfunction and his belief that uh receiving a a a penile implant is the solution. This testimony though really focused on the 8 to 12 times that he said he was called by Cassie Ventura who for most of the time he knew as a woman named Janet where he was called to create a sexual scene as he described it and eventually what started with rubbing baby oil on one another became more sexual. He talked about one time where he and Cassie Ventura had performed oral sex. Sean Colmes threw a box of condoms on the couch and said, “Go ahead.” And indicated that he wanted uh Hayes, Sheree Hayes, his real name, to have intercourse with Cassie Ventura. Um the last witness of the day, curious to ask you about this was a federal agent. What did he show the jury? He showed the jury items that he said were seized from Shawn Combmes’s Miami Beach home, including two AR-15 style rifles that were pulled off a shelving unit in the main bedroom. And they were intermingled with with baby oil, with Astrolide lubricant, with lingerie, and with 7in platform heels, all on the same shelves. the the the upper receiver for the weapon was found wrapped in a towel. The lower receiver was found in a box with ammunition. Aaron Kurski for us again at the courthouse. Aaron, thank you so much. Let’s bring in ABC News legal contributor, criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Bernardo Vilona, who was in the courtroom today. Wow, there’s a lot back here. Any standout moments to you? Yeah, definitely a roller coaster of a day today in terms of emotion, in terms of testimony, in terms of We heard from the escort, I guess, male performer. We heard from the mom. We heard from the agent. But let’s start with the most important part. We heard from Cassie Ventur’s mother. Cassie Ventur’s mother. Can I tell you how soft-spoken she is, just like her daughter, but she was testifying with so much pain that you can see and hear in her voice when she said, “I was scared for my daughter’s safety.” Literally, the jurors were taking notes and were like literally hanging at her every word because she came off so credible and so emotional. You can tell the genuine fear that she had for her daughter and for what Shawn Cons was doing to her. But most importantly, when they pointed to this email, this email that Cassie has sent to her mother and from the email about sexually explicit videos possibly being released. And then shortly thereafter, there was a demand from Shawn Combmes for $20,000. And if you don’t get the $20,000, then we’re going to release these videos. But add on to that is the injuries that for the first time she saw her daughter and her daughter actually telling her that it was the hands of Shawn Colmes. So why is this important? Because it goes to extortion. It goes to the coercion. Next up having to deal with Suge Knight and Shawn Colmes. Eva, we’re talking about riding dirty. His assistant, his assistant brought this up that there was a point in time that he had went to a diner. In that diner, they saw Shook Knight. After that, they went straight back to the home. And when they went back to the home that Shawn Combmes and Cassie were outside and Shawn Combmes gets in the car, when he turns around in the car, he sees Shawn Combmes with three firearms in his lap and that he was saying to not going to say the words, but to drive down to the diner in essence to go ahead and shoot um Shook Knight. That right there was a moment where where the for the first time we saw actual testimony, her testimony of what Shawn Holmes is capable of of allegedly going out there to try to execute um Sug Knight. However, I have to note that the defense did an excellent job in the sense of trying to bring doubt to his testimony, to his credibility. Are you sure? Are you sure this is what happened? So the defense may have something up their sleeve in the sense to discredit that testimony having to deal with the alleged shooting that was about to transpire with Suge Knight. We have to talk more too about this exotic dancer performer, The Punisher. He testified about being hired several times by Shawn Combmes and Cassie Ventura to create quote a sexy scene I think is how it was described. Why does he matter as a witness? So in terms of why he matters as a witness, there is strength in numbers. So remember that the prosecution is going to call other escorts to come in and testify about these freakoffs. So that way the case is not just about Cassie testifying as to these freakoffs. Now we have two male escorts that have testified about these freakoffs and how it transpired and how Cassie behaved and what Shawn Combmes were saying and what transpired during this freakoffs. But more importantly that he was getting paid. So the prostitution part of engaging in prostitution. But the defense did an excellent job in cross-examining this witness because this witness said that look, it was consensual that Cassie enjoyed it. That nothing in his experience led him to believe that she did not want to engage into these sexual acts. Again, going to the consent portion and the willingness portion of wanting to engage in these acts. And if it’s consensual, then you don’t have sex trafficking. Okay. The last witness that took the stand today was a special agent. testified about firearms that they found at Combmes’s Miami residence after his arrest. Is there any significance to that testimony? Well, the significance to that testimony is that agent gave us an insight as to what was recovered during that search warrant. So, they left off as to the search warrant that was executed at the Florida home. So, aside from the baby or the stilettos and and these firearms that were recovered, the jury got to see these AR-15s. So, two AR-15s were actually recovered and actually was shown to the jury, taken out of the evidence bag. So, again, going to show that why does Shawn Diddy Combmes have his possession in AR-15? But remember, there’s no counts having to deal with possession of a firearm and his indictment. All right, Bernardo Vilona, always so good to have you. And prosecutors are hoping that with every witness, they’re closer to proving the charges at hand, all of which Combmes has denied. helping to build the government’s case. Don Rashard, former member of Diddy’s girl group, Danny Deca. She also went on to be a part of Diddy Dirty Diddy Money. With me now is Rashard’s attorney, Lisa Bloom. Lisa, thank you so much for joining us. I know you were with Dawn yesterday. What did she say to you after she left after it was all done? She was glad she was done. You know, it’s a really nerve-wracking experience to walk into federal court, to see two rows of defense attorneys, a row of prosecutors, all these reporters in the gallery, right? And have to raise your right hand and do your best to tell the truth, not only to the prosecutor’s questions, but on a pretty challenging cross-examination. I think she did a magnificent job and she was glad it was done and she got to go home. I’m curious, did she want to testify? Did she want to tell her story? I don’t think she wanted to testify. She was willing to testify. And there’s a difference. I don’t think anybody Listen, I’ve been a trial lawyer for a long time representing victims of discrimination, harassment, and abuse. And I always have to beg people to testify. They don’t. Nobody wants to. I I say it’s like putting on a play that none of the actors want to be in. But there’s and most people run as far as they can from the courthouse. They do not want to be there. There are a few brave people like Don Rashard who say although there’s nothing in this for me I will do it because it’s the right thing to do and that’s what she did. Yesterday on cross the defense tried to say Don King couldn’t keep her story straight. What do you say to that? Well that’s silly. So, of course, anytime somebody tells a story over and over again for hours and hours, as she was required to do when the US attorneys uh investigated this matter, you know, there’s going to be minor differences, but overall, the essence of her story uh was very strong that she saw Mr. Holmes engage in acts of violence against Cassie Ventura, that he threatened them, and that’s been backed up by witness after witness after witness. And what Don also testified about were people that worked for Mr. Combmes who essentially saw what was going on, the uh violence against Cassie and turned a blind eye to it. And that’s important because remember this is not a case about domestic violence or assault. It’s about racketeering, which is essentially a legal word for a conspiracy of a group of people to commit significant crimes. And so they alleged Mr. Holmes didn’t do this on his own. other people knew about it, like the CEO of Bad Boy, like assistance. That’s what her testimony was about. We know the judge limited some of what she could say there in court. Was there anything that she wanted to say that she didn’t get to? You know, I’m sure that there was, and you’re right, and it’s so frustrating when you’re a witness. We have our civil case that we filed before the government’s criminal case. And in her civil case, she will be able to tell her own story about all of the significant issues that she has with Mr. Holmes in terms of her employment with him, being underpaid, being treated badly, etc. So, she’ll have a chance there to tell her story. Lisa Bloom, thank you so much. And we should point out that Rashard is suing Combmes in civil court for claims ranging from sexual assault to copyright infringement. Combmes’s lawyers have denied all the allegations and have filed a motion to dismiss. Thanks again. Still ahead, Cassie Ventura’s mom testified. The defense choosing not to cross-examine her. How that could play in the trial. Also ahead, Obama and Diddy. Why? That’s one of the top searches online when it comes to the trial of Shawn Combmes. Stay with us. [Music] [Music] Welcome back. Another day of key testimony in the Shaun Diddy Combmes trial. The witnesses taking the stand today included Cassie Ventur’s mother, Regina, who testified about Cassie’s bruises allegedly caused by Combmes. Also before the jury today, a male escort known as the Punisher. He testified about his sexual encounters with both Cassie Ventura and Shawn Combmes. And last on the stand today, the special agent who was in charge of the 2024 raid on Combmes’s Miami Beach home. The jury seeing assault style rifles found on a shelf inside Combmes’s bedroom. The serial numbers on those guns defaced. Let’s dissect what happened in the courtroom today with our legal panel. Bernarda Vilona back with us. Also joining today, defense attorney and former assistant Manhattan District Attorney Jeremy Salan. Jeremy, you’re going to take on the role of the defense. Bernardo, you’re going to take on the role from the perspective of the prosecution. Let’s start with you, Bernardo. You were in the courtroom. We talked about this earlier. Cassie’s mother on the stand and she talked about taking photos of bruises that she saw that were allegedly from Shawn Combmes to memorialize it. How effective was her testimony? Well, her testimony was definitely compelling because it’s coming from a mother’s perspective, but also those pictures that she took, that incident right there was the first time that Cassie had ever told her or insinuated that she was being assaulted by Shawn Combmes. So, just imagine she is responding to her daughter and trying to do something to help her out of it. The jury was deadlocked on her testimony. They wanted to hear everything she had to say. And she came off so compelling that the defense got up and say, “Miss Ventur, I have no questions for you. There was no cross-examination.” But she also mentioned a second incident that’s important that um there was an incident where she was in front of the hotel. This was in California. Shawn Combmes had taken Cassie’s phone and did not want to return it. So, she called the cops to try to get it back. Eventually, she got the phone back, but Shawn Combmes then took the car. So again, going to that coercion part, that manipulating part of Cassie, who’s your biggest advocate in life? Your mother’s your biggest advocate. 100%. Who would lie for you? Who would steal for you? Who would cheat for you? Who would love you to the end of days? Your mother would corroborated. But why didn’t why didn’t the defense question her? What’s the strategy there? There’s really no win. There’s there’s a difficulty going after a pregnant Cassie, even though we’re not talking about 30ome year old Cassie. We’re talking about 20, 21 year old Cassie. The same reason you don’t go after mom. There’s no win for you in that game. You’re going to make her cry and make her that much more compelling and hurt her because objectively she’s been hurt. Whether that means Shawn Combmes is an animal and a a jerk and a bad man doing bad things. That’s one thing. We acknowledge that. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s committed these crimes and this whole racketeering pyramid that comes up to him. So it’s really kid glove and delicate when you’re dealing with a mother on the stand about her own daughter who was a victim in some capacity even if not the way the prosecution alleges. Okay. So the other thing we have to talk we have to talk about the punisher the male escort. A lot of people are talking about it. He experience he testified to his experience saying that he saw Shawn Combmes never intoxicated that Combmes was giving directions. How does that all play in all of this? So in terms of the prosecution, you know, you question why call the the punisher another escort to come in and testify. Number one, there’s strength in numbers when we’re talking about the escorts and then talking about the free cause, but number two also showing that look because remember doing opening statements, the defense wanted to portray that Shawn’s a person that was acting out of he was intoxicated. He was on drugs pretty much he wasn’t understanding what he was doing. And here you have a male escort telling you, not a male escort, a performer telling you that look, I didn’t see him intoxicated. I didn’t see I didn’t see him under the influence of drugs. He was capable of the decisions that he was making. He was directing them as to what to do. And then again, again, you have another payoff for sexual acts. Now, I got to pull Bernarda back to to the side of justice here for a second. She she lost her way for a moment. My response to that would be, you had a man who came in who at one point may have said that he had feelings from her her to the prosecution and then when he was cross-examined on it, well, you know, they may have been taken out of context. Well, which is it? That’s pretty convenient. You admit what you can’t deny and deny what you can’t admit. Meaning, he got caught with that and now he has to have a story for it. But yes, Combmes may have been sober and and incompetent and okay to do whatever he was doing as a puppeteer. But at the same time, other than wincing and sighing a little bit in terms of Cassy’s description, it wasn’t as if he was being aggressive in this terms of really being violent or assertive. He likes that kink. That’s his thing. I may not want it. None of us may want it. But again, does that build that criminal pyramid in terms of a conspiracy to commit racketeering? That’s still a leap. There’s a lot more to come. Another interesting detail out of today was from the assistant that he when he was supplying the hotel room for all the things that that Combmes wanted in there, he would pay for it and then Bad Boy Records was who reimbursed him. Yes. Yes. So, in terms of the special stocking of what um Shawn Colmes wanted in his room. So, when we’re talking about the baby oil or the Astroglide, those are items that supposedly Shawn Colmes did not want to be built to bad boy. He wanted it to come out of his own personal account. But this is the thing. As a prosecutor, you argue that as consciousness of guilt. Like if why wouldn’t you want it to come out if this is just normal, out of your own business? You you’re taking it out of your own personal account because you know what you’re doing is wrong and criminal. I would argue that you would say the same thing if you actually wrote it off because then you’d say there’s some sort of tax fraud. So why are you writing all this stuff off that you should never be writing off? It’s my personal stick. That’s what I like. It doesn’t belong in my company. Period. Jeremy Bernarda, thank you both for being here with us. And coming up, Obama and Diddy. Why that’s one of the top searches online when it comes to this trial. Stay with us. [Music] [Music] [Music] Welcome back. It was a busy day in court. Four witnesses called to the stand. Cassie Ventura’s mother, Shawn Combmes’s one-time personal assistant, a male exotic performer, and a special agent. Time now to take a look at what people are searching for online when it comes to this trial. Some of today’s biggest search terms include diddy trial usher testimony, charé hay book, Obama diddy trial, and the question of when will Diddy trial end? ABC News contributor Kelly Carter joins us now from Los Angeles. She covers entertainment and pop culture for us. Okay, first up in the searches, diddy trial Usher testimony that’s trending because he was mentioned today. Yeah. Why the interest? Here’s the truth. You know, Usher is a huge international superstar. He got that way because of Shawn Combmes’s influence. He produced and really coached him in that debut album and really kind of taught him how to be a superstar. And so I think people want to search and see what that means. And of course, if there’s going to be an Usher sighting at court at some point during the case of this uh this trial, people are also searching Obama diddy trial. This is trending because David James, uh, the former assistant, recalled Combmes taking ecstasy pills marked with the face of former President Obama. I I didn’t know that was even a thing you could do. But you know what? People are also trying to see, did former President Obama ever go to like a Shawn Combmes party? Of course, there is literally zero evidence that shows that that even happened, but it’s just one of those bizarre things that people are searching trying to find something. Yeah. And we have one more search to to talk about here. People are looking at when will Diddy trial end. Yeah. You know what? We all are armchair uh lawyers right now and trying to figure this out. The truth of the matter is that people are learning in real time how the justice system works. And I think everyone was trying to draw their conclusions essentially after two days of testimony. But as we have seen, we’ve seen so many witnesses testify and then we’re being told how many others have yet to come to the stand. We’re in this for the long haul. This is going to take over the better part of the summer for a lot of people who are interested in this trial. And I think people are really starting to have a firm understanding of that now, seeing how the progression of this trial is going. Yeah, it’s not going to be quick. Kelly Carter, thank you so much for being with us and thank you for joining us. We’ll be back with new episodes every day of the trial. The show streams right here on ABC News Live, Disney Plus, and Hulu weekdays at 5:30 p.m. Eastern and Pacific. For even more on the Diddy trial, make sure to follow our podcast, Bad Rap, the Case Against Diddy, hosted by our very own Brian Buckmeer on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen. I’m Eva Pilgrim in New York. Have a good rest of your day. [Music]

Regina Ventura, Cassie’s mother, testified in federal court on Tuesday, May 20. ABC News’ Eva Pilgrim, Aaron Katersky and a team of contributors have the latest updates on the case against Sean Combs.
Subscribe to ABC News on YouTube: https://abcnews.visitlink.me/59aJ1G

ABC News is your daily source of breaking national and world news, exclusive interviews and 24/7 live streaming coverage.

Download the ABC News app for the latest headlines and alerts: https://abcnews.go.com/devices

Watch 24/7 coverage of breaking news and live events on ABC News Live: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gN0PZCe-kwQ&ab_channel=ABCNews

Watch full episodes of World News Tonight with David Muir here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQOa26lW-uI8ixlVw1NWu_l4Eh8iZW_qN&feature=shared

Read ABC News reports online: http://abcnews.go.com

ABC News is the home to the #1 evening newscast “World News Tonight with David Muir,” “Good Morning America,” “20/20,” “Nightline,” “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos, “ABC News Live Prime” with Linsey Davis, plus the daily news podcast “Start Here.”

Connect with ABC News on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ABCNews
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abcnews
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@abcnews
X: https://twitter.com/ABC
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@abcnews
WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VajTNakKWEKkXoAPIR11
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/abcnews