The defence has been taking the jury through a series of break-up texts between Cassie Ventura and Sean Combs from August 2018.
The singer testified that she had decided to end their relationship after seeing a photograph of Combs with a woman named in court as “Gina”. Combs had been dating her for several years, Ventura said.
She texted Combs: “I just don’t trust anymore. That last shot put the nail in the coffin.”
She agreed in court that she had not brought up the rape allegation with Combs in text messages discussing the evening.
I don’t hate Combs, Ventura tells court
Anna Estevao cross-examines Cassie Ventura in court on Friday
JANE ROSENBERG/REUTERS
Anna Estevao, for the defence, has asked Cassie Ventura whether she still had feelings for Sean Combs after he allegedly raped her in August 2018.
“You didn’t hate him then and you don’t hate him now?” Estevao asked. “I don’t hate him,” Ventura responded. “You still have love for him?” Estevao pressed. “I have love for the past, what it was,” Ventura replied.
Jury told of ‘rape after dinner’ in 2018
Cassie Ventura’s testimony has turned to an incident in 2018 when she alleges that Sean Combs raped her at her home after they had gone to dinner at an Italian restaurant in Malibu.
She previously testified that it occurred at a time when she was seeking closure in her relationship with Combs and was dating Alex Fine, 32, who is now her husband. Combs had recently returned from attending the Burning Man festival in Nevada, she said.
Cassie Ventura’s husband, Alex Fine, left, enters the court in Manhattan
DAVID “DEE” DELGADO/REUTERS
Afterwards, he sent the singer a text asking for a chance to “make things right”. Cassie said that Combs had taken care of her “materialistically, not where I needed it”.
Ventura recounts therapy for PTSD and addiction
Casandra “Cassie” Ventura said she processed her memories of violence against her during therapy
JANE ROSENBERG/REUTERS
Cassie Ventura has testified that she spent 45 days in a rehabilitation facility in Arizona in 2023 to receive treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and drug addiction.
The singer said she had participated in several kinds of therapy, including eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing, which helped her “recount memories and process them”. Describing the treatment, Ventura said she would envisage events in her past, when she was trapped in a room and being beaten up, then reimagine the scenario so she could find a way out.
She also received neurofeedback treatment, she said, which involved her brain being connected to a machine that regulates neural waves.
Jury hears audio of Ventura’s anguish over sex video
The jury has been played a recording from 2013 of Cassie Ventura screaming at a friend who claimed to have seen a video of her performing sex acts.
Ventura can be heard pleading to see the video, then threatening to kill the male friend if it became public. “I’ve never killed anyone in my life, but I will kill you,” she said. Ventura testified that she believed someone had secretly filmed her and Sean “Diddy” Combs during a “freak off” [a drug-fuelled sex session]. She said she told Combs, who claimed he would “take care of it”.
Combs’s threats to release footage of the “freak offs” have been a consistent theme throughout Ventura’s testimony.
Justin Bieber: I am not a Diddy victim
Sean “Diddy” Combs, Justin Bieber and the rapper Rick Ross at a party in Atlanta in 2014
PRINCE WILLIAMS/GETTY IMAGES
Justin Bieber has denied persistent social media speculation that he was victimised by Sean Combs.
“Although Justin is not among Sean Combs’s victims, there are individuals who were genuinely harmed by him,” a representative for the Canadian singer told TMZ. “Shifting focus away from this reality detracts from the justice these victims rightfully deserve.”
Combs helped Bieber, 31, break into the music industry in the late 2000s. The pair appeared together in several joint television interviews in the ensuing years that have resurfaced since allegations about sexual offences by Combs came to light.
Combs’s children show support
Quincy Brown, Sean Combs’s stepson, Justin Combs and King Combs outside the court
TIMOTHY A CLARY/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Three of Sean Combs’s children, his sons Justin Combs, 31, and Christian Combs, 27, and his daughter Chance Combs, 19, are back in court on Friday.
Family members have attended on each day of the trial so far. On Monday, Combs’s daughters — Chance, and twins D’Lila and Jessie, 17, left the court during graphic testimony about their father’s alleged sexual encounters.
The adult children were seen with Combs’s mother, Janice Combs, holding hands and embracing in a prayer circle on Wednesday after Cassie Ventura’s direct evidence concluded.
‘Jealous Combs took Ventura’s phone’
Cassie Ventura, wearing a dark-striped suit jacket over a light-coloured blouse, testified that Sean Combs took her phone and other possessions on numerous occasions after suspecting that she was seeing other people.
Combs snatched her phone out of her hand while they were in a car in Los Angeles in 2016, she said, after finding out that she was dating an unidentified NFL player. Her mother called the police after Ventura returned home without the phone. On another occasion, Combs grabbed her phone after suspecting that she was seeing the R&B singer Chris Brown, she said.
Combs also took her watch, passport and car when he became angry with her, even if they were on a break in their relationship, she testified.
I am not a rag doll, Ventura told Combs
Anna Estevao, for the defence, has begun by asking Cassie Ventura about Combs’s drug use at the time in 2016 that Sean Combs was seen on hotel surveillance cameras assaulting her.
Ventura was reminded that she had previously said Combs was “blackout” — when a person loses their memory because of drug use. “Everybody’s definition of blackout is different,” Ventura replied.
She was then asked to read a text message, describing the hotel incident, which she sent to Combs four days afterwards: “When you get f***ed up the wrong way you always want to show me that you have the power and you knock me around. I’m not a rag doll, I’m someone’s child,” it read.
Prosecutors appeal to judge over lengthy cross-examination
Prosecutors have accused the defence of trying to drag out their cross-examination of Cassie Ventura in an overnight letter to the judge.
Sean Combs’s lawyers appeared intent on forcing Ventura to return to the witness box on Monday so the rapper could review transcripts over the weekend and prepare additional questions. They raised the risk of a mistrial if Ventura was required to return on Monday but instead goes into labour over the weekend. She is due to give birth to her third child in June.
The defence had earlier claimed that prosecutors purposely delayed calling Ventura to testify so they would have less time to cross-examine her.
A fourth day of testimony
Casandra “Cassie” Ventura’s marathon spell in the witness box continues on Friday.
On Thursday, Anna Estevao, Combs’s lawyer, had Ventura read out dozens of messages that she exchanged with the hip-hop mogul, 55, about her participation in the days-long sexual performances with male sex workers that he called “freak offs”. In August 2009, Combs asked when she wanted the next encounter to be, and she replied: “I’m always ready to freak off.”
In a 2017 text message, Ventura, 38, told Combs: “I love our ‘freak offs’ when we both want it.”