NEW YORK (AP) — The R&B singer Cassie returns to the witness stand Wednesday after a day spent recounting grotesque and humiliating particulars of life along with her ex-boyfriend, Sean “Diddy” Combs.
Throughout her first day of testimony Tuesday at Combs’ intercourse trafficking trial, Cassie described being pressured into degrading sexual encounters with paid intercourse employees. She additionally recounted being crushed quite a few occasions by Combs when she did issues that displeased him — like smiling at him the fallacious method.
“You make the wrong face and the next thing I knew I was getting hit in the face,” she stated.
Cassie, whose authorized title is Casandra Ventura, accused Combs of gaining her submission by threatening to publicly launch movies of her with male intercourse employees.
Combs’ attorneys have acknowledged Combs may very well be violent however keep that the sexual acts had been consensual. They are saying nothing he did amounted to intercourse trafficking or racketeering — the costs that he faces.
Attorneys for Combs have but to cross-examine Cassie, a kind of questioning that may give them a possibility to problem her credibility or poke holes in her accounts of what occurred.
The trial is predicted to final about two months.
Prosecutors have accused Combs of exploiting his standing as a strong music govt to violently pressure ladies into drugged-up intercourse events he referred to as “freak offs.”
Cassie met Combs in 2005, when she was 19 and simply at first of a profession as a singer, mannequin and actor. She had successful track, “Me & U,” in 2006 off an album launched by Combs’ Dangerous Boy Data.
Combs, who was 37 after they met, nurtured her profession early on and in addition grew to become her boyfriend for a decade.
Cassie left Combs’ file label in 2019 after which sued him in 2023, accusing him of years of bodily and sexual abuse. She instructed jurors throughout her testimony Tuesday that there have been loving moments throughout their relationship however that Combs was at all times controlling and sometimes violent.
Cassie stated she was 22 when Combs first requested her to do a “freak off,” with the primary one occurring in his Los Angeles house with a male stripper that left her feeling soiled and confused, however relieved that Combs was glad.
“It was his fantasy,” she stated. “He was controlling the whole situation. He was directing it.”
Combs, 55, has been jailed since September. He faces a minimum of 15 years in jail if convicted.
