Nationwide — Cassandra “Cassie” Ventura instructed jurors throughout her testimony in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ federal intercourse crimes trial that she cried when he kissed her for the primary time on her twenty first birthday. She mentioned the second left her confused and marked the beginning of a relationship that later turned abusive.The kiss occurred in August 2007 after a VMA occasion in Las Vegas. Cassie mentioned she was confused and didn’t need the kiss, particularly on her birthday. “There was a 17-year age distinction,” she defined. “I used to be actually confused on the time, you already know, new artist. I used to be fairly naive.”
After that night time, she began spending time with Combs in New York, typically visiting him on the Trump Resort. She admitted she wished to be round him “for a similar causes as everybody else on the time — this thrilling, entertaining, enjoyable man who additionally occurred to have my profession in his palms,” she mentioned.
Now 37, married to coach Alex High quality and anticipating their baby, Cassie is the prosecution’s key witness in Combs’ federal intercourse crimes trial. She accused him of emotional, bodily, and sexual abuse over their 11-year relationship.
Combs was arrested in September 2024. He pleaded not responsible to expenses of intercourse trafficking, racketeering, and transporting ladies for prostitution.
On the primary day of the trial in Manhattan, jurors watched lodge safety footage from 2016 exhibiting Combs beating and kicking Cassie. Prosecutors alleged that Combs used his affect within the music business to drug ladies and drive them into “Freak Offs,” group intercourse acts that typically included male prostitutes.
Protection lawyer Teny Geragos argued that every one sexual exercise was consensual. She mentioned Cassie selected to stick with Combs for years and later left him for her coach, whom Combs had initially employed.
If convicted, Combs faces a potential life sentence. He stays in custody on the Metropolitan Detention Complicated in Brooklyn.
