Sean "Diddy" Combs' former girlfriend Casandra "Cassie" Ventura testifies at his sex trafficking trial in New York City, New York, U.S., May 13, 2025 in this courtroom sketch. REUTERS/Jane
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Sean "Diddy" Combs' ex-girlfriend Casandra Ventura testified on Wednesday that the hip-hop mogul beat her during drug-fueled sex parties known as "Freak Offs," threatened to release videos of her taking part, and warned he would ruin her career.
"He would grab me up, push me down, hit me in the side of the head, kick me," Ventura, a rhythm and blues singer known as Cassie, told jurors in Manhattan federal court on the third day of Combs' trial on sex trafficking and racketeering charges.
Ventura said Combs was dismissive after she showed him a photo of a gash on her eyebrow that she said he gave her in 2013 by throwing her against a bed frame.
“You. Don't know. When to. Stop," Ventura said Combs told her. "You have pushed it too far and continue to push. Sad."
Ventura, 38, wore a turtleneck dress and dark jacket for her second day of testimony against Combs, and is the prosecution's star witness.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to five felony counts of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
If convicted on all counts, he would face a minimum 15 years in prison and could face life behind bars.
Ventura spent more than a decade with Combs in a relationship she said was once loving but deteriorated.
She told jurors that fighting back against Combs sometimes slowed him down, but usually made the abuse worse.
“It would just make him more violent, make him stronger, make him want to push me harder," Ventura said.
"He said that it would ruin everything that I had worked for, that it would make me look like a slut. That I would be shamed,” Ventura added. "Nobody should do that to anyone."
Jurors viewed a 2013 text where Combs told Ventura he deleted the videos, but Ventura said she still saw them on his devices on several occasions.
Ventura has testified she took part for a decade in "Freak Offs," often fearful that Combs would become violent if she didn't.
Combs wore a cream sweater over a white collared shirt to court on Wednesday, with his mother and at least two children looking on. He is being jailed in Brooklyn when not in court.
'STAY FAR AWAY'
Earlier this week, jurors saw a 2016 surveillance video from the hallway of a Los Angeles hotel where a towel-clad Combs threw Ventura to the ground and began to kick her.
Ventura said the video was taken after a "Freak Off" where Combs gave her a black eye.
Combs has apologized for the video.
Jurors on Wednesday also saw texts after the hotel incident in which Combs asked Ventura to come back because the police were arriving.
Ventura declined, saying she had a black eye and fat lip, and wanted to be rested for a movie premiere the next day.
"You are sick to think it was ok for you to do what you've done," Ventura texted Combs. "Please stay far away from me."
Combs' lawyers are expected to cross-examine Ventura after she finishes her direct testimony.
The trial could take up to two months.
Combs also faces dozens of civil lawsuits by women and men who accuse him of sexual abuse. He has denied wrongdoing, and said his relationships were consensual.
Also known during his career as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, Combs founded Bad Boy Records and is credited with helping turn artists like Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, Notorious B.I.G. and Usher into stars in the 1990s and 2000s.
(Reporting by Jack Queen and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Howard Goller and Noeleen Walder)
