With the jury finally selected, the sex trafficking and racketeering trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs got underway in Manhattan federal court on Monday.
The eight men and four women chosen did not wait long to see what is considered to be a key piece of evidence in the prosecution's arsenal against Combs: a security video showing him assault his former girlfriend Casandra Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
Ventura and Combs were involved in an on-and-off again relationship for roughly 10 years, eventually ending in 2018. She took the stand Tuesday.
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Who is Cassie Ventura?
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SIGN UP Cassie, a model and R&B singer once signed to Combs' music label whose real name is Casandra Ventura, the 38-year-old was first linked to the hip-hop mogul back in 2005.
Ventura started her singing career in 2004, shortly before she was discovered by Combs. She would joined his label, Bad Boy Records, which released her debut single "Me & U," roughly two years later.
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The single off her self-titled debut album peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Five years after ending their relationship, Ventura filed a civil lawsuit against Combs in late 2023 in federal court in Manhattan, accusing him of repeated physical abuse over more than a decade, of forcing her to have sex with male sex workers while he masturbated and filmed them, and of raping her in September 2018, near the end of their relationship, among other accusations.
Ventura’s suit said that not long after she met Combs in 2005, when she was 19 and he was 37, he signed her to his record label and asserted complete control of her personal and professional life, including by plying her with drugs.
Throughout their relationship, her suit said, Combs “was prone to uncontrollable rage” and would frequently beat her “savagely.” His staff and employees of his various businesses witnessed the beatings, the suit said, but none dared to speak up against him.
In May 2024, hotel surveillance video published by CNN showed Combs kicking and striking Ventura, then dragging her through a hallway by her sweatshirt at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles in March 2016. Wigdor, her attorney, confirmed the video depicted the allegations in her lawsuit.
Combs apologized after the footage leaked, saying his behavior in the video “is inexcusable.” But his attorneys alleged in a court filing last month that the footage had been “substantially altered in significant respects” and thus “does not fairly and accurately depict the events in question,” which CNN refuted.
Combs’ attorneys also said the violence depicted in the video was not connected to sex trafficking but to a dispute about fidelity. The video is a critical piece of evidence for the prosecution.
