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Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial updates: Cassie Ventura breaks down as testimony concludes

PHOTO: Casandra "Cassie" Ventura is cross examined by Lawyer Anna Estevao during Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking trial in New York City, May 16, 2025 in this courtroom sketch.
22:39
Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
Diddy Trial Day 5: Cassie Ventura breaks down on the witness stand
By Aaron Katersky, Mason Leib
Last Updated: May 19, 2025, 2:00 PM

This story may contain accounts and descriptions of actual or alleged events that some readers may find disturbing.

Friday is day five in the trial of Sean Combs after the jury was seated.

Key Headlines

  • Dawn Richard testifies about seeing Cassie 'attacked' by 'screaming, belligerent' Combs
  • Special agent's testimony concludes as prosecution calls Danity Kane's Dawn Richard to the stand
  • Special agent testifies to drugs, baby oil in Combs' hotel room at time of arrest
  • Cassie Ventura, Alex Fine share statement through attorney after 4-day testimony
  • Cassie Ventura concludes her testimony after 4 days
Here's how the news is developing.

Pinned
May 19, 2025 12:53 PM

Sean Combs trial underway

The highly anticipated trial of hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs is underway. Combs has been accused of sex trafficking by force, transportation to engage in prostitution, and racketeering conspiracy as part of a blockbuster federal indictment originally filed in September 2024. He later faced two additional superseding indictments. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

Combs is accused of being the ringleader of an alleged enterprise that "abused, threatened and coerced women" into prolonged, drug-fueled sexual orgies with male prostitutes, which he called "freak offs," and then threatened them into silence. Combs has said that all of the sex was consensual and that while his relationships sometimes involved domestic violence, he wasn't engaged in trafficking.

Combs' lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, said Combs was simply part of the swinger lifestyle and that he "vehemently denies the accusations made by the SDNY" and "looks forward to his day in court."


Pinned
May 13, 2025 6:41 PM

Cassie Ventura breaks down on witness stand amid 'freak offs' testimony

Cassie Ventura broke down on the witness stand as she described her participation in so-called "freak offs."

Ventura said she had just turned 22 when Sean Combs first proposed these alleged marathon sex performances with male prostitutes that she said eventually “became almost weekly.” She said it would be impossible to remember participating in all of them.

The average length of a freak off was two or three days, Ventura said, the entire time during which she was awake, fueled by ecstasy, molly and cocaine she said was given to her by Combs.

“Who decided when a freak off was over?” prosecutor Emily Johnson asked.

“Ultimately that would be Sean,” Ventura responded.

“Did you want to participate in every freak off?” Johnson asked.

“No,” Ventura answered. “I felt like it was all I was good for. It was disgusting. I felt humiliated. I didn’t have the words for how horrible I really felt.”

If she refused to participate, Combs “would be violent with me,” according to Ventura.

“His look would just change over. He would become a different person and I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Ventura said.

When Johnson asked if there was any part of the freak off that she enjoyed, Ventura began to sob. She grabbed a tissue and, through tears, said “I thought it was the only time I could get.”

The first freak-off occurred at one of the homes Combs was renting in Los Angeles, Ventura testified. The jury was shown a photo of the male escort who participated. Ventura said she did not remember his name. She said she wore “really high platform shoes” and a masquerade mask at the freak off.

“Every freak off was directed by Sean. He knew specifically where he wanted everyone to be, the lighting,” Ventura said.

The case against Combs also involves those around him. Johnson asked Ventura about associates Toni Fletcher and Kristina Khorram, and security guards named Fahim and Uncle Paulie.

Ventura testified that she recalled seeing guns in several of Combs’ properties, “just laid out.”

She recalled an evening when, she said, one of Combs' employees allegedly told Combs that record executive Suge Knight was nearby. Combs and others then donned black clothing and guns, according to Ventura's testimony.

“I was crying, I was screaming. Like, please don’t do anything stupid,” Ventura testified.


May 19, 2025 2:00 PM

Dawn Richard testifies about seeing Cassie 'attacked' by 'screaming, belligerent' Combs

Dawn Richard, a member of music groups Diddy Dirty Money and Danity Kane, testified to the jury she "observed Cassie being attacked" by Sean Combs in his Los Angeles hotel in 2009.

"She was attacked by Sean Combs," Richard testified. "He came downstairs screaming, belligerent, asking where his phone was, and proceeded to hit her in the head and beat her on the ground."

Richard testified she was in the residence recording at the time.

"He said 'where the f--- is his eggs,'" Richard testified. "He took the skillet with the eggs" and took a swing at Ventura, Richard alleged.

She testified that Ventura dropped to the ground, "literally trying to hide her face or her head."

Richard has made similar allegations in a civil lawsuit filed against Combs in 2024. Combs has broadly denied the allegations contained in the lawsuit.

The defense objected to many of the questions put to Richard by the prosecution so the judge adjourned the court and instructed the jury to return 8:30 a.m. ET Monday.

Court is scheduled to adjourn each day next week at 3 p.m. ET


May 16, 2025 9:12 PM

Special agent's testimony concludes as prosecution calls Danity Kane's Dawn Richard to the stand

Federal agents seized a small black fanny pack from Combs’ hotel room containing $9000 cash, Binda testified.

Binda used scissors to cut open an evidence bag, extracted the cash and fanned it for the jury to see.

Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo has previously said Combs had come to New York in September 2024 to negotiate a surrender prior to his arrest.

At the time, Binda testified, Combs was staying in a Midtown hotel room containing $9,000 cash, illegal drugs, baby oil, lubricant and a device that the federal agent testified could be used for “mood lighting.”

Binda's testimony has concluded as the prosecution calls former member of the pop and R&B group Danity Kane, Dawn Richard.


May 16, 2025 8:52 PM

Special agent testifies to drugs, baby oil in Combs' hotel room at time of arrest

The night Sean Combs was arrested in New York he was in possession of illegal drugs kept under an alias, a federal agent testified Friday.

Combs was arrested at the Park Hyatt hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Sept. 16, 2024.

Special Agent Yasin Binda of Homeland Security Investigations, the prosecutions next witness, walked the jury through what she testified was the search of the room at the Park Hyatt, which she said turned up a pill bottle containing clonazepam under the name Frank Black, an alias Cassie Ventura testified Combs used.

There were also glassine bags containing pink powder that tested positive for ketamine and MDMA, the agent testified. The jury was allowed to examine the exhibit.

“This shows five bottles of baby oil that were found in the bathtub,” Binda said, showing the jurors an image of the baby oil.

The jury was shown another photo of a Ziploc bag containing bottles of baby oil, and a photo of lubricant she said was found in a nightstand.

Jurors were also shown a photo of a device that Binda testified could be set up for “mood lighting,” which Ventura testified were the kind of supplies Combs had in hotel rooms for "freak offs."



May 16, 2025 8:45 PM

Cassie Ventura, Alex Fine share statement through attorney after 4-day testimony

Cassie Ventura, through a statement read by her attorney Douglas Wigdor outside court, thanked her supporters for their kindness and vowed to never forget what she says Sean Combs did to her.

"I hope that my testimony has given strength and a voice to other survivors and can help others who have suffered to speak up and also heal from abuse and fear. For me, the more I heal, the more I can remember, and the more I can remember, the more I will never forget," she said in a statement.

Her husband Alex Fine, in a statement read by Wigdor, commended Ventura for her bravery testifying for four days in front of "a person who tried to break her."

"So to him and all of those who helped him along the way, please know this: You did not break her spirit nor her smile that lights up every room. You did not break the souls of her mother, who gives the best hugs and plays the silliest games with our little girls," Fine said in the statement, calling Combs a "demon."

He also rejected the notion that he was the one who helped Ventura escape Combs, saying such a suggestion is an "insult to the years of painful work my wife has done to save herself."

"Cassie saved Cassie. She alone broke free from abuse, coercion, violence and threats. She did the work of fighting the demons that only a demon himself could have done to her. All I have done is love her as she has loved me. Her life is now surrounded by love, laughter and our family. This horrific chapter is forever put behind us," he said.

-- ABC News' Peter Charalambous


May 13, 2025 6:41 PM

Cassie Ventura breaks down on witness stand amid 'freak offs' testimony

Cassie Ventura broke down on the witness stand as she described her participation in so-called "freak offs."

Ventura said she had just turned 22 when Sean Combs first proposed these alleged marathon sex performances with male prostitutes that she said eventually “became almost weekly.” She said it would be impossible to remember participating in all of them.

The average length of a freak off was two or three days, Ventura said, the entire time during which she was awake, fueled by ecstasy, molly and cocaine she said was given to her by Combs.

“Who decided when a freak off was over?” prosecutor Emily Johnson asked.

“Ultimately that would be Sean,” Ventura responded.

“Did you want to participate in every freak off?” Johnson asked.

“No,” Ventura answered. “I felt like it was all I was good for. It was disgusting. I felt humiliated. I didn’t have the words for how horrible I really felt.”

If she refused to participate, Combs “would be violent with me,” according to Ventura.

“His look would just change over. He would become a different person and I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Ventura said.

When Johnson asked if there was any part of the freak off that she enjoyed, Ventura began to sob. She grabbed a tissue and, through tears, said “I thought it was the only time I could get.”

The first freak-off occurred at one of the homes Combs was renting in Los Angeles, Ventura testified. The jury was shown a photo of the male escort who participated. Ventura said she did not remember his name. She said she wore “really high platform shoes” and a masquerade mask at the freak off.

“Every freak off was directed by Sean. He knew specifically where he wanted everyone to be, the lighting,” Ventura said.

The case against Combs also involves those around him. Johnson asked Ventura about associates Toni Fletcher and Kristina Khorram, and security guards named Fahim and Uncle Paulie.

Ventura testified that she recalled seeing guns in several of Combs’ properties, “just laid out.”

She recalled an evening when, she said, one of Combs' employees allegedly told Combs that record executive Suge Knight was nearby. Combs and others then donned black clothing and guns, according to Ventura's testimony.

“I was crying, I was screaming. Like, please don’t do anything stupid,” Ventura testified.


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