Combs Jurors Appear Shocked by 'Freak-Off' Images

The R&B singer Casandra "Cassie" Ventura testified Wednesday that Sean "Diddy" Combs raped her when she ended their decade-long relationship, after he locked her in a life of physical abuse by threatening to release degrading sexual videos of her. Ventura—who testified earlier Wednesday about physical damage from Combs' "freak-off" sex parties—said Combs forced his way into her Los Angeles apartment and raped her after they had dinner together for a "closure conversation" in 2018. She said she was already in a relationship with Alex Fine, who is now her husband, at the time.

• Ventura said that their conversation was "nice" but that Combs became aggressive after driving her home, NBC News reports. "I went inside, he came in and raped me on the living room floor," she testified. "I remember crying and saying no. It was fast, his eyes were black, he wasn't himself, it was like somebody taking something from you."

• Prosecutors showed the jury five still images from the "freak-off" sex videos on Wednesday. Each juror had their own screen to view the images on. Ventura said the images depicted her at various stages of the encounters. One juror's eyes widened, and another shook his head from side to side, the AP reports. Prosecutors accuse Combs of exploiting his status as a powerful music executive to violently force Cassie and other women to take part in sexual encounters.
• Ventura testified about multiple violent episodes. Early in their relationship in 2007, she said he repeatedly hit her and knocked her to the floor of a vehicle with a blow to her head. On another occasion in 2013, while she was packing to go to Drake's music festival in Canada, Cassie said Combs scuffled with her friends and threw her into a bed frame. She sustained a "pretty significant gash" above her left eye. Combs' security personnel brought her to a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills to get the wound stitched up, she said.
• She sued Combs in 2023, accusing him of years of physical and sexual abuse. Within hours, the suit was settled for $20 million—a figure Cassie disclosed for the first time Wednesday—but dozens of similar legal claims followed from other women, sparking the criminal investigation against him.
• Asked why she was testifying against Combs, she said, "I'm here to do the right thing," Variety reports. I can't carry this anymore ... the shame, the guilt."
• Cross-examination is expected to begin Thursday.

(More Sean Combs stories.)