..The trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs returns for a second week. He denies all five felony charges against him. Last week, his ex-girlfriend Cassie testified that Combs raped her and described “freak off” sex parties.Mr Combs’ team says jealousy and drugs fuelled violence
After a day and a half on the stand, it was Mr Combs’ attorneys turn to question Ms Ventura.
The rapper’s lawyer, Anna Estevao, relied on hundreds of pages of text messages between Mr Combs and Ms Ventura to help push her team’s broader arguments: that Ms Ventura was a willing participant in freak-offs in a toxic relationship fuelled by drugs and jealousy.
Mr Combs’ legal team showed messages from Ms Ventura to Mr Combs in which she said she was “always ready” for a freak-off, and another time when she said she wished they could have had one.
Ms Ventura acknowledged writing the messages while adding that those were “just words at that point”.
Ms Estevao also kept bringing Ms Ventura back to the couple’s moments of infidelity, like when Mr Combs would spend holidays with his family and former girlfriend Kim Porter, or when Ms Ventura began dating rapper Kid Cudi while she and Mr Combs were on a break.
She repeatedly asked Ms Ventura about her drug use and how both she and Mr Combs struggled with opioid addiction at times.
In these moments, the defence was trying to show jurors that it was a toxic, violent and complicated relationship – but not a case of racketeering or sex trafficking, former federal prosecutor Sarah Krissoff told the BBC.
The defence also made efforts to try to chip away at the government’s racketeering case, asking Ms Ventura whether Mr Combs’ employees had actually witnessed the freak-offs, to which Ms Ventura said she did not think so.
Ultimately, Mr Fudali said, the prosecution’s case will hinge on this question of compliance versus consent – whether Mr Combs’ girlfriends were willing participants in his sexual fantasies or acted out of fear.
“Did Ms Ventura consent or was she coerced into complying?” Mr Fudali said. “That seems to be the question for the jury.”The trial continues today (Monday May 19), where singer Dawn Richard, a former member of Danity Kane, is scheduled to continue her testimony.Ventura, the prosecution’s star witness, said she suffered years of physical and emotional abuse during their tumultuous relationship.
Ventura, who is in a late stage of pregnancy with her third child and completed her testimony last week, told jurors Combs raped her in August 2018 at her home after they broke up.
“I just remember crying and saying no but it was very fast,” she said last week, as her voice trailed of
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