Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ trial began at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse in New York City on Monday as opening statements were read out to the jury
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ trial began in New York City on Monday with opening statements read out to the jury. The music mogul, who was supported by his children as they arrived in court on Monday, was arrested in September and is accused of an array of charges, including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and transportation to engage in prostitution.
He has continued to deny all allegations against him, with his multiple bail pleas rejected. The 12 jurors were sworn in at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Courthouse in lower Manhattan on Monday following a delay due to concerns that some of them might drop out over the weekend if the panel was finalised on Friday as originally planned.
Combs’s defence team had requested the delay, but prosecutors had opposed the postponement. Prospective jurors were asked if they were familiar with several celebrities who may come up during the trial.
The proceedings quickly moved into opening statements, where both teams laid the groundwork for their arguments.
Here are the biggest bombshells from Monday’s opening statements…
Diddy allegedly asked escort to pee in Cassie Ventura’s mouth
Federal prosecutors detailed the abuse singer Cassie Ventura allegedly endured during her relationship with Diddy. One encounter saw Diddy allegedly instruct a male escort to pee in her mouth.
While on the stand, a male escort claimed he was told to pee on Cassie, and claimed he began seeing Diddy and Cassie when he was asked by his boss to work a bachelorette party.
However, when he arrived, only the former couple were allegedly there and he said he met up with them on several occasions for sex services.
‘Hotel hush money after Cassie attack’
Diddy offered hush money to a hotel security officer, the court heard. Israel Florez, who attended a hotel after the disgraced music mogul attacked his ex-girlfriend Cassie in 2016 told the court how he found the 55-year-old musician wearing nothing but a towel and sitting in a chair, ” slouched down, like with a blank stare … like a devilish stare, just looking at me,” he said.
Prosecutors showed the jury two mobile phone clips and three hotel surveillance videos related to the attack by Diddy on Cassie at the Los Angeles hotel.
Florez testified that he recorded the hotel’s video of the attack on his cellphone because he wanted to describe what he saw to his wife and was scared she wouldn’t believe him.
Jurors were shown video surveillance footage of an attack by Combs on Cassie at a Los Angeles hotel in March 2016 that prosecutors have maintained is a key piece of evidence in their case against him.
The video depicts Cassie with a bag at the hotel’s elevators just before Combs rounds a corner, strikes her and throws her to the ground before kicking her and then dragging her back toward their hotel room.
Florez had responded to a call of a woman in distress on the sixth floor of the hotel and said the display there was ruined. He said he told Diddy it would be charged to the room as escorted the former couple to the room before Cassie allegedly suggested she wanted to leave.
“You’re not going to leave,” Combs allegedly said. Florez said to the court that he replied: “If she wants to leave, she’s going to leave.”
After Cassie left the vicinity, Florez claimed when he was getting ready to leave, the rapper called him back and held out a stack of money, with a $100 note on top, telling him: “Don’t tell nobody.”
Florez considered it as a bribe and claimed he told Diddy: “I don’t want your money, just go back into your room.”
Diddy ‘forced Cassie into depraved sex acts with escorts’
Diddy allegedly kept Cassie drugged “half of every week” and forced her to perform sex acts on male escorts at “freak-off” parties he filmed.
Jurors were told he would use the tapes to blackmail Cassie, telling her “he could destroy her career” by releasing the videos.
Assistant US Attorney Emily Johnson said his ex, singer and model Cassie, plus others, endured a cycle of abuse. She told the court: “Half of every week, Cassie was in a dark hotel room, high and awake for days performing sex acts she did not want to do on male escorts. These sexual performances lasted multiple days, and they involved multiple escorts.”
She went on to tell the court Diddy used lies, drugs, violence and threats to control his ex along with a woman referred to in court as “Jane”.
Ms Johnson said: “He told her he could destroy her career by releasing the videos of her performing sex acts on dozens of male escorts. They were souvenirs of the most humiliating nights of her life.”
Cassie was allegedly forced to participate in a ‘freak-off’ with an open wound on her face. When Diddy learned she was seeing another man, he allegedly “beat her, kicking her in the back and flinging her like a rag doll”.
Ms Johnson said: “You are going to hear about 20 years of crimes but he didn’t do it alone. An inner circle helped him commit crimes and cover them up.” She added Combs called himself “the king and expected to be treated like one”.
‘Violent threats to coerce women into Freak Offs’
Prosecutors claimed Diddy coerced women into drugged-up group sexual encounters, which he called “freak offs,” “wild king nights” or “hotel nights,” then kept them in line by choking, hitting, kicking and dragging them, often by the hair.
Ms Johnson told the court Diddy once kidnapped an employee at gunpoint to help find his former girlfriend Cassie. When he did, he “beat her brutally, kicking her in the back and flinging her around like a rag doll.”
Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, is expected to testify.
Mr Johnson told jurors that Cassie was far from the only woman Combs beat and sexually exploited.
Diddy’s team admits to domestic violence
Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos said the trial is a misguided overreach by prosecutors trying to turn consenting sex between adults into a prostitution and sex trafficking case.
“Sean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money,” Geragos told the jury.
“There has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year. It is time to cancel that noise.”
Geragos added to the court that Diddy’s violent outbursts, often fuelled by alcohol, jealousy and drugs, might have warranted domestic violence charges, but not sex trafficking and racketeering counts.
She told jurors they might think Combs’ is a “jerk” and might not condone his “kinky sex.” Geragos added: “He’s not charged with being mean. He’s not charged with being a jerk.”
*For confidential support, call the 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Freephone Helpline on 0808 2000 247 or visit womensaid.co.uk If you or your family have lost a friend or family member through fatal domestic abuse, AAFDA (Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse) can offer specialist and expert support and advocacy. For more info visit www.aafda.org.uk
* If you’ve been the victim of sexual assault, you can access help and resources via www.rapecrisis.org.uk or calling the national telephone helpline on 0808 802 9999
