At Sean 'Diddy' Combs' Trial, Three Witnesses Take the Stand and Confirm Details From Ex Cassie Ventura's Testimony

Yahoo

19-05-2025

Three witnesses took the stand at Sean 'Diddy' Combs' sex trafficking and racketeering trial in Manhattan on Monday, all of whom backed up or confirmed details around physical and emotional abuse the defendant allegedly inflicted on his ex-girlfriend of a decade, Cassie Ventura, who detailed her time with the beleaguered rap mogul in court from the stand.
The singer was part of the girl group Danity Kane and Combs-led trio Diddy-Dirty Money for three years until he ended the project in 2012. Danity Kane was formed as part of the Combs-led MTV reality series Making the Band; the show features Combs frequently doling out orders and demands of the singers in Danity Kane that veered into insults and abuse.
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Richard filed a lawsuit in September against Combs, accusing him of physical and sexual abuse. On Friday, she told the court she saw him beat Ventura in 2009 with a skillet full of eggs, put his arm around her neck and drag her by her hair upstairs at his Los Angeles home. After the alleged incident, Richard testified that Combs warned her, 'if we said anything, we could go missing' and that 'we could die.' Those who found themselves in Combs' inner orbit were told to keep 'out of my relationship or else we would pay for it, or else something bad would happen to you,' Richard said from the stand.
Prosecutors are using Richard's testimony from Friday and what she told the court Monday to show a pattern in Combs' behavior but also to back up Ventura's testimony about the abuse she suffered at Combs' hands for a decade. From the stand, Richard confirmed she was a witness to multiple instances of this violence, which the jury spent last week hearing about firsthand and seeing on hotel surveillance footage.
'Frequently, he would punch her, choke her, slap her in the mouth, kick her, punch her in the stomach,' Richard told the Manhattan courtroom. 'It could be because Cassie was speaking up for herself. It could be random. It could be if she had an opinion for herself. She would be quiet and when she had these moments of trying to stick up for herself, he would hurt her for it.'
The defense's strategy was to poke holes in Richard's testimony and highlight inconsistencies in her accounts of her time around Combs, including the skillet incident and how frequently she saw Combs carrying a firearm; from the stand, Richard admitted that her account of these incidents and what she saw has changed over time but added that over time, she's recollected more details. Defense attorney Nicole Westmoreland pointed out to Richard that she'd claimed in an interview that Combs said at the time, 'this was a love thing,' and that 'people going missing' was never mentioned at the time.
'Iit was a hard time, a bad time for me,' she later explained when asked about recalling incidents from the time period years later. 'It did not all come back immediately. … The environment was traumatizing, so I tried to erase those things from my memory.'
In her testimony, Richard also told the court that there were times while she was in Combs' professional inner circle that she saw him with guns and illegal drugs. On cross-examination, Westmoreland asked Richard why she never mentioned these alleged guns during the eight meetings she had with prosecutors. Richard told the defense attorney: 'It wasn't asked.'
With Combs playing the role of boyfriend and boss at her label, Bad Boy Records; Venrura was subjected to delay after delay in recording new material and ultimately never saw her career get off of the ground, Richard testified.
'He said it would be on his terms. It was always wait, wait, wait. She had to wait for her turn, sometimes it was just wait your turn, other times it was violent or volatile,' she said.
Richard also told the court that a number of Combs' employees witnessed his violence against Ventura; no one ever stepped in to stop it, she said, which federal prosecutors allege involved coercive control, manipulation, blackmail, drug use, marathon sex sessions and trafficking. Combs pleaded not guilty to multiple counts detailed in a federal indictment involving sex trafficking and racketeering; he continues to deny all allegations against him.
Richard said she was not expecting compensation for her testimony. but is hoping to right a wrong. 'I'm expecting justice,' she said. Combs' attorney said the mogul was 'shocked and disappointed' by Richard's lawsuit.
Richard admitted she tried to work with Combs again despite all her allegations. Richard said: 'I want justice and to be made whole.'
And when Westmoreland asked if that meant being paid money, Richard answered, 'Yes.'
Following Richard's testimony, Kerry Morgan, whom Ventura described as her former best friend of 20 years but whom she'd grown estranged from since a violent incident involving Combs, was called to the witness stand. Upon taking the stand, Morgan expressed to the court that she was there under subpoena and did not wish to testify.
While questioned by the prosecution, Morgan described multiple incidents of Combs inflicting violence on her former friend and one time when she told the court he laid his hands on her too. One particularly harrowing incident Morgan described happened when she was with the couple in Jamaica on a vacation. Combs assaulted Ventura after she took too long using the bathroom; Morgan described the noises she then heard coming from her friend at the time.
'It was guttural, terrifying. I heard her screaming so I went to the long hallway, they were coming out of the master bedroom and he was dragging her by her hair,' she told the courtroom. Ventura was then thrown to the ground, hitting her head on a brick, and the two fled the scene in a golf cart and hid in a ditch on the nearby course as Combs stalked them for hours, she said.
The fevered jealousy in Combs' and Ventura's relationship was confirmed on the stand by Morgan, who by her account had a front-row seat to the majority of the years they were together. Ventura was jealous of Combs' ex-wife Kim Porter, with whom he had kids and would spend holidays, casting Ventura aside on those important days. And the mogul grew jealous of Michael B. Jordan when Ventura began speaking with the Sinners star while she was filming a movie out of town. On the stand last week, Ventura told the court that she and Combs split while she was in South Africa for a few weeks filming a movie; during that time, she spoke with the actor, she said, and it drove Combs to become jealous.
Morgan and Ventura were in the singer's apartment listening to music in 2018 when she was attacked by three rap moguls, she told the court, with Combs grabbing her by the neck and hitting her with a wooden hanger.
'He came up behind me and choked me and left finger marks on my neck and hit me in the head with a wooden hanger,' she told the court, adding that Combs was saying something about cheating at the time of the attack. 'Cassie was in the bathroom. It hit me behind my right ear.'
Ventura grabbed some things and the two women fled the apartment, Morgan said, telling the court how they then went to a local urgent care to check if she was concussed, as Morgan explained she was dizzy and she'd 'vomited a few times' after the alleged assault. Morgan told the court that she hired a lawyer but never filed a lawsuit against Combs; she signed a nondisclosure agreement about the incident and was given $30,000 by Combs. The incident, and Ventura's reaction to it, ended their long-term friendship, she testified.
'The reason I stopped speaking to her was because she was not supportive of me after that incident. I draw my line at physical abuse,' Morgan said, later telling the jury, 'We haven't spoken since. The last time I spoke to Sean was the night of the assault and the last time I saw Cassie was when I signed the NDA.'
Monday's final witness was a former assistant to Combs, Sean James, who detailed to the court how security surrounding Combs always carried guns and when he inquired about it, he said he was told to 'stay in your lane.' He grew emotional on the stand, and described how an executive directed him to a picture of the wealthy mogul on the wall, whose caption read: 'This is Mr. Combs' kingdom and we are all here to serve in it.''
James also repeated part of a conversation he says he had with Ventura about Combs and their relationship: ​​'He controls my career, pays my allowance, and pays my rent,' she said, according to his testimony.
James is set to return Tuesday for another hour of questioning before cross-examination.
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