Sean 'Diddy' Combs Allegedly 'Brutally' Attacked Cassie After Accusing Her Of Having Affair
Sean 'Diddy' Combs has been accused of 'brutally' attacking his former girlfriend, Casandra Fine (formerly known as Cassie Ventura), as his criminal trial begins. According to HipHopDX, opening statements from the prosecution on Monday (May 12) detailed vicious attacks suffered by the 'Me & U' singer throughout the duration of their 11-year relationship.
Prosecutor Emily Johnson argued that the Hip-Hop mogul 'physically abused' and 'exploited' Fine, and became violent when he believed she had another love interest.
'Furious, he set out to find her. He said he would kill the man,' explained Johnson of the alleged abuse. Once the Harlem native located Fine, he allegedly 'brutally' attacked her, 'kicking her in the back and flinging her around like a rag doll.'
Johnson also described how Combs allegedly threatened to blackmail Fine with video footage of her engaging in sexual acts with male sex workers, claiming he kept 'souvenirs of the most humiliating nights of her life'.
In May, video footage was released of Combs violently assaulting Fine in March 2016. The judge will allow the video to be played for the jury despite attempts by Combs' legal team to have it banned. Fine is also set to testify against the 55-year-old using her real name.
Additional details about the tumultuous relationship were also revealed in the opening statements. Per NBC News, the former pop star officially ended things with Combs after the death of Kim Porter in 2018 according to the defense.
'When Combs said Kim Porter was his soulmate, Cassie realized all the things she would not be, she wanted to be Combs' wife,' claimed lawyer Teny Geragos. He added that Fine allegedly understood, 'she would never be that, never be his wife, never be his love of his life.'
'We will not shy away from the things he did, but we will not own the things he did not do,' exclaimed Geragos. 'He is physical, he is a drug user, you may know of his love of baby oil. Is that a federal crime? No!'
According to the outlet, Combs' sons Christian, Justin, and Quincy, daughters Chance, Jessie and D'Lila, and mother Janice were all in the courtroom for the opening statements.
Combs' legal team will allegedly take the approach of portraying the singer as 'aggressive,' 'violent,' and 'capable of physical confrontation' in his defense. NBC News also noted the jury was advised that 'they are not there to judge as 'the moral police,' and suggest all the alleged victims were willing participants.'
The Grammy winner has entered a not guilty plea to sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transporting to engage in prostitution
More from VIBE.com
Al B. Sure! Is Ready To Face Diddy In Court And Testify In Federal Sex Trafficking Trial
Diddy's Lawyers Plan To Portray Cassie As "Aggressive" And "Violent" During Their Relationship
Diddy Prosecutors Reveal New Witness, "Victim 5," Who May Testify Using Real Name

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Black America Web
32 minutes ago
- Black America Web
The Hitmaker Behind A Generation of Sound: Celebrating Jimmy Jam With A List Of His Hits
Source: Michael Buckner / Getty We celebrate the birthday of musical mastermind Jimmy Jam today (June 6). As one-half of the legendary songwriting and production duo Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis , his influence spans generations, genres, and Grammy wins. Check out a gallery of his hits inside to celebrate the legend's new year. The 66-year-old music icon was born James Samuel Harris III, whose legendary sound has shaped R&B and pop music for over four decades. From Minneapolis roots to global acclaim, Jimmy Jam's musical genius has delivered timeless anthems, many of which remain fixtures on radio and playlists today. Jimmy Jam first made waves as a member of The Time , a band that emerged under Prince's wing during the 1980s Minneapolis funk explosion. But it was his behind-the-scenes brilliance with Terry Lewis that earned the duo a permanent place in music history. Together, they've written and produced over 40 Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100, with a signature sound defined by lush synths, layered harmonies, and deep emotional resonance. Their most prolific and groundbreaking partnership was with Janet Jackson , transforming her from a young talent into a global superstar. Their 1986 collaboration on Control marked a bold new chapter in pop music and women's empowerment. In 2022, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame , a fitting tribute to their trailblazing careers and enduring cultural impact. Jimmy Jam's sound has been the heartbeat of countless memories, from club nights to quiet car rides. As he celebrates another trip around the sun, fans and artists alike salute the maestro whose pen and production forever changed the soundtrack of our to the entertainment legend, who's music transcends time. Happy Birthday, Jimmy Jam! Check out a few of Jimmy Jam's biggest hits below: The Hitmaker Behind A Generation of Sound: Celebrating Jimmy Jam With A List Of His Hits was originally published on Black America Web Featured Video CLOSE
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
What's So Special About Liquid Death Drinks?
Simply put, Liquid Death sells canned water. The concept sounds ridiculous. Still, despite initial reservations about the company's success, it is now valued at over $1.4 billion (via NBC News). So what's so special about these drinks? Most of the brand's success comes down to its excellent marketing. Liquid Death is successful because it flips all the stereotypical elements of bottled water on its head. Most common bottled water brands focus on a product's purity, with simple packaging and marketing materials to match. Alternatively, Liquid Death has built a platform on its mission to "murder your thirst," per the company's website. All of its branding screams intensity, and a lot of consumers like the change. Not only can Liquid Death quench your thirst, but it can do so while being entertaining. CEO Mike Cessario told NBC News that the initial thought behind this packaging was to poke fun at over-the-top marketing-speak used by other brands. Ironically, it worked. Liquid Death's successful branding extends beyond its cans, too. The brand's website and social media are also full of its signature shock humor. For example, the brand shows a pregnant customer drinking from a mini keg of its still mountain water in one ad. In another, a doctor chugs a can of Liquid Death before conducting a surgery. Read more: 11 Ginger Ale Brands, Ranked From Worst To Best Liquid Death's unique design and cans make its drinks look an awful lot like a tallboy. This has made the water a popular choice for sober crowds in lieu of expensive non-alcoholic beer. In alcohol-centered spaces, sober participants might stand out with a plastic water bottle in hand, but with Liquid Death, it's easy to blend in. Just the can's design can break down psychological barriers and help them feel like they're part of the crowd. This is also one of the reasons for the invention of the company, as the CEO heard musicians sometimes pour water into energy drink cans so they wouldn't feel self-conscious on stage. Liquid Death is a huge seller at bars, concerts, and musical festivals — one of its biggest investors is actually Live Nation. Now, with the rise of the sober-curious movement, Liquid Death is sure to continue to dominate these spaces. Environmentally-conscious consumers might also appreciate Liquid Death's aluminum packaging, which is easier to recycle than plastic. Lastly, many people simply like the taste of these waters, with some claiming that the aluminum makes the drink taste colder and more refreshing. All of these benefits have helped the Liquid Death brand thrive. The company has since branched out from still water, offering soda-flavored sparkling drinks and iced teas. Clearly, the brand is only getting bigger. Read the original article on Chowhound.

Business Insider
3 hours ago
- Business Insider
How each Diddy victim testified and how it could sway the trial's outcome
At his ongoing trial, Sean Combs has been accused of physical or sexual violence by seven women. His lawyers call them bitter opportunists. Prosecutors call them victims of Combs' criminal racket. Here's what each of these seven women told the jury, and why it matters legally. Over the past month, seven women have taken the stand at the Manhattan trial of rap mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs to tell chilling personal stories of physical and sexual violence. Two are Combs' ex-girlfriends, three are his former employees, and two were on the periphery of his multimillion-dollar media, entertainment, and lifestyle empire. Defense lawyers call them jealous, or bitter, or greedy. They say all seven women were with Combs by choice and are now out for what one attorney termed "a 'Me Too' money grab." Prosecutors call them victims and say their stories are the heart of the trial. Here's how the testimony of these seven accusers has turned the tables on Combs, building a case for federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges that could imprison him for anywhere from 15 years to life. Cassie Ventura, his first sex-trafficking accuser R&B singer Cassie Ventura was celebrating her 21st birthday in Las Vegas when Combs, who had signed her to his Bad Boy Records label the year before, surprised her with the kiss that started their relationship. She told the jury that hundreds of times over the next decade, from 2008 until 2018, Combs forced her to meet him at luxury hotels, to dress up in wigs, heels, and lingerie, to take handfuls of drugs, and to have sex with male escorts as Combs filmed and masturbated to the dayslong performances. "I want you to be glistening," she said Combs would tell her as he watched, ordering Ventura and sex workers with names like "Jewels" and "The Punisher" to apply ever more baby oil. These so-called "freak off" performances were first revealed in Ventura's quickly settled 2023 lawsuit. (Combs paid Ventura $20 million.) Ventura's allegations have since been corroborated at trial by freak off videos she'd saved over the years, by hotel records, and by testimony from eye-witnesses, including sex workers. One exotic dancer told jurors he witnessed Combs beating Ventura twice during freak offs in Manhattan between 2012 and 2014. "Bitch, when I tell you to come here, come now, not later," the dancer recalled Combs saying during one of more than a dozen beatings recounted at trial by witnesses and Ventura herself. Proof of sex trafficking Prosecutors say Ventura was sex-trafficked, meaning coerced into crossing state lines to participate in commercial sex acts (commercial because they involved paid sex workers). They say the violent, 2016 InterContinental hotel hallway video is unavoidable proof that she was sex-trafficked by force. They will likely argue that other evidence, including her unprofitable record deal and Combs' threats to publicize her freak-off tapes, proves she was sex-trafficked by means of fraud and coercion as well. They will likely also argue that from Ventura's vantage point at the center of the Combs empire, she also witnessed multiple crimes that support the racketeering charge. These include not just sex trafficking, but narcotics sales, forced labor (she was never compensated for her mixtape, a producer testified), extortion (she says Combs threatened to release freak off videos) and kidnapping (she says that when she was 22, he forced her to stay at an LA hotel until the bruises on her battered face healed enough to be hidden by makeup.) The defense has challenged Ventura's credibility by pointing to her lawsuit windfall, to the many times she left the Combs relationship only to freely return, and to the years of texts and emails in which she expresses her love of Combs and the freak offs. But Ventura described being trapped in a cycle of drug addiction, financial and emotional dependency, and fear. And yes, also love. "I would do absolutely anything for him," she told the jury, explaining why she agreed to the first freak off at age 22. "And it never stopped, our whole relationship." "Jane," his second sex-trafficking accuser "Jane," a recent ex-girlfriend of Combs, testified that on their first date at a Miami hotel in 2010, she fell "pretty head-over-heels for Sean." The date lasted five days, she told the jury. Over the next four months, she said, Combs slowly introduced her to his sexual preferences. He loved baby oil and drugs that kept them up day and night. He loved it when she dressed in lingerie and "high stripper heels." He'd play pornography and tell her to fantasize about the men on screen. "Do you like what you see there?" she said he'd ask her of these men. "Do you want that?" Then one night in 2021 at his Miami mansion, as the pornography rolled, he told her, "I can make this fantasy a reality if you'd like that." She loved him, she explained, and agreeing made him so happy. So she said yes. Jane said she soon realized she'd opened up "Pandora's box." Gone were the romantic trips and dinner dates of their first four months. Combs wanted freak offs — by now he was calling them "hotel nights" — nearly every time they saw each other over the next three years, up until his arrest in 2024. "It was just a door I was unable to shut," she told the jury. Jane must show force, fraud, or coercion Jane's testimony has so far described some of the elements of sex trafficking. She said she reluctantly crossed state lines, traveling from the East Coast to Miami to Los Angeles, to engage with paid sex workers. But her testimony, which continues next week, has yet to show that Combs sex trafficked her using force, fraud, or coercion, as the indictment requires. She instead described intensive psychological and financial pressure. She said she agreed to hotel nights because she loved him, and because he'd moved her to Los Angeles from the East Coast and was paying rent and other costs for her and her child. And when she told him she no longer wanted to do hotel nights, he would brush her off, or make what may or may not rise to the level of a coercive threat to withdraw that financial support. "If you want to break up, that's fine," she testified he'd tell her. "Do you need, like, what, three more months in the house? Because I'm not about to be paying for a woman's rent that I'm not even seeing." Prosecutors have said Combs defrauded Jane by promising romantic dinners and trips, only to renege and persuade her into another hotel night. They have also said Combs was brutally violent with Jane, though it's unclear how they plan to draw a link between that violence and sex trafficking by force. Meanwhile, the defense will likely use hundreds of affectionate and erotic texts between Jane and Combs to argue that she is a bitter ex who willingly suffered any demands and violence, and who continues to have her expenses paid by Combs in return. Asked late Friday who is currently paying her rent, Jane answered, "Sean is." Jane pushes back Prosecutors have also hinted that Jane is a witness to obstruction of justice, one of the underlying crimes they can use to prove the racketeering charge. "You will hear him try to manipulate Jane into saying she wanted freak offs," Emily Johnson, an assistant US attorney, told the jury during May 12 opening statements, describing a phone call recorded after Ventura's lawsuit was filed. "You will hear him interrupt Jane when she pushes back," Johnson said. Prosecutors have also said he made a point of paying for Jane's housing — even after his arrest. "Mia," his rape accuser "Mia," a former Combs employee, told the jury about a night 15 years ago, when she slept in the employee bedroom at his Los Angeles mansion. She woke up with Combs on top of her, she said, telling her, "Be quiet." "It was very quick, but it felt like forever," she said, her voice breaking into quiet, gasping sobs. Mia, like Jane, testified under a pseudonym to protect her privacy. She told the jury that Combs raped or sexually assaulted her at least four times throughout her eight years working as his personal assistant and as an executive for his short-lived movie company, Revolt Films. As with Jane and Cassie, Mia described in dozens of texts and social media posts struggling with her financial dependence on Combs and her fear of his violent nature, even as she spoke warmly of him. Mia supported the Ventura sex-trafficking claim. She said she saw Combs throw Ventura to the ground and "crack her head open." But Mia was not herself sex-trafficked, according to prosecutors — she is instead a racketeering witness. Forced labor, bribery, obstruction of justice Mia's testimony may be used to support an underlying racketeering crime of forced labor. She told the jury that Combs made her work as many as five days in a row with little or no sleep. Combs was a volatile boss who stole her phone and passport during arguments that turned violent, she said. Her testimony may also support an underlying crime of bribery and obstruction of justice. Mia told the jury that Combs' bodyguard, Damion "D-Roc" Butler, called and texted her repeatedly in the weeks after Ventura's lawsuit, spinning the "Puff and Cass" relationship as normal, and offering her "a gift." Capricorn Clark, his kidnapping accuser In her testimony, Capricorn Clark, Combs' former personal assistant and marketing exec, supported the Ventura sex-trafficking charge, describing Ventura as docile, trapped, and frequently subjected to beatings. During one beating, Clark said, Combs stopped briefly to warn her, "If I jumped in he was going to fuck me up, too." Kid Cudi, kidnapping, and extortion Clark is primarily a racketeering witness. Her testimony supports the underlying crimes of kidnapping and extortion. Clark said Combs was so enraged by Ventura's brief 2011 romance with rival rapper Kid Cudi that he forced Clark at gunpoint to ride with him and a bodyguard to Cudi's nearby house in Hollywood Hills. "He just said get dressed, we're going to go kill this —" and here he used the N-word. Cudi — whose given name is Scott Mescudi — told the jury that he arrived home to find his dog locked in the bathroom and a table full of Christmas presents unwrapped and rifled through. Clark also corroborated trial testimony by Ventura and her mom, Regina Ventura, concerning what prosecutors call a $20,000 extortion threat. The mom said she wired Combs the money after he threatened to release explicit sex tapes of her daughter. Dawn Richard, death-threat witness Former Danity Kane singer Dawn Richard testified to a brutal 2009 beating at Combs' rented Los Angeles mansion that supports both the Ventura sex-trafficking-by-force allegation and racketeering. Combs punched, kicked, and dragged Ventura during a fight over her not cooking him breakfast quickly enough, both Ventura and Richard told the jury. The next day, Combs called Ventura and Richard into his studio and locked the door. Inside, he tried to explain the incident, gave them some flowers, and what Richard said she considered to be a death threat. "He said that what we saw was passion," Richard testified. He told them, "he was trying to take us to the top, and that, where he comes from, people go missing," if they talk to the police, she said. "And then he gave us flowers." Prosecutors may call what happened next inside the studio extortion, witness tampering, and obstruction of justice, all underlying racketeering crimes. Kerry Morgan In her testimony, Kerry Morgan supported the Ventura sex-trafficking charge, describing two times she saw Combs beat Ventura, whom she called her best friend from their teenage modeling years. Once was when Ventura took too long in the bathroom during a 2013 Jamaica vacation. Morgan said Combs dragged a screaming Ventura outside by the hair and flung her down onto some paving bricks. For about 30 seconds, "I thought she was knocked out," Morgan testified. Morgan also supported the racketeering count by describing a $30,000 hush-money payment she received from Combs. In return for the money, Morgan said, she signed a non-disclosure agreement that barred her from talking about a 2018 assault she said happened earlier that year in Ventura's Hollywood Hills house. Combs was desperate to learn "who Cassie was cheating on him with," she testified. Combs let himself into Ventura's apartment, she said. "He came up behind me, and choked me when I got away, he boomeranged a wooden hanger at my head," giving her a concussion, Morgan said. Bryana "Bana" Bongolan, who says Combs dangled her over a balcony Bryana "Bana" Bongolan, a marketing director, told jurors she and Ventura are longtime friends. They shared a lot of drugs over the years, she said — including cocaine, ketamine, and GHB. They also shared trauma, she told the jury. She once saw Combs throw a knife at Ventura, who she said threw it back. "I'm the devil and I could kill you," she testified Combs told her in 2016, seemingly at random, when she and Ventura were with him on a Malibu beach. Combs, she said, gave no explanation for the threat. A violent, criminal racket Bongolan's most important testimony — feeding the prosecution's argument that Combs stood at the head of a violent, criminal "racket" — described him picking her up and holding her over the railing of a 17th-story balcony in September 2016. "You know what the fuck you did!" she said Combs kept shouting as he hoisted her into the air. Asked if she knew what he meant, she testified, "I still have no idea." On cross-examination, defense attorney Nicole Westmoreland highlighted inconsistencies between what Bongolan has said in a $10 million lawsuit, in her interviews with prosecutors, and in her testimony. The defense lawyer also leaned into the defense contention that Combs' accusers have financial reasons to falsely implicate him. Westmoreland questioned Bongolan hard about her and Ventura's lawsuits against Combs. In one example, Bongolan's ongoing lawsuit accuses Combs of violent sexual assault, an allegation not made in her June 4 testimony — though Bongolan did tell jurors that Combs' hands cupped her breasts before he hoisted her up from under her arms.