At the Combs Trial, a Detailed Timeline of the Hotel Assault on Cassie
Prosecutors in Sean Combs's federal trial on Tuesday showed jurors charts that detailed phone records and text messages related to 'freak-offs' — the elaborate sexual encounters key to the case — as they presented a depiction of 2016 incident in which Mr. Combs was caught on camera assaulting Casandra Ventura, his former girlfriend.
The records provided a chronological portrait of the communications surrounding the assault at a Los Angeles hotel and illustrated how some of the expenses related to the freak-offs were paid through Mr. Combs's companies.
The video of the assault on Ms. Ventura has been a critical part of the government's case and has been shown to jurors numerous times over the more than five weeks of the trial. Mr. Combs has pleaded not guilty to sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy charges, and has said that all the sex described by witnesses was consensual.
The messages were displayed by prosecutors and read by DeLeassa Penland, a special agent with the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, which is prosecuting the case. The messages began on March 4, 2016, the day before the assault, when Mr. Combs communicated with Ms. Ventura, and she texted a male escort — as well as the escort's handler — to make arrangements for a gathering.
The next morning — minutes after the video of the assault was recorded — a flurry of messages and calls were exchanged between Mr. Combs and Ms. Ventura, and, eventually, his aides who were swept into the conflict. Jurors also saw selfies that Ms. Ventura, who is known as Cassie, took in a car that morning, wearing sunglasses — to cover up a black eye, she said in testimony earlier in the trial.
At 12:10 p.m., Ms. Ventura texted Mr. Combs: 'I have a black eye and a fat lip,' and added, 'You are sick for thinking it's OK to do what you've done.' Mr. Combs, still at the hotel, claimed the police were with him, and begged her to call. 'If you don't pick up you'll never hear my voice again,' he wrote. He called her numerous times, but the calls were not answered.
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