Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial updates: Cassie Ventura breaks down as testimony concludes

The evidentiary phase of Sean Combs’ trial began Monday with testimony regarding when Combs was caught on hotel surveillance footage attacking his then-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura.

The first witness to take the stand was Israel Florez, an LAPD officer who was working security at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, CA in March 2016, when he said he responded to a call about “a woman in distress” on the sixth floor.

“After I responded, when I got out of the elevator, I observed a male and female in the elevator lobby,” Florez said, adding that he recognized the male as Sean Combs.

“I seen Mr. Combs in a towel and some colored socks.” Florez said, adding that Combs gave him what Florez described as a "devilish stare,” and noted that Ventura looked “scared.”

“She was pretty much just covered up. I couldn’t see her face. She was pretty much in the corner,” Florez said. He also said he noticed that the flower vase that decorates the hallway was destroyed.

“She was saying that she wanted to get her phone, her bag, she wanted to leave,” Florez testified. At one point, he said, Combs allegedly told Ventura, “you’re not going to leave.”

Florez testified that he followed the pair back to their room and stood in the doorway. He said he noticed a “male, Black, wearing dark clothing sitting at the corner of the bed.”

Once Ventura left the room, Florez said Combs called to him. “He was pretty much holding a sack of money and he said, ‘here, take care of this for me, don’t tell anyone,’” Florez testified.

Florez said he later noticed that Ventura had a “purple eye.”

Federal prosecutors have said that Combs is seen on video “brutally beating” Ventura as she tried to escape a so-called “freak off” sex party. Defense attorneys conceded what the video depicted “is dehumanizing and violent and terrible” but said it was a fight over a phone.

Federal prosecutors have argued that the case is not about a celebrity’s private sex life. Instead, they said that “the sexual conduct at issue in this case was coercive and criminal.”

The jury hearing the case against Sean Combs is comprised of eight men and four women from varying backgrounds.

Among the men on the jury is a 69-year-old massage therapist, a 68-year-old retired former bank employee, a 41-year-old clerk for a correctional facility, and a 51-year-old scientist. Rounding out the list of men on the jury is a 31-year-old investment analyst, a 68-year-old retired former telephone company lineman, a 39-year-old social worker, and a 67-year-old logistics analyst for a bank.

The women on the jury include a 30-year old deli clerk, a 42-year-old nursing home employee, a 43-year-old physician's assistant, and a 74-year-old treatment coordinator for a nonprofit.

The jurors are from New York City area -- five from Manhattan, three from the Bronx and four from Westchester County.

There are six alternate jurors, including four men: a 57-year-old architect, a 35-year-old unemployed man, a 40-year-old physician scientist and a 37-year old administrative officer with an international government organization. The two female alternates are a 71-year-old dance foundation worker and a 24-year-old site operator for a coffee service company.

Cassie Ventura and “Jane” are both “capable, strong” women who chose to remain with Sean Combs, the defense insisted during opening statements.

Ventura was “not coerced to engage in this sex life,” and “Jane” was “desperate” to be with Combs, defense attorney Teny Geragos said.

According to Geragos, Ventura attended the funeral of Kim Porter in 2018 when she heard Combs call Porter his soulmate. The defense attorney said it became clear to Cassie then that she was never going to be the love of Combs' life and so she left him with no repercussions.

When Ventura testifies it will be the first time that she and Combs have seen each other since that day in 2018, according to Geragos.

“What he understood was that she was a willing participant in their sex life,” Geragos said, and suggested Ventura is now motivated by money.
Geragos said “Jane” and Combs had a “toxic, dysfunctional” relationship but the defense attorney insisted that she, too, was a willing participant in sexual activity.

“Being a willing participant in your own sex life is not sex trafficking,” Geragos said.

Geragos said jurors may find videos of the sexual activities difficult to watch “because they were never meant to be seen” and are “intimate.”

Federal prosecutors said the videos are evidence of the alleged blackmail that Combs used against women who did not obey him.

In opening statements, Combs' defense attorney, Teny Geragos, said Combs may come across as mean but reminded jurors that he's "not charged with being mean, he’s not charged with being a jerk.”

Geragos insisted that the criminal charges Combs faces relate to his private, personal sex life. “The government has no place here,” she said.

The defense conceded Combs “has a temper” and “got violent” when they say he drank or used drugs but insisted domestic violence was not part of any RICO conspiracy or was meant to coerce women into sexual acts.

The defense said the 2016 hotel security video of Combs and Cassie, in which Combs physically attacks her, shows a fight over a phone. Geragos said what is depicted in the video “is dehumanizing and violent and terrible” but not evidence of sex trafficking.

“It is evidence of domestic violence,” Geragos said.

Geragos said Combs led a “swingers’ lifestyle” and downplayed “freak offs” as consensual threesomes.

“That may not be what you like to do in your bedroom,” Geragos said. “But you are not here to judge him for his sexual preferences.”

Prosecutor Emily Johnson urged the jury not to believe how the defense characterized the evidence, which they said shows, among other things, Combs violently forcing Cassie and 'Jane' to participate in freak-offs under the threat of releasing videos of the event. Prosecutors have previously pointed to the 2016 video of Combs kicking and dragging Cassie as evidence of allegedly sex trafficking his then-girlfriend for a “freak off” in which she was forced to engage in sex acts with male prostitutes.