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

Cassie Ventura testified about the first time she recalled Sean Combs “knocked me around," describing a time in New York City when, she alleged, he “hit me in the side of the head and I fell to the floor.”

Ventura testified that they were in a car when the alleged assault took place in front of a driver and staff.

Ventura told the court that she, too, sometimes initiated physical violence, recalling to the court a party where she said she had been drinking and speaking to a producer about music.

In the car ride home, “Sean called me a 'slut' or 'b----' or something. I punched him in the face,” Ventura testified.

“How hard did you hit him?” prosecutor Emily Johnson asked.

“As hard as you can hit someone when you’re drunk,” Ventura responded, adding that she did not appear to injure Combs.

“After I punched him, he attacked me,” Ventura testified, telling the court that she was on the floor of Combs’ Cadillac Escalade trying to cover her face “because he was trying to stomp on it with his foot” and that one of Combs’ assistants and a security guard were in the car at the time.

“I was getting really, really badly beaten,” Ventura testified.

Ventura told the court that Combs ordered staff to take her to a hotel and ordered her to cover her face when she went inside. She was not allowed to leave until seven to 10 days later, she told the court, when an employee of Combs’ allegedly told her that Combs wanted her at a recording studio.

“My eyes were still bloodshot in both eyes. I still had some bruising,” Ventura testified, adding that she remembered wearing glasses and heavy makeup to cover what she said were her injuries.

Federal prosecutors showed the jury a series of seven still images taken from video recordings of "freak off" sex encounters in which Cassie Ventura has testified Sean Combs forced her to participate.

“That’s me and Dave,” Ventura testified when asked to identify a person who was seen in one of the images. “We are in a 'freak off.'”

Ventura in earlier testimony identified "Dave" as one of the male escorts allegedly hired to have sex with her while Combs watched.

Only the jury, the witness and the attorneys viewed the explicit images. Monitors in the courtroom were turned off to prevent anyone else in the courtroom from viewing them.

Ventura testified that the images came from videos that had been recorded on broken electronic devices that she had turned over to the government.

“That’s me,” Ventura responded quietly when asked to identify who was shown in another video still image.

“What’s on your skin?” prosecutor Emily Johnson asked.

“Oil,” Ventura replied.

Federal prosecutors gathered their video evidence in part from the multiple electronic devices Ventura turned over to them as well as from devices that agents seized from Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami Beach, where agents said they found a cellphone “stored inside of a black Balenciaga boot” in a master bedroom closet.

The attorneys for the prosecution and defense could view the images in a binder. At the defense table, Combs appeared to lean over to look at them.

Ventura testified that in January 2017, she sent Sean Combs a message that said “nothing good comes out of fos anymore,” using "fos" as shorthand for "freak offs."

“You treat me like you’re Ike Turner,” Ventura testified she wrote, referring to the abusive former husband of singer Tina Turner.

Asked what she meant, Ventura responded that she was comparing Combs to someone notoriously “abusive, controlling.”

Ventura testified that she wanted to be done with "freak offs" because of “the sheer embarrassment, how he treated me in front of other people," referring to Combs.

Ventura told the court that she told Combs “more than once” that she didn't want to participate in these sexual performances with male escorts but that “it was always a concern” of hers that Combs could turn violent.

When prosecutor Emily Johnson asked Ventura how many times during their nearly 11-year relationship Combs became violent with her, Ventura sighed and said softly, “Who knows?"

The court also saw a text message that Ventura sent Combs that said, “You are truly the most extraordinary man … I hope you know how much I love you … I can’t wait until we have a baby of our own.”

Asked why she sent that message, Ventura responded, “Because I loved him and it was Father’s Day.”

The court is now in lunch break.

In addition to the attack by Combs at the InterContinental hotel that was captured on video, Cassie Ventura testified that there were other times that she was injured at a "freak off."

“He would put his hands on me,” Ventura testified, referring to Combs. “He would grab me up, push me down, hit me on the side of the head, kick me.”

Prosecutor Emily Johnson asked, “How frequently did Sean put his hands on you during 'freak offs'?”

Ventura responded: “Too frequently. A lot.”

Ventura testified that there was a time in August 2013 when she was packing for a music festival in Canada and Combs allegedly entered her apartment “and it just was commotion, him yelling at us, about me being passed out on the couch, about me being asleep.”

Ventura testified that Combs threw her onto the bed, causing her to strike the side of her face on a corner.

“I had a pretty significant gash on the side of my eyebrow,” Ventura told the court.

The jury was shown a photo of the injury. “That’s my eyebrow after I was thrown," Ventura testified, referring to the photo of her.

Ventura testified that she texted the image to Combs with the message, “So you can remember.”

Ventura testified that the injury left her with a permanent scar on her eyebrow. “I cover it with makeup,” she said.

Ventura also told the court that she had an argument with Combs on a yacht on which the two were staying during the Cannes Film Festival. On the plane ride home, she testified, Combs showed her videos of "freak offs."

“I just felt trapped. Like, how do you get out of this situation?” Ventura said on the stand. “He would put these videos out. He would ruin me, embarrass me. Just make me out to be someone that I’m not.”

Ventura told the court that the “humiliating, derogatory” videos gave Combs “leverage” over her.

Upon landing in New York, Ventura testified that she and Combs went to dinner, after which he allegedly wanted to have a "freak off."

“So we had a 'freak off',” Ventura testified. “Whatever was not going to make him angry at me and threatening me I was willing to do. I just didn’t want to feel scared.”