Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 11 Disturbing Moments in Cassie Ventura's P. Diddy Trial Testimony

Episode Date: May 14, 2025

Casandra "Cassie" Ventura has spent more than two days testifying about her relationship with Sean "Diddy" Combs and the abuse she said she suffered at his hands. Ventura offered graphic details about "Freak-Offs" she said Combs' forced her to participate in with male escorts. Law&Crime's Angenette Levy goes through the details of Ventura's testimony with trial attorney Rich Schoenstein in this episode of Crime Fix — a daily show covering the biggest stories in crime.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: If you received Depo-Provera birth control shots and were later diagnosed with a brain or spinal tumor called meningioma, you may be eligible for a lawsuit. Visit https://forthepeople.com/lcdepo to start a claim now!Host:Angenette Levy  https://twitter.com/Angenette5Guest: Rich Schoenstein https://x.com/LawfulRichesProducer:Jordan ChaconCRIME FIX PRODUCTION:Head of Social Media, YouTube - Bobby SzokeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinVideo Editing - Daniel CamachoGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this law and crimes series ad free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. of the case against Combs and the abuse she says she suffered at his hands. I go through the most disturbing moments from Cassie Ventura's testimony so far. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. I just wanted it to be over. That's what Cassie Ventura told the jury in Sean Combs' trial about the freak-offs. The freak-offs were those sometimes days-long sex parties that Ventura would take part in with male sex workers. Ventura said Sean Combs directed the freak-offs, and she and Combs would find these male sex workers to take part in them using Craigslist. Ventura said Combs dictated everything, the use of baby oil, the sex acts that Ventura engaged in with the escorts, the drugs that were

used, including Viagra, and the length of the freak-offs. The freak-offs took place in Combs' homes in several cities, in Ventura's homes, and in hotels across the globe. And in some instances, these freak-offs became violent, and federal hotels across the globe. And in some instances, these freak-offs became violent, and federal prosecutors say they have proof of that. It's this video from a hotel hallway in Los Angeles in March of 2016. It shows Combs chasing Cassie Ventura out of a hotel suite. We've edited parts of it. Ventura says Combs hit and kicked her and dragged her back to the room when she tried to leave a freak-off. Ventura described itbs hit and kicked her and dragged her back to the room when she tried to leave a freak off. Ventura described it this way on the stand. When I chose to leave, I grabbed what

I could and I got out and Sean followed me into the hallway before the elevators and grabbed me up, threw me on the ground, kicked me, tried to drag me back to the room. He took my stuff. Yeah. Ventura told Combs in a text that she wanted to take part in the freak-off because she had a movie premiere, but she also didn't want to mess up her body. But she testified she told him she wanted to do the freak-off so she wouldn't sabotage her movie premiere, which was coming up. She then described in more detail what happened. Ventura said Combs hit her, so she decided to leave. An escort named Jules was still in the hotel suite at the time. Ventura said, after he hit me, and I just saw the

result of it, I just, I knew I had to get out. So when he was distracted, I don't know exactly what he was doing. He was either in the shower or on the phone. I just grabbed my stuff and ran out as fast as I could. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson then asked, and where, and where were you headed when you ran out of the room? Ventura responded, I was headed home to my apartment. Johnson asked, what happened next? Ventura responded, um, I made it to the elevators. I got my sneakers on. And then the next thing I knew, I was just thrown to the ground. Ventura continued, Yeah, it was really fast, thrown to the ground.

Johnson asked, You said you got your sneakers on when you got to the elevator. Where were your sneakers before? Ventura responded, My sneakers, I think, were in my bag. I just ran out without any shoes. Johnson asked, Why did you run out without any shoes? Ventura responded, shoes. Johnson asked, why did you run out without any shoes? Ventura

responded, faster. Johnson asked, you said you were thrown down in the elevator lobby. Who threw you down? Ventura responded, Sean, he grabbed me by the back of my neck and my hoodie and just threw me to the ground. This is another law and crime legal alert. If you received Depo-Provera birth control shots and were later diagnosed with a brain or spinal tumor called meningioma, you may be eligible to take part in a lawsuit. Morgan & Morgan is investigating claims that patients were not properly warned about the risk. It's free to check. It just takes a few minutes and you don't pay unless they win. So scan the QR code on your screen, click the link below, or go to forthepeople.com slash lcdepot to see if you qualify. Johnson then walked through the video with Ventura. She asked Ventura how many times Sean Combs had thrown her to the ground that way. She said too many to count. Throughout the freak-offs, Cassie said there were sessions. In between the sessions, she and Combs would take more drugs,

and she said there were times she suffered side effects from the drugs, and she admits she would often take them just to cope. Johnson asked, How often would you get sick from taking MDMA or ecstasy? Ventura responded, Almost every time, like before the actual high hit, I would feel like vomiting. It was usually like a normal thing. Johnson asked, would you vomit or would you just feel nauseous? Ventura

responded, I would actually vomit, yeah. Johnson asked, did Sean know about the effects that ecstasy and MDMA had on you? Ventura responded, yeah. Johnson asked, how? Ventura responded, because he would see me in the bathroom or I would tell him so he would just know. Johnson asked how. Ventura responded, because he would see me in the bathroom or I would tell him so he would just know. Johnson asked, what, if anything, would Sean say when you got sick from MDMA or ecstasy? Ventura responded, he didn't say much, but if we were in the freak off, he would be encouraging me to get up and continue on with it in that condition. Those were not the only drugs Ventura said Combs would ask her or escorts to take. Johnson asked, were there any occasions where Sean offered the

escorts drugs like Viagra? Ventura responded, yeah. Johnson asked, and who else besides escorts did Sean offer Viagra to? Ventura responded, he offered it to me before. Johnson asked, and what did he say about you taking Viagra? Ventura responded that it has the same effect on women, just sensitivity. Johnson asked, do you take the Viagra that he offered you? Ventura responded, I did. Johnson asked, and how did you feel? Ventura responded, sensitive and engorged. Johnson asked, did you want to take the Viagra? Ventura responded, no. I thought, no, I didn't. Johnson asked, when escorts were having trouble getting erect, what, if anything, did you observe affected their inability to get erect? Ventura said, like I said before, just the distraction of seeing Sean move around,

maybe just hearing his voice. Ventura said the freak-offs were carefully choreographed, with Combs dictating how they unfolded. Johnson asked, how would you know when to make that move? Ventura responded, I would just do it and hope that it would be accepted timing-wise, or he told. Johnson asked, who would tell you? Sean would tell me. When you would ask Sean if you could move from masturbation to touching, why would you ask him? Ventura said, it was his fantasy. He was controlling the whole situation. He was directing it. He was doing the lighting. He was telling us where to be, what to say, how to act in the room. Johnson then asked, and you testified that you would sometimes move straight to oral sex.

Why would you want to move to the next sex act? Ventura responded, I would just try to speed the process along. It was personally, if I get it done, then it's over. And then we move on to the next thing. I just wanted it to be over. While on the stand, Cassie detailed the planning process that goes into a freak off. Sean Combs entrusted her to reach out to the male sex workers. Johnson asked, when you were reaching out to an escort, what, if anything, would you say to the escort about what you were hiring that escort to do? Ventura responded, it depended on, like, the situation, how they came in. But I would usually say that my husband is into something called voyeurism and he likes to watch me with another man. It was like a basic conversation that I had with most of the

escorts. From there, I would get a feel if they were willing to do it or not. Later, Cassie started to piece together why she was instructed to ask certain questions in the screening process. Johnson asked, you just said that sometimes Sean asked you to ask if a person was a cop, right? Ventura responded, yeah. Johnson asked, and just said that sometimes Sean asked you to ask if a person was a cop, right? Ventura responded, yeah. Johnson asked, and you said later, I learned about why. Ventura responded, yeah. Johnson asked, what did you learn?

Answer from Ventura, I learned that this whole situation was not legal. One of the defense attorneys objected. The judge sustained the objection. The jury should disregard the witness's last answer. Now, there were times when Cassie Ventura said she would actually use a fake name when reaching out to these people. It was Jackie Star, and Combs would use pseudonyms. They were Frank Black and Frank White. Johnson asked Ventura, in the beginning, was Sean open at the freak-offs about his true identity? Ventura responded, he was not. Johnson asked, how, if at all, did he disguise his

identity? Ventura responded, well, he started with the masquerade masks. Sometimes he would wear a hat or something covering his face. Johnson asked, were you open about your true identity? Ventura responded, I was not either. Johnson asked, and what, if anything, did you do to hide your identity? Ventura responded, the same thing as far as the mask. I would wear wigs. Johnson asked, who asked you to wear a wig? Ventura responded, Sean. Cassie Ventura disclosed how much money the escorts would typically make to the jury. Johnson asked, for the escorts would typically make to the jury. Johnson asked, for the escorts who you interacted with, what were they paid thousands of dollars to do? Ventura said, to ejaculate, to finish.

Johnson asked, is that after they finished having sex with you? Ventura responded, after having sex, after a long session. Johnson asked, and for all the dancers you interacted with at Freak Offs, were those individuals paid as well? Ventura responded, yes. Johnson asked, how much were those dancers paid when they came to Freak Offs? Ventura responded, anywhere between that range that I said before, $1,500 to $6,000 or $7,000. But if Sean Combs was not pleased with the performance, their pay reflected that. Johnson asked, okay, when escorts would ejaculate on you, who, if anyone, would tell them where to ejaculate? Ventura responded, Sean was usually right there directing it where it could be. Johnson asked, were there occasions when escorts ejaculated without having been told to do so?

Ventura responded, yes. Johnson asked, what happened on those occasions? Ventura responded, they got paid less. Johnson asked, what, if anything, would Sean say about when escorts ejaculated without having been told to do so? Ventura responded, he was pretty open with the fact that he wasn't pleased by their performance. So yeah, he would take less money. Johnson asked, and when you would go into the other room and you said Sean asked you to put semen on him? Ventura responded, mm-hmm. Johnson then said, did you do that? Ventura said, I did. Johnson asked, where did you put it? Ventura responded, usually on his chest, on his nipples. Johnson asked, did you want to do that? Ventura responded, no. Then Ventura responded, usually on his chest, on his nipples. Johnson asked, did you want to do that? Ventura responded, no.

Then Ventura testified about escorts sometimes having trouble performing sexually. Johnson asked, and what did Sean do when escorts were having trouble with erections? Ventura said, um, he would give them a pep talk. I don't. At the end, they definitely didn't get paid the normal amount. I know that. Johnson asks, how do you know that? Ventura responded, because he would tell me and he would tell them as well. It wasn't really a secret. Johnson asks, when you say he, who is he?

Ventura responded, Sean. Now, we all heard about the obscene amount of baby oil found at Sean Combs' property during those raids back in March of 2024. But now Cassie's testimony puts that amount of baby oil into context. Johnson asked, you mentioned that the baby oil was used because you had to be glistening. Ventura responded, Johnson asked, who told you that you needed to be glistening? Ventura responded, Sean, it was his preference. Johnson asked, how frequently would baby oil be applied to be glistening? Ventura responded, like every five minutes. It was a lot.

Johnson asked, what if any comments would Sean make about needing to apply baby oil? Ventura responded, he would, if he felt like you were too dry, he would let you know. Johnson asked, what would he say? Ventura responded, he would say, you're too dry. You need to put more oil on or you need to be glistening. You need to be, yeah, you need to be shining. Yeah. Due to the demand, it makes sense why Sean Combs had more than a thousand bottles of Johnson & Johnson baby oil at his home. Johnson asked, approximately how many bottles of baby oil would be used in a typical freak-off?

Ventura responded, a lot. I would say definitely somewhere close to 10. Johnson responded, what size were those bottles? Ventura responded, the larger size bottles. Johnson asked, were there freak-offs where you ran out of baby oil? The defense objected, your honor, at this point, it's getting a little cumulative. The judge responded, let's see if we can wrap this up and move on. Johnson followed up with the question, you also mentioned Astroglide. How was that used at the freak-offs? Another objection came from the defense, irrelevant. Emily Johnson said, your honor, it's a supply. And the court then went to sidebar. At one point, Ventura described how Sean Combs set up an

elaborate freak-off using a blow-up pool at a hotel in Beverly Hills. Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson asked Ventura, what concerns did you have about not getting into the pool with the baby oil? Ventura responded, that, among other things, just his temper. If that is something that he wanted, Sean wanted to happen, that's what was going to happen. There wasn't another way around it. Another way Combs exerted control over Cassie Ventura, according to her testimony, there was a period early on in our relationship where he wanted me to have a nickname for him and I didn't want to call him anything that anyone else had called him. So he asked me what I called my grandfather and I said, pop pop. Emily Johnson asked, how did you feel about calling Sean the same name you called your grandfather?

Ventura responded, I thought it was weird at the time, and now I just feel like it was disrespectful. Federal prosecutors also brought in photos from Cassie Ventura's electronic devices that showed bruises that she says she suffered at the hands of Sean Combs. In one photo taken in Toronto, she claimed that she had to cover her eye with her hair because of a bruise. She also described for the jury having a freak off in New York and taking the drug GHB and blacking out,

going into what she called a G-hole. She said she came to and was naked in a bathtub and Combs and a man named Dave were freaking out. Ventura also described a time on a flight where she traded her seat to get away from Combs, but he found his way to her and showed her videos of the freak-offs, threatening to release them if he left her. I want to bring in Rich Schoenstein. He is a trial attorney and he has been following the Sean Combs trial very closely. How do you think that Cassie Ventura's testimony is coming across so far, Rich? We only have transcripts, but what she is describing is a relationship in

which she was in love with a man who was then trying to get her or forcing her, coercing her, and that's part of the statute, to take part in these freak-offs. And this entailed physical and verbal emotional abuse when it didn't go the way he wanted it to. Right. So, you know, we only have the reports from the scene, which have been very helpful in kind of following this trial, multiple people who were in that courtroom reporting as it goes. And it sounds like she's doing a pretty good job testifying. The reports are that she's well-spoken, soft-spoken, that she didn't look at Combs directly when she came into the court. So she's a little bit low-key, which I think is the right look for this. And the prosecution is using her expansively, not only as a witness about the abuse she suffered, allegedly, but about the nature of his alleged criminal enterprise and the people under his command and all sorts of other things.

So she's covering an awful lot of ground. It's hard to know exactly how that's hitting the jurors. One of the quotes from her was, when you really care about somebody and you're in love with them, you don't want to disappoint them. And she was talking about, you know, participating in these freak-offs. And so she's wiping away tears as she says this, according to the reports coming out of the courtroom and according to the transcripts. So she's describing, you know, there's a dynamic here between her and Combs. There's an age difference. There's a power difference, obviously, is one of the most powerful people in the

entertainment industry. She says she's in love with them she gets roped into these freak-offs we saw the video the video plays for the the hotel video with the beating plays for the jury that's got to be pretty powerful stuff for a jury to see that video and then listening to cassie talk about this yeah the video is really shock and awe, and I understand the prosecution wanting to get that video out there at the outset of this trial. That shows genuine physical abuse.

There's really no way around that. The rest of the story is more complicated. They're in a long-term relationship. She says she loves him. It sounds like maybe he loves her. There's some behavior that seems like it might be consensual, but you know, Anjanette, it is 2025. So we understand now that things like power are important in a relationship and that there can be abuse in a relationship, even if there is love, even if there is some consent, you can still find that there is abuse. This is at its core,

a basic domestic abuse case. And that's what the jury has to parse here. Right. Is this domestic violence? Yeah. Even though maybe some of this was consensual at times, obviously there's domestic violence here, but is it sex trafficking? And that's the federal crime that he is charged with. She says, I just felt pretty horrible about myself. I felt disgusting. I felt humiliated. She said his eyes would go black. The version of him I was in love with was no longer there. But but when does it cross the line into coercion and sex trafficking? And I guess they're taught they're going to talk about going across state lines, taking her across state lines. They would both find these sex workers together on Craigslist and things like that.

So so when does it turn into sex trafficking? Well, I think it turns into sex trafficking when you're bringing in prostitutes across state lines and paying them for their services. That is sex trafficking. Or if you're bringing her to another place, for her to have sexual acts with other people, that in theory is sex trafficking. But that's a really good point. There's clearly domestic abuse here, but it has to go up another level to be sex trafficking. And then it's got to go up another level to be racketeering. That's where the government's case becomes more complicated and more difficult.

There's another quote. If I just looked a certain way that he didn't like, maybe I was a brat or something, like he would just let me know I needed to fix my face or watch my mouth. Those were the things that were said in the relationship quite often. Fix your face, watch your mouth, or you have a slick mouth. I mean, these are all hallmarks of domestic violence. And maybe that is part of what the government is going to argue that, yes, there was domestic violence quite clearly, but this is part of the coercive portion of the sex trafficking. Right. It's not domestic violence. He had a bad night and he beat her in a hotel. Nobody should be judged perhaps by their worst night. But this is a pattern of activity. This is fundamentally control of another human being and control over all aspects of her life, her career, her dress, her makeup, who she could talk to and when, what she could do, where she would go, who she had sex

with, what kind of sex she had. This is what they're trying to show here is just pervasive control over her life by Sean combs and frankly pervasive control by him over all aspects of his business and personal life she talked about the let's go back to the video um of from the hallway of the hotel she said when i chose to leave i grabbed what i could and i got out and sean followed me into the hallway before the elevators and grabbed me up threw me on the ground kicked me tried to drag me back to the room he took my stuff um you know they're basically saying i mean in that video when you watch the whole thing and we've censored part of it um he's treating her like his property dragging her back to the room i mean it it's a pretty shocking thing. Does the video alone

show, you know, prove part of the sex trafficking charge or does it show domestic violence? That's going to be what the jury, that's the question the jury is going to have to answer. Yeah. To me, the video alone shows domestic violence. The video alone does not show trafficking. It does not show racketeering. The video alone is him beating his longtime girlfriend, which is horrible, which I assume the jury will react to. But it doesn't prove every element of every count of these claims. It would be interesting to, you know, look at that jury. You know, you and I are not in there looking at this jury. But this has to be powerful to hear from Cassie Ventura.

And what do you think of the government calling her so early on, Rich? I mean, day two and day three of the trial, they're calling who is basically their star witness in this case. Did you think that was unusual that they called her so early on? No, I didn't think it was unusual. I thought it was a perfectly reasonable strategy move. You know these cases. You want to open strong. You want to come out of the gate if you're the prosecution with some really strong evidence, and you also want to close strong. You want to come out of the gate if you're the prosecution with some really strong evidence, and you also want to close strong. We always talk about primacy and recency. We beat that to death in these conversations, but that's what you want to do. There's truth to it. So they wanted to come out strong, and not only is she the best evidence of abuse, But she also, again, she covers such a broad array of topics that are at issue in this case because she was with him for 10 years.

She knows about the way he treated her, but she also knows about his life and his business and the alleged criminal enterprise. So you have a witness like that. And by the way, she's eight months pregnant. So we got to get her on the scan soon, right? And also if I'm the government, I sort of want to get these victims, I want to get their testimony in before any odd changes. So I would be in a little bit of a rush to do that. And she's pregnant and she covers a lot of ground. And it's a good start to the case. Makes total sense to me.

Well, we will keep a close eye on it. It's powerful testimony for sure. Rich Schoenstein, thank you so much. Glad to be here. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Annette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.