“I remember we were sleeping and one of the sons knocked on the door and said that something happened, and then I was just by myself,” the former girlfriend told a hushed Manhattan courtroom. “I went downstairs and could see everyone speaking amongst each other.”
Combs was huddling with his team and his family. They needed a response — urgently. A hotel security video obtained by CNN was being played repeatedly on national television, and it showed Combs kicking and beating another of his former romantic partners, the singer Cassie Ventura.
“They were trying to come up with some kind of sincere apology post or something regarding the video,” she said.
Testifying under the pseudonym “Jane,” the woman offered jurors a window into the last two years of Combs’s life, as legal troubles and bad publicity threatened to unravel his music empire and fiercely protected reputation.
Until that point, she said that Combs had not resorted to the type of violence Ventura said she suffered at Combs’ hands. But she told the jury she was subjected to the same coerced and degrading sex on demand with male prostitutes to satisfy Combs’ urges — just as Ventura has testified in her own account.
“I just couldn’t sleep. I was just reading these pages and going through a nightmare,” Jane testified, explaining her first reaction after reading Ventura’s 2023 lawsuit in which Ventura narrated a story that Jane said was painfully similar to the life she had been forced to lead. “I can’t believe I am reading my own story.”
Ventura’s lawsuit, settled only hours after it was filed for $20 million, was the first domino to fall, as Combs faced a wave of public criticism, a federal investigation, and criminal indictment. He is accused of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted on all counts. He denies all charges.
The emotional and graphic testimony from Jane comes as jurors are entering the fifth week of testimony in Combs’ sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial. His lawyers have told jurors that Combs is a flawed and violent man who has abused drugs and his romantic partners, but they insist he did not commit the crimes he is being tried for.
Jane testified that she reached her breaking point with Combs by October 2023, after three years of what she believed was unrequited love. She told jurors how nearly every one of their dates or romantic getaways would become an opportunity for Combs to push her to have sex with male escorts during marathon sex parties she called “hotel nights” that could last days and were often fueled by drugs and booze.
“I’m not a porn star. I’m not an animal. I need a break. I don’t want to do anything. I’ve hit a wall,” Ventura texted Combs after he asked her to arrange a marathon evening of sex with a male prostitute while Combs watched and masturbated. “It’s been three years of me having f— strangers. I’m tired.”
Her testimony grew more emotional as she read aloud texts she sent Combs in 2023 in which she tried to salvage a relationship with the rapper without having to participate in the alleged prolonged orgies.
“My spirit and my soul is tired. I need a break,” she wrote in one message. “I can’t be used like this anymore. I wanted to make you happy but it’s creating a war inside me.”
As their relationship deteriorated, Jane told jurors that learning of Ventura’s lawsuit in November 2023 prompted her to look at her own relationship with Combs in a new light. She testified she nearly fainted when she recognized her own relationship with Combs in the pages of Ventura’s retelling.
“I can’t believe I am reading my own story,” Jane told jurors about learning about Ventura’s allegations.
In one of her messages to Combs, Jane wrote, “I feel like I’m reading my own sexual trauma.”
Three days after the lawsuit was filed, Combs and Jane spoke on the phone about the allegations. The jury heard a recording of the phone call taken from the phone of Combs’ top assistant after it was seized at the airport in Miami. Jane testified she did not know she was being recorded.
“This is when I need you to be there for me,” Combs is heard saying, as the recording echoed through the hushed courtroom. “You know we did all that s— together.”
“You know, I have been feeling so manipulated. What am I to do with that feeling? Who is there for me?” Jane is heard saying back.
Prosecutors then played for the jury a second recording of a call Combs made to Jane 22 minutes later.
“I need your friendship right now,” Combs is heard saying. “I can’t even talk on the phone. Please don’t send no texts.”
“I just needed to tell you that I need your friendship,” Combs is heard saying. “You know you ain’t got to worry about nothing else, you feel me?”
Jane testified she believed Combs was of
Content adapted by the team from the original source: https://abcnews.go.com/US/diddy-trial-day-23-loose-ends-witness-testifies/story?id=122678794
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