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

Cassie Ventura testified she also saw Sean Combs inflict violence on others, beyond her own experiences.

Ventura alleged that Combs dangled a friend of hers, known as Bana, over a balcony at Ventura’s 17th floor apartment off Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles.

“I saw him bring her back over the railing of the balcony and then throw her onto the patio furniture,” Ventura testified.

Ventura’s 2023 civil lawsuit described the same incident. Federal prosecutors included it in the racketeering conspiracy charge Combs faces. The civil suit was settled with no admission of wrongdoing by Combs.

“On one occasion, Combs dangled a female victim over an apartment balcony,” the indictment alleges.

Ventura's testimony is not linear but makes clear that she alleges that over the nearly 11-year relationship, the alleged violence, sex and the drugs took a toll, leaving her experiencing what she told the court were “PTSD episodes.”

The second-to-last time Ventura saw Combs, in 2018, she testified that “He raped me in my living room.”

Ventura testified that she and Combs had been out to dinner but after he brought her home, his demeanor changed.

“The laughing and other things happening before that were not there. It was like someone taking something from you,” Ventura told the court.

The alleged rape occurred on the floor, Ventura told the jury.

“I just remember crying and saying no but it was very fast,” she testified. “I don’t know if he noticed.”

Ventura testified that she saw Combs one more time after that, and that she agreed to the meeting because she felt they were “still very connected.”

“I didn’t hate him," Ventura told the jury.

After that encounter, Ventura testified, there were some communications between her and Combs but she hadn’t seen him in more than six years, she said, until she walked into court to testify against him this week.

Cassie Ventura broke off her brief relationship with Kid Cudi because “it was just too much," she testified, saying there was “too much danger, too much uncertainty of what could happen if we continued to see each other.”

Ventura told the jury that Combs allegedly told her that he was going to hurt her and Kid Cudi and that Combs allegedly would later speak of arson.

“Scott’s car would be blown up,” Ventura testified Combs told her. “Sean wanted Scott’s friends to be there to see the car get blown up in the driveway.”

Ventura, Combs and Cudi all met at the SoHo House social club in Los Angeles to discuss the relationship, according to Ventura's testimony.

“Scott said, ‘What about my vehicle?’ and Sean said, ‘What vehicle?’ And that was the end of the meeting,” Ventura testified.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to leading a racketeering conspiracy. One of the alleged acts of threatened violence included in the racketeering count is arson.

Cassie Ventura testified that in 2011, when the relationship between her and Sean Combs was “not in the greatest place," she began briefly dating Scott Mescudi, the performer better known as Kid Cudi.

Ventura told the court that Combs learned of the relationship during a "freak off" in Los Angeles: “He went through my phone and saw emails between me and a staff member."

“I just remember him putting a wine bottle opener in between his fingers and lunging at me,” Ventura testified.

Ventura kept a “burner” phone to communicate with Kid Cudi because “I didn’t want Sean to find out,” she testified.

Ventura testified that she later went to Combs’ home because he allegedly said he wanted to talk.

“He was irate, He was just so angry,” Ventura testified. “When I was in the room, he told me about videos that he had and how it was going to hurt Scott and I.”

Ventura told the court that the videos Combs referenced were videos of "freak offs."

“Sean kicked me in the back on the way out so I had a big bruise on my back,” Ventura testified. “I had bruises in other places on my body.”

Ventura testified that she flew to Connecticut. On the plane ride there, Ventura testified, she wrote an email to her mother under an alias she used -- Veronica -- warning her mother that “Sean Puffy Combs is going to release two explicit sexual tapes of me … he also said that he will have someone hurt me and Scott Mescudi.”

Once in Connecticut, Ventura testified that her mother took photos of her injuries. The jury was shown an image of a welt on her back.

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.