The courtroom sat silent as Casandra Ventura—known to the world as the R&B artist Cassie—described what she says was the darkest chapter of her life: a relationship with Sean “Diddy” Combs that ended not just in trauma, but in a $20 million settlement designed to bury it all.
On day three of Combs’ federal criminal trial in New York, Ventura, 38, testified that the music mogul raped her in her own living room in 2018, long after their decade-long relationship had ended. Her lawsuit, filed in November 2023 and settled within 24 hours, had only scratched the surface.
“I just remember crying and saying no,” she said, her voice breaking. “But it was very fast.”
That lawsuit, Ventura said, followed a long, brutal recovery—rehab, trauma therapy, and terrifying flashbacks that left her on the edge. She said she waited until she no longer wanted to die before stepping forward publicly.
“I can’t carry the shame, the guilt, the way he treated people like they were disposable,” she told the jury. “I came here to do the right thing.”
Combs, now 55, has pleaded not guilty to a raft of federal charges including racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. If convicted, he faces at least 15 years in prison—and possibly life.
Ventura appeared composed but visibly emotional as she recounted violent episodes during what she called “Freak Offs,” drug-fueled parties where Combs allegedly orchestrated sex acts with escorts and threatened to expose her participation if she ever disobeyed him.
“He would grab me, push me, hit me in the head, kick me,” she testified, describing scenes punctuated with humiliation and control. One photo she took in 2013, shown to the court but not to the press, depicted a gash above her eyebrow—an injury she says came from Combs throwing her against a bed frame.
When she showed it to him, she says he snapped: “You. Don’t know. When to. Stop. You’ve pushed it too far.”
Seven still images, extracted from those “Freak Off” videos, were shown to jurors. One reportedly recoiled at the sight. The press was barred from viewing them.
Ventura’s mother once photographed her injuries after an alleged beating. The jurors saw those too—bruises along her back and leg. Ventura said fighting back only made things worse.
“He’d just get stronger. Push harder.”
She admitted to once striking Combs herself but said she never caused any visible harm. At the time, she was heavily addicted to opioids and sliding into sleepwalking episodes, blackouts, and symptoms of PTSD.
“I stopped using in 2022,” she said. She is now pregnant with her third child.
As for Combs, the man behind Bad Boy Records who helped shape the careers of Mary J. Blige, Faith Evans, and the Notorious B.I.G., he listened from the defense table in a cream sweater and collared shirt, his mother and children sitting behind him.
His legal team begins cross-examination Thursday, signaling they plan to press Ventura on her own past behavior.
Meanwhile, the case unfolds against the backdrop of numerous other civil lawsuits—dozens of them—filed by both women and men who accuse Combs of sexual abuse. He denies it all, insisting every relationship was consensual.
But in the courtroom, as Ventura stared down her past and broke a silence bought with millions, one thing was clear: this trial isn’t just about law. It’s about legacy, and what’s left behind when the music stops.
