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Federal prosecutors pressed forward in Diddy’s sex trafficking trial today by calling three witnesses who testified about how the music mogul appeared to control his longtime girlfriend, R&B singer and model Casandra Ventura.
As the government’s key witness, Ventura testified in unsparing detail last week about sexual encounters with paid male escorts that she said Diddy forced her to endure under physical and psychological abuse.
With today’s witnesses, the government tried to bolster its allegations. The last witness of the day, David James, a personal assistant who worked for Diddy from 2007 to 2009, sobbed on the stand as he recounted interviewing for his job: There was a picture of Diddy on the wall, James said, and he was told, “This is Mr. Combs’ kingdom, and we are all here to serve in it.”
- Dawn Richard, a singer who worked with Diddy as a member of his girl group, Danity Kane, and the trio Diddy — Dirty Money, returned to the stand today. “He would punch her, choke her, drag her, slap her in the mouth,” Richard said of Diddy’s alleged violence against Ventura. She said that Ventura would wear makeup and sunglasses to cover bruises on her face and that she and another member of Diddy — Dirty Money wore sunglasses alongside Ventura during a Central Park appearance to support her.
- Ventura’s former best friend, Kerry Morgan, testified that she witnessed Diddy assault Ventura twice, once in Jamaica and once in Los Angeles. “I heard Cassie screaming, so I ran into the hallway,” Morgan said on the stand about the Jamaica trip, adding that she saw him dragging her by the hair. She also testified that Diddy assaulted her in Ventura’s home, which led to her and Ventura’s falling-out.
- James also testified about the first time he interacted with Ventura as Diddy’s personal assistant. He said that Ventura told him, “This place is crazy,” and that when he asked her why she didn’t leave, she said Diddy “controls my career, pays my allowance and pays my rent.” He also said he once heard Diddy call Ventura his “queen” and “very moldable.”
The view from inside
By Adam Reiss and Chloe Melas
Diddy’s team brought the heat in today’s line of questioning of Richard, appearing to poke holes in her testimony. It was the first time we’ve seen a very aggressive cross-examination from the defense.
Defense lawyer Nicole Westmoreland had multiple mic-drop moments when she used Richard’s own words against her and suggested inconsistencies in what Richard recalled about an alleged incident in 2009, when, she said, Diddy attacked Ventura with a skillet of eggs. On Friday, Richard testified that Diddy tried to hit Ventura with the skillet, differing from a previous statement in which Richard said he did hit her and another time when she said Diddy threw eggs before he set the pan down. On redirect, Richard told prosecutor Mitzi Steiner that she tried “to erase those things from my memory” but that “every day, I remember certain things.”
In other news: Before the jury was brought in for Richard’s testimony, U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian questioned the value of some of what may be shared on the stand. Testimony that relies on hearsay, he warned, “strikes me as a case built on gossip.”
Marc Agnifilo, one of Diddy’s lawyers, responded that he’s worried that the testimony is being prejudicial to his client. “I think this is becoming sort of a bad act free-for-all,” he said.
Analysis: Is it coercion?
By Danny Cevallos
James testified today that he suggested to Ventura that she leave the “party life” with Diddy and that Ventura told him she depended on Diddy for her career, her home and her salary. That may sound like a “coercive” environment. And “coercion” is a necessary element for the sex trafficking charge. But is this the kind of “coercion” envisioned by the sex trafficking law?
Sex trafficking under the law with which Diddy is charged includes the use “of force, threats of force, fraud, coercion … or any combination of such means” “to cause [a] person to engage in a commercial sex act.” The act defines “coercion” as “threats of serious harm to or physical restraint against any person” or “any scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause a person to believe that failure to perform an act would result in serious harm to or physical restraint against any person.”
There’s no question Diddy physically abused Ventura. We have seen as much in the infamous hotel beating video. Her testimony about being harmed and restrained would most likely satisfy the “coercion” element. But would depending on Diddy for her career, her home and her salary be “coercion” for sex trafficking purposes? Probably not.
The government will surely clarify this in its closing argument: that jurors should focus on the violent coercion and not be thrown by the defense’s likely argument that mere dependency isn’t enough — because it isn’t.
What’s next
James returns to the stand tomorrow. Other expected witnesses in the coming days include Sharay Hayes, an exotic dancer; Regina Ventura, Cassie Ventura’s mother; and Jourdan Atkinson, a former personal chef for Diddy.
PSA: Every night during Diddy’s trial, NBC’s “Dateline” will drop special episodes of the “True Crime Weekly” podcast to get you up to speed on the case. “Dateline” correspondent Andrea Canning chats with NBC News’ Chloe Melas and special guests — right in front of the courthouse. Listen here.
