Sean Combs sex trafficking trial updates: Cassie's testimony ends after days of describing abuse
The hip-hop mogul is charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.
Last updated: Friday, May 16, 2025 11:26PM GMT
NEW YORK -- After four days on the witness stand, Cassie Ventura concluded her testimony Friday at the trial of her ex-boyfriend, Sean "Diddy" Combs.
It came shortly after the defense concluded nearly two days of cross-examination.
Prosecutors allege Combs, 55, used his fame and fortune to orchestrate an empire of exploitation, coercing women into abusive sex parties.
If Combs is convicted on all charges, which include racketeering, kidnapping, arson, bribery and sex trafficking, he would face a mandatory 15 years in prison and could remain behind bars for life.
This story may contain accounts and descriptions of actual or alleged events that some readers may find disturbing.
"Bad Rap: The Case Against Diddy," a new podcast from "20/20" and ABC Audio, traces how the whispers of abuse came to light and led to the downfall of Sean "Diddy" Combs, who was once among the most influential entertainers and entrepreneurs in hip hop. Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and more.
Kemberly Richardson reports from Lower Manhattan.
(ABC News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Second witness describes encounters with Cassie and Combs
After the first witness Israel Florez got straight to the allegations of violence by Combs, the second prosecution witness, Daniel Phillip, took the trial to the allegations of sex parties.
Phillip said he was a male stripper for women when he was called by Cassie to meet her and Combs at the Gramercy Park Hotel in New York in 2012.
Phillip said he was paid a few thousand dollars for the encounter in which Combs was wearing a white robe and watching as Phillip had sex with Cassie.
Phillip testified that Combs subsequently hired him on several occasions for a redo of the same experience.
Encouraged by a prosecutor's questions, Phillip got increasingly graphic in descriptions for the jury of the encounters.
May 12, 2025, 9:09 PM GMT
Cross-examination and 2nd witness takes the stand
On cross-examination, defense attorney Brian Steel suggested that hotel security guard Israel Florez may have been embellishing his account when he testified that Combs had a "devilish" look on his face when he first encountered him in the hotel hallway.
"Where in your report do you describe Mr. Combs having "devilish stare?" Steel asked.
"It was my opinion but not part of the incident so not in the report," Florez responded.
First witness Intercontinental Security Officer Israel Florez testifies on the witness stand in Manhattan federal court on the first day of trial in New York.
Steel also sought to point out that Florez did not need to call for assistance because Combs was cooperative.
"When you first come, he's sitting in a chair?" Steel asked.
"Yes," Florez replied.
"You don't see him make any restive movements toward the young lady?" asked Steel.
"No," replied Florez.
On redirect, prosecutors replayed a portion of the video showing Combs attacking Ventura and sought to show that Florez's incident report did not necessarily include everything that occurred on that day in March 2016.
"Were you expected to include every single detail?" prosecutor Christy Slavik asked.
"No, ma'am," Florez responded.
Florez is off the stand following his testimony. The second prosecution witness is Daniel Phillip, a male escort who has said he was paid to have sex with Cassie Ventura at the Gramercy Park Hotel.
ByAaron Katersky
May 12, 2025, 11:08 PM GMT
Jury sees 2016 video showing Cassie Ventura attack
The prosecution has played for the jury the March 2016 video of Combs attacking Cassie Ventura.
Ventura is seen on hotel surveillance footage standing at the elevator on the sixth floor of the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, CA wearing blue pants and black hoodie. There are two bags at her feet: one smaller, one larger.
Ventura is seen on the video retrieving socks from the larger bag. She starts to put them on her bare feet when the video shows Sean Combs emerging from around the corner, grabbing her from behind and throwing her to the floor. He then stomps on her and drags her toward their room, the video shows.
Ventura gets up and retrieves items from the floor. Combs is then seen approaching her again, taking a cell phone, sitting on a chair and throwing a vase at her. The jury saw photos of the broken vase glass on the hallway carpet.
Combs appeared to watch the video dispassionately, with his arms folded on the defense table. His mother and children, seated behind him in the spectators' gallery, displayed no reaction.
In a second video, hotel security guard Israel Florez, who testified earlier, is seen escorting Combs toward his room. There is no audio on the surveillance footage but the two men are seen conversing. "I'm trying to deescalate," Florez testified earlier regarding the conversation.
Florez recorded the third and fourth videos the jury saw using his cell phone. In one of them, Florez is seen talking to Combs and Ventura. There is no sound but he testified that he urged them to return to their room and told them the damage to the hallway would appear on their hotel bill.
Mike Marza talks with Michael F. Bachner about the defense's strategy with the jury seeing the 2016 video of the Cassie Ventura attack.
ByAaron Katersky
May 12, 2025, 6:55 PM GMT
1st witness saw Combs 'in a towel and some colored socks'
The evidentiary phase of Sean Combs' trial began Monday by transporting jurors to March 2016, when Combs was caught on hotel surveillance footage attacking his then-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura
The first witness is Israel Florez, an LAPD officer who was working security at the InterContinental Hotel in Century City, CA when he said he responded to a call for "a woman in distress" on the sixth floor.
"After I responded, when I got out of the elevator, I observed a male and female in the elevator lobby," Florez said, adding that he recognized the male as Sean Combs.
"I seen Mr. Combs in a towel and some colored socks." Florez said Combs gave him a "devilish stare" and Ventura looked "scared."
Assistant US Attorney Emily Johnson gestures to Sean Combs while giving her opening statement the first day of trial at Manhattan federal court, Monday, May 12, 2025, in New York.
"She was pretty much just covered up. I couldn't see her face. She was pretty much in the corner," Florez said. He noticed the flower vase that decorates the hallway was destroyed.
"She was saying that she wanted to get her phone, her bag, she wanted to leave," Florez recalled. At one point, he said, Combs told her "you're not going to leave."
Florez followed the pair back to their room and stood in the doorway. He said he noticed a "male, black wearing dark clothing sitting at the corner of the bed."
Once Ventura left the room, Florez said Combs called to him. "He was pretty much holding a sack of money and he said, 'here take care of this for me, don't tell anyone.'"
He later noticed Ventura had a "purple eye."
Federal prosecutors said Combs is seen on video "brutally beating" Ventura as she tried to escape a "freak off." Defense attorneys conceded what the video depicted "is dehumanizing and violent and terrible" but downplayed it as a fight over a phone.
The defense called Combs a "flawed individual," prone to jealous rages, who even committed domestic assault but said he's no sex trafficker and his unconventional sexual preferences were not part of any RICO conspiracy, as alleged.
Federal prosecutors argued the case is not about a celebrity's private sex life. Instead, they said "the sexual conduct at issue in this case was coercive and criminal."