The Albany Gazette - Combs's ex Cassie faces intense defense questioning

Ventura, the singer widely known as Cassie, told jurors that Combs raped, beat and forced her into drug-fueled sex parties during their more than 10 years together -- excruciating accounts that opened her up to scrutiny from Combs's legal team.

Defense attorney Anna Estevao's line of questioning Thursday sought to imply that drug addiction played a key role in Combs's violent outbursts, along with a pattern of toxic jealousy that both Ventura and the rapper were party to.

Ventura said she and Combs both suffered from addiction to opioid drugs, and individually dealt with intense withdrawal symptoms.

In her final question of the day, Estevao asked if the MDMA drugs taken prior to one of the "freak-off" sex performances that led to a 2016 assault at a Los Angeles-area hotel were a "bad batch" -- Ventura replied she had no idea.

Much of the day consisted of a relatively calm, meticulous focus on a ream of texts between the couple.

The defense highlighted tender moments, pointing out messages in which Combs and Ventura expressed love for each other. Other messages were sexually explicit.

When asked why she would look forward to seeing Combs, 38-year-old Ventura replied: "Because I had fallen in love with him and cared about him very much."

One of the messages from Ventura to Combs, dated 2009, read: "I'm always ready to freak off lolol."

"Freak-offs" were elaborate sexual performances that involved Combs, Ventura and male escorts -- sessions directed by the music mogul that sometimes lasted days, according to Ventura.

In her third day on the witness stand in Manhattan's federal court, Ventura -- who is heavily pregnant with her third child -- was collected and matter-of-fact. She answered many defense questions with a simple "yes."

And when it came to the messages, she emphasized the subtext.

"Knowing somebody... you know what how they speak and you know what they mean," she said, implying that even when Combs appeared kind and open, an alternative reading was apparent to her.

At another moment, as Estevao directed her past a batch of texts, Ventura indicated the defense lawyer might be cherry-picking those elements that cast Combs in the best light.

"This isn't about what I feel is relevant, right? Because there's a lot that we skipped over," Ventura said of the voluminous text records she was given to read.

- Domestic abuse or sex trafficking? -

Combs, 55, was once one of the most powerful figures in the music industry.

He is now incarcerated on charges of sex trafficking and leading an illegal sex ring that enforced its power with crimes including arson, kidnapping and bribery.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Ventura spent two days on the stand giving vivid accounts of coercive sex parties demanded by Combs -- she participated in hundreds, she testified -- and his routine brutal beatings of her.

But the defense contends that while Ventura's relationship with Combs was complicated and included domestic abuse, it did not amount to sex trafficking, and that she behaved erratically and even violently herself.

Estevao implied Thursday that Ventura was taking an active role in planning the sexual encounters, though the singer reiterated that it was with Combs that she wanted to be intimate, not random escorts, and that her efforts were a bid "to make him happy."

- 'Humiliating' -

On Wednesday, Ventura alleged that in 2018, as she and Combs were breaking up, he raped her in her living room.

And she said her time with the once-revered artist left her with post-traumatic stress disorder, drug addiction and suicidal thoughts.

In a graphic hotel surveillance clip from March 2016 shown to jurors Monday, Tuesday and again Wednesday, Combs is seen brutally beating and dragging Ventura down a hallway.

Judge Arun Subramanian on Thursday urged the defense to move more quickly in cross-examining Ventura given her late-stage pregnancy, and attorneys said they would attempt to wrap up by Friday.

Prosectuors indicated Dawn Richard -- a singer who found fame on MTV's reality show "Making the Band," which Combs produced -- will be among the next witnesses.

Richard sued Combs last year on allegations including sexual assault and battery. She said in the court documents she had witnessed Combs physically abuse Ventura.

Trial proceedings are anticipated to continue well into the summer.

(D.Sanchez--TAG)