Racing in Her Blood: A Look at Motorheads Star

As the trial commenced on May 12, Combs has consistently asserted his innocence against serious allegations including sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy, and transportation for prostitution.

Should he be convicted on all charges, which also encompass arson and bribery, Combs could face a mandatory sentence of 15 years in prison, with the possibility of life imprisonment.

Following two intense days of direct testimony, Combs’ defense team had their opportunity to cross-examine Ventura, who is currently eight-and-a-half months pregnant with her third child with husband Alex Fine.

During her testimony, Ventura, who was in a relationship with Combs from 2007 to 2018 after being signed to his Bad Boy Records label in 2005, managed to maintain her composure, despite the graphic nature of her revelations.

Images and videos were presented to the jury, some of which were deemed too sensitive for public sharing. Among them was the notorious hotel hallway assault video, which was shown in its entirety and subsequently made public, as reported by TMZ.

The key witness detailed how she and Combs first met and when their relationship turned physical and romantic. She provided extensive descriptions of the infamous “freak off” sessions that she claims were orchestrated and directed by Combs, asserting that the entire arrangement, including setup, booking, and other logistics, ultimately became her “job.”

Ventura elaborated on the events leading up to, during, and after the hotel video incident, as well as various texts, emails, photos, and even public appearances where she was observed with visible injuries such as black eyes and bruises. She shared her mental state throughout the decade-long relationship with Combs.

She brought forth shocking allegations including drug use, violence, blackmail, and even rape, as the cross-examination delved into her feelings towards Combs and her level of complicity — and perhaps even enthusiasm — regarding their more shocking sexual activities.

Stay updated on the testimony from other witnesses and everything happening throughout the trial right here. For a comprehensive account of Ventura’s statements on the stand, continue reading…

Prosecutor Emily Johnson informed the courtroom that she expects approximately one hour of redirect once the defense concludes their ongoing cross-examination of Ventura.

Judge Arun Subramanian expressed his desire to keep the case on track, advising the defense team that they should be able to complete their questioning by Friday. “You should be able to finish cross-examination within the remaining trial day,” he stated, while defense attorney Marc Agnifilo noted they would do their “best,” but remarked that there was “no guarantee” they would finish in that timeframe.

Subramanian also reminded everyone that he technically holds the authority to cut off cross-examination once it exceeds the length of direct testimony. Testimony is set to resume at 9:00 a.m. ET on Friday, with Ventura returning to the witness stand.

Ventura also addressed rumors of an affair with actor Michael B. Jordan.

The topic surfaced during cross-examination regarding her time filming Honey 3 in South Africa in 2016. Ventura confirmed that Combs suspected her of being romantically involved with Jordan.

Estevao, one of Combs’ attorneys, inquired about her time on the set of a film, Honey 3, and whether the Bad Boy Records founder suspected her of having a relationship with someone in the industry.

“Mr. Combs suspected you of a relationship with whom?” Estevao asked, with Ventura responding with Jordan’s name. However, she did not provide any specifics about the nature of her relationship with Jordan, or if there was one at all.

She also testified that at that time, she had seen a photo of Combs with another woman, which made her “angry,” and shared that Combs had other relationships throughout their decade-plus together.

Ventura recounted several incidents of alleged physical violence, including being stomped on and witnessing Combs hang a woman off a balcony.

However, defense attorney Anna Estevao suggested that Ventura did not personally witness Combs hang her friend, Bryana “Bana” Bongolan, over a balcony at Ventura’s apartment as she previously alleged.

“Isn’t it true you found out about this incident after the fact?” Estevao asked.

“I saw what I saw,” Ventura stated — who had told the prosecution during her testimony Thursday that she woke up to find Combs holding her friend over her balcony railing before throwing her onto the patio furniture.

Estevao inquired whether Ventura was under the influence of drugs that evening. Ventura testified she could not recall if she had used drugs before falling asleep earlier that day, but acknowledged that drugs were very much a part of their relationship, with Ventura experiencing the side effects of prolonged ketamine use, and Combs reportedly overdosing on painkillers in February 2012.

Ventura stated that on that day, they had a “freak off” and had gone to a sex club before Combs attended a party at the Playboy Mansion without her. She indicated that it wasn’t until later that night, after taking him to the hospital, that she learned he had suffered an overdose.

“From what he told me, he took a very strong opiate that night, but we didn’t know what was happening, so we took him to the hospital,” she claimed.

Regarding rumors that drugs were mixed with the baby oil used during the “freak offs,” Ventura maintained that they were not, after defense attorney Estevao prompted her to confirm that the Johnson’s baby oil used during sexual encounters was never laced with anything.

The defense lawyer also asked her to confirm that filling a baby pool would require a lot of baby oil and could explain why Combs was keeping a large supply of it on hand.

A subject approached from several angles during the defense’s cross-examination of Cassie Ventura was the couple’s “freak offs,” which typically involved a paid escort. Ventura noted that she grew to dislike these sessions, which she began to view as “work” during her direct testimony.

When asked if they were a significant part of her relationship with Combs, Ventura stated, “It was an integral part.” In an email from 2009, Ventura referred to them as the next step in their relationship, but emphasized a need to “feel safe.”

“In order for me to be more open with the things we do in bed, I need to feel safe, like home… like this is my husband, and this is the only man that can ever have this aggressive sexual side of me,” Ventura wrote in the email, according to CNN.

“The last time was a mistake but has since made me feel somewhat dirty and ashamed rather than sexual and spontaneous,” she wrote, as reported by NBC News. “That’s the only reason why I mentally travel with wanting and not wanting to do it.”

“When we used to freak off when we were so in love, there were no questions asked, it felt right. Like it really made sense for the next step in our sex life together,” she continued, expressing that as time passed, she felt less “love,” and thus began to feel differently about “freak offs” overall.

The defense presented texts that seemed to express Ventura’s enthusiastic interest in them. In one exchange from August 2009, when Combs asked her when she wanted to “freak off,” Ventura replied, “I’m always ready to freak off.”

Media outlets have reported that many of the text exchanges, which Cassie had to recite in court, were extremely graphic in terms of examples of what she wanted to do. According to ABC7, defense attorney Anna Estevao had Ventura read her messages, while Estevao read Combs’.

“At the time you were afraid that you were being treated as someone who he could just get his fantasies off with?” asked Estevao. “That was a concern,” Ventura agreed. She had hoped that their relationship would “grow more,” as Estevao put it.

She stated that while she and Combs enjoyed open communication, it felt like when it came to discussing real feelings, it was “often a one-way street.”

Ventura has stated multiple times on the stand that she did not disclose these “freak off” encounters to anyone, nor did she believe Combs’ staff necessarily knew everything about them.

She testified that his assistants would often set up hotel rooms beforehand, but she has no recollection of a staff member ever being in the room while one was happening. She stated she “definitely did not” want them to know, nor did she ever tell her friends about it.

The defense’s cross-examination of Cassie Ventura commenced Thursday morning, focusing on their emotional connection. After two days of intense details regarding alleged sexual and physical abuse, not to mention psychological torment and blackmail, the defense sought to establish an emotional bond and potential willingness on Ventura’s part regarding at least some of those actions, including the infamous “freak offs.”

When defense attorney Anna Estevao asked what initially drew her to Combs, Ventura admitted she hadn’t “thought about it in a while,” according to CNN reporting.

“The beginning of the relationship was really … fast-paced, scary but the more time I spent with him and got to know him, his true character — at least what I thought was his true character — and I liked what it was,” she explained.

She expressed admiration for his “sweetness” and “attentiveness,” while also appreciating his “larger-than-life personality that everyone truly loved.”

Supporting evidence for this included texts and emails exchanged between the two that the defense shared in court. In one such exchange, Combs wrote, “It makes me so happy that you would fly to ATL just to see me. I’m a very lucky man, I love you, I miss you, can’t wait to hold you.”

To this, Ventura replied, “I’m a very lucky girl. I miss you so much. I’d fly anywhere you wanted me, whenever. I love you.” In a message from 2008, she wrote, “I love you sooo much,” while another the following year read, “I love you sooooo much it makes me cry.”

The jury observed declarations of love, as well as manifestations of insecurity, with Ventura admitting she would become frustrated, yearning for more time with Combs. In one message, she wrote, “I haven’t talked to you AT ALL, I know you can take 3 minutes out of your day to talk to me and you don’t even try. You’re too much in a rush to get me off the phone. That’s not being in a relationship with someone that you love and are in love with.”

When asked if it “really hurt” when Combs would cheat on her, Ventura replied, “I’d say not every time.” She noted that feelings of hurt were something that occurred more in the earlier stages of their relationship.

Estevao suggested that Ventura wanted to make Combs happy in their relationship — “And to make him happy, you told him that you wanted to do ‘freak offs’?” she asked. “Yes, at the time, I wanted to make him happy,” Ventura replied, according to NBC News. But she also stated, “There’s much more to that.”

ABC7 noted that the prosecution was “objecting frequently” as cross-examination began, but the judge rejected many of these, “appearing to be giving the defense some breathing room in the early stages.”

The courtroom session wrapped up Wednesday afternoon with Cassie Ventura concluding her direct testimony. She is expected to return for cross-examination on Thursday. She informed jurors she took the stand to “do the right thing” and to rid herself of “the shame” and “guilt” she has carried for years.

“I can’t carry this anymore, the shame, the guilt, what’s right is right and what’s wrong is wrong,” she stated. “People aren’t disposable.”

She shared that as part of her therapy and personal healing, she had written a book about her experiences with the help of her mother, which she wanted Combs to read to help him “understand” the “pain he put me through.”

Despite sending the book to Combs’ team, she finally heard back from them that the book “wasn’t taken seriously.”

Ventura also testified that she had “wanted to be compensated for the many years of pain.” This is what led to her 2023 civil suit against Combs, where she accused him of rape and years of physical abuse. Combs has denied these allegations. Twenty-four hours after they were filed, Ventura revealed that they settled and she received $20 million from Combs and his companies.

Expecting a “closure conversation,” Cassie Ventura testified in court that she met with Combs for dinner in 2018. At the time, she was dating the man who would become her now-husband.

She described Combs as playful and romantic during dinner before he offered to drive her home. CNN reports that Ventura paused for a moment on the witness stand before continuing, “And then he raped me in my living room.”

“I just remember crying and saying ‘no,’ but it was very quick,” she stated on the stand. She does not know if Combs noticed her crying. She did concede that they had had another voluntary sexual encounter after that, and that they had had “a few check-ins” after that: “just checking in, sending love, nothing crazy.”

When asked why she would willingly have sex with him after the alleged rape, Ventura replied, according to Variety, “We had been together for over 10 years. You don’t just turn off feelings like that.” She stated the last time they were in a room together before this trial was at Kim Porter’s funeral in 2018.

She testified that Combs continued to threaten her even after their relationship had ended, including asking to be reimbursed as the man she would go on to marry, Alex Fine, was her former personal trainer, meaning he was on Combs’ payroll.

“If I were you, I’d get me my money,” Combs wrote to her in a 2019 message read out in court. When she pushed back at all, Combs messaged in all caps, “YOU WILL NOT BE THREATENING ME.”

She stated he continued to say she had “too many iPads filled with skeletons,” but she defiantly countered, “Do you want me to tell the truth? It’s way deeper than iPads.”

In court, she told the jury, “There was far more than ‘freak offs.’ There was abuse, there were many things that happened over our relationship.”

She stated that it took her years to begin to overcome what she’d been through, including going to rehab and getting clean from drugs, as well as attending trauma therapy in 2023. She reported suffering from flashbacks and suicidal ideation.

“I didn’t want to be alive anymore at that point,” a tearful Ventura stated in court, according to CNN. “I couldn’t take the pain that I was in anymore, and so I just tried to walk out the front door into traffic and my husband wouldn’t let me.”

Cassie Ventura testified that she was not only a victim of abuse at the hands of Combs, which she claims was witnessed by many of his staff, but she also witnessed him allegedly abusing others, including employees.

She stated that she once witnessed him punch someone in the head. On another occasion, she described seeing him allegedly drag his assistant, “Mia,” out of her bed and onto the deck outside her room after she resisted his attempts to take her phone.

In another alleged incident, Ventura recounted waking up to find Combs holding her friend over the balcony railing at her Los Angeles apartment. “I saw him bring her back over the railing of the balcony and then throw her onto the patio furniture,” she testified. Ventura stated she remains friends with this alleged victim.

Another friendship, however, reportedly ended following a physical altercation with Combs in 2018. “He came in, saw that we were going to do drugs, and he hit [her] in the head with a hanger,” Ventura said, adding that the hanger was wooden.

During her testimony on Wednesday, Cassie Ventura stated that members of Combs’ staff had witnessed him allegedly abusing her, and that some told her they had quit after witnessing it.

She further stated that after each incident of violence, she never saw any injuries on Combs, but she would have to recover for days afterward, often hiding out in a hotel room. “Any time he was physical, there would at least be some trace,” she stated, per CNN, “a bruise or something.

One detailed incident occurred in 2015, during which Ventura stated she was beaten by Combs in one room while he hosted a party in an adjoining room. “He punched me, kicked me, I was trying to run away and I made it into the bathroom,” saying she hid under the toilet.

Members of Combs’ security and management teams eventually entered the room, she stated, where they found her with “black eyes” and “golf-ball sized knots” on her forehead. She stated the sight of her caused one of the security guards to start crying.

She said she had to stay at his house for nearly a week after this incident to recover. At one point, Combs saw the extent of her injuries on FaceTime, according to Ventura’s testimony, and told her to put on more makeup so his son wouldn’t see them.

Turning to an email Cassie Ventura purportedly sent to her mother in 2011, the jury viewed the message where Ventura wrote that Combs had threatened to release “explicit sex tapes” of her, including one on Christmas Day.

In that same email, Ventura also wrote that Combs had threatened to “harm” both her and Scott Mescudi (a.k.a. Kid Cudi), who she was dating at the time. According to the email, he said he would harm them, but not by his own hands. Instead, Combs allegedly threatened that he would be overseas when it happened.

Ventura testified that Combs had learned of her relationship with Mescudi during a “freak off” in 2011, allegedly lunging at her with a wine opener when he discovered.

She stated that she managed to escape that hotel room, making her way to another hotel where she had been staying, and contacted Mescudi via a burner phone, asking him to come pick her up. When she tried to smooth things over with Combs afterward, she stated he made threats about releasing “freak off” videos and threats against her and Mescudi.

Combs threatened to blow up Mescudi’s car, she testified, saying he wanted his friends to see it explode in his driveway. On January 9, 2012, Mescudi’s Porsche did explode as the result of an incendiary device, as reported by several media outlets over the years, including Rolling Stone.

The testimony echoes what Ventura stated in a civil suit on the matter. Representatives for Mescudi told The New York Times in 2023 that her account is “all true.”

Following that incident, Ventura testified that the three of them had a meeting regarding her relationship with Mescudi. However, when Mescudi inquired about his car, Combs allegedly replied, “What car?” Ventura testified that the meeting ended after that.

She had previously mentioned that her mother had heard about the violent incident in which Combs’ security allegedly chased her down and asked if that was about her and she had lied.

“I didn’t tell my mom the truth because I was ashamed, but I also felt like at that point I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Ventura stated on the stand, per CNN. “I didn’t want to put my mom at risk of knowing anything of that magnitude.”

Later, she stated she finally did see her mother after one beating and had her mother take pictures of the bruises on her lower back and butt, along with wounds on her right thigh. She stated she had told her mother “this was the first time,” and she did not inform her about the “freak offs.”

She also stated during this break that she called off her relationship with Mescudi due to Combs’ threats, saying there was “too much uncertainty if we continued to see each other” as Combs had allegedly stated “he was going to harm the both of us.”

In testimony on Wednesday afternoon, Cassie Ventura recalled what might have been the first instance of abuse, describing it as shocking and infuriating because it seemed to come out of nowhere. According to Ventura’s testimony, it began after she noticed Combs flirting with another woman in a restaurant around 2007 or ’08.

When another woman reportedly clocked Ventura noticing, she stated she simply shrugged her shoulders. Afterward, when they were in the car, Ventura stated Combs suddenly “hit me in the side of my head and I fell to the floor of the [vehicle].”

“He shook me up and scared me quite a bit,” she continued, as reported by NBC News. “So I got out of the car, I was shocked, I didn’t understand what happened and why he was so angry.” Ventura stated that Combs’ driver and security were both present for this alleged incident.

“I was just shocked, and I didn’t necessarily understand what happened and why he was so angry besides the little bit he said as he was hitting me in the car,” Ventura continued. “I just went home and sort of hid out after that.”

In another alleged incident, Ventura stated that it began at a party in LA when Combs called her name. Drunk at the time, Ventura stated she responded by punching him in the face. She stated in court that this prompted Combs to beat her and stomp on her face as she lay on the floor of his car.

After reaching the house, Ventura stated she jumped out of the car and attempted to run down the street, only to be stopped by his security — who had chased her — and brought back home.

She stated that when she finally looked at her face in the mirror, she could not even recognize herself, describing it as “just knots and bleeding, swollen everything. I looked horrible.”

Following this incident, Ventura stated that Combs told her she would need to “sneak out of the house” with security to go stay at a hotel, which she stated she did “covered up, because no one could see me like that.” She had wanted to stay at his house to recover, but stated he wouldn’t allow it.

As for why she didn’t leave, Ventura stated it was a combination of not feeling it would be “safe” to do so, and not having the means. “I didn’t have the resources I needed to get out and move, to get out and not have anyone stop me,” she explained. “I understood Sean’s capabilities, his access to weapons, and the threats that he made prior to that.”

A third incident occurred, according to Ventura, when she attended a Prince party without informing Combs only to spot him there. She stated he later “burst” into her hotel room and attacked her: “He beat me up in that room. He was throwing bags at me, just calling me all kinds of names.”

In a later moment, a text from Ventura to Combs was revealed where she wrote, “You treat me like you’re Ike Turner.”

“He was abusive and controlling. I mean, he was actually physically abusive. He put me down a lot. As much as I was built up, I was put down quite a bit,” she explained on the stand. “It’s also the just sheer embarrassment, like, how he treated me in front of other people.”

She detailed an encounter where he allegedly gashed her face in 2013, leaving a permanent scar. “Sean came in. I was asleep. He was trying to attack me. We went into the master bedroom. My friends were jumping on his back trying to stop him.”

“I cut my eyebrow on the corner of the bed. Sean threw me onto the bed frame. I had a big gash. I didn’t go to the ER; it was a Sunday. Sean had security take me to a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills.”

The incident left her with a permanent scar on her eyebrow, which she pointed out to the jury, adding, “I cover it with makeup.”

She stated she texted him a picture of the injury afterward, “so you can remember.” She added to the jury that at “the very least, I just wanted him to be sorry about it.”

“You don’t know when to stop you may have pushed it too far,” Combs reportedly replied, to which she sent back, “Just apologize, I don’t know why I deserve that you could care less if I was okay.”

Ventura stated she was perhaps even more concerned about anyone finding out about them, or getting their hands on any of the footage. She had previously testified to removing such video and photographic evidence from her phone, and shared texts asking Combs to do the same.

She stated that he told her he had, but she would often find some of that content still in existence. In one instance, she stated that left her feeling “trapped,” Ventura stated she saw Combs watching one of the videos on a commercial flight from Cannes in 2013.

This was after an argument they had purportedly had where he accused her of stealing drugs from him and kicked her off of a friend’s boat. She stated that at a Cannes Film Festival event, he gave her “evil glares” and “would grab my leg and squeeze my thighs tight as he could, and I was wearing a beaded dress, so it was really painful.”

On the plane afterward, Ventura stated Combs “pulled up ‘freak off’ videos on his laptop that I thought were deleted. He was showing them with other people around. I said, ‘You’re embarrassing me.’ I was scared, I felt trapped, how do you get out of this situation? I felt trapped.”

According to Ventura, Combs told her “that he was going to embarrass me and release them.” It wasn’t the only time he would remind her he had these videos when he was upset with her, according to NBC News, threatening to release them.

Ventura informed the jury that Combs would make these threats “often when he was angry about something or just really wanted me to worry.” She stated that one time he was jealous of her dating another man and threatened to “put out two embarrassing videos.”

Another instance of that, according to Ventura, came on her birthday when she refused to leave a party with her friends for a “freak off.” She called these threats “horrible and disgusting,” adding, “No one should do that to anyone.”

“It could break everything I worked for, make me look like a slut,” she testified. “I wasn’t supposed to be in those videos. I didn’t want to be in them.”

In March 2014, according to Ventura’s testimony, she received word that a sexually explicit video of her had leaked, saying, “Immediately my thoughts went to a ‘Freak Off’ video,” per CNN.

When she shared what she’d learned with Combs, Ventura stated he told her to find out everything she could about it, including what the room looked like in the video. “You gotta tell him that’s your life, that’s serious,” she said Combs advised her.

Describing how much she disliked participating in “freak offs,” Cassie Ventura stated on the stand Wednesday that she was often fueled by ketamine, “because it was the most dissociative.” She stated that she even tried to get out of one for her twenty-ninth birthday but ultimately relented when Combs wouldn’t back down.

She further shared that she experienced regular gastrointestinal issues, mouth sores, and urinary tract infections from the “freak off” encounters, especially during “freak offs.”

“I tried to flush it out with water. I got to the point where CIPRO (an antibiotic) didn’t work anymore. It was a mess