The most recent ex-girlfriend of Sean “Diddy” Combs testified further at his sex trafficking and racketeering trial in New York on Monday, detailing the deterioration of their relationship over the last few years, fainting from shock upon reading Cassie Ventura’s civil lawsuit against him and a savage beating at his hands months before the fallen mogul’s September arrest.
As prosecutors near the end of their witness list and get ready to rest their case, the victim, using the pseudonym Jane Doe to protect her anonymity, shared her experiences with the defendant over the back half of their three-year relationship. Last week, she told the court that about 90 percent of their time together revolved around “freak-offs” or what she referred to as “hotel nights,” which were drug-fueled orgies where she was allegedly coerced and blackmailed into having marathon sex sessions orchestrated and filmed by Combs as he looked on.
This came after the defense team made a second motion for a mistrial, citing what they called “prosecutorial misconduct.” In a letter to the judge overseeing the case, Combs’ attorneys wrote that federal prosecutors knew that testimony from Ventura’s friend Bryana Bongolan, who told the court last week that she was dangled by Combs over Ventura’s balcony in 2016, was false but allowed her to testify before the jury anyway. Judge Arun Subramanian has said he will respond to the letter on Tuesday.
From the witness stand on Monday, Jane testified further to the court of the alleged coercion to participate in hotel nights she claims to have experienced from Combs, who paid for her apartment and still does today; she said her housing felt contingent on keeping Combs happy, which she has said was always her goal in their ultimately orgy-centered relationship.
“[It was] like the home was being used as leverage,” she said, and added that she felt “guilt-trippy things” about living in a home paid for by Combs. Jane told the court that this “made me feel like I had to perform” sex for housing. She expressed this to him in a text that described her feeling “disgusted” with herself. On two separate occasions, she told the court, a hotel night involved a man dressed as a cowboy while wearing high-heeled shoes and another involved three men, which led to her vomiting. Combs went to check on her afterward but quickly ushered her back to the “party,” she said.
Jane also alleged that Combs blackmailed her with sex tapes he made of her and male sex workers at the hotel nights, telling her that he would release them in December 2023 and show them to her baby’s father. This was amid a series of fights the couple had, she told the court, as their relationship was deteriorating as she began to show more agency and tell the wealthy business leader that she did not want to have sex with other men for his pleasure. Her mental health deteriorated during this time, she said, as she began to recognize the alleged gaslighting tactics Combs used on her; at a point, she began to have suicidal ideation, she said. Jane also described a time she vomited during a session involving three men and shared her thoughts after viewing footage of her at a hotel night.
“I saw me being high. I was following a pattern, the pattern that I thought he wanted to see,” she testified. “It was like a show over and over again.”
A man named Cabral, who appeared with her in a sex video, asked for $10,000 for the footage, which Combs had shot on the sex worker’s phone. It was eventually sold to an undisclosed publishing company, she said.
The turning point for Jane seems to have been when she read Ventura’s 2023 legal filing against Combs, which was famously settled out of court the following day. Three pages of that complaint struck her sharply, she said. Jane also told the court that upon reading the suit, she fainted.
“I feel like I’m reading about my own sexual trauma,” she said. Combs asked for her emotional and spiritual support in a taped phone call from the time that was played in court.
“I just needed to tell you I need your friendship; you know you ain’t gotta worry about anything else, baby, please pray for me,” the mogul told her. “I will be praying for you; I need your friendship.”
Jane finally described on Monday a harrowing story, mentioned in the prosecution’s opening statement, of being physically attacked by Combs amid an argument they’d had after he was photographed with a woman 25 years younger than him. Jane said she referred to him as a “pedophile” and slammed his head into a marble kitchen counter. This allegedly enraged Combs, who stalked her around the apartment, kicking in four doors as she tried to flee from his attacks.
Describing the terror she felt on that day in June 2024, Jane said she escaped the home and lingered in the neighborhood for hours, waiting for Combs to leave.
Jane Doe’s testimony will resume when court is back in session on Tuesday.
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