In Cassie’s second day on the stand in Sean “Diddy” Combs’ trial, Diddy’s ex-girlfriend testified that she developed an “off-and-on” opiate addiction during their relationship.
Cassie, 38, explained that she would use the drugs to come down from party drugs such as ecstasy, which she used during Diddy’s alleged freak offs.
“Opiates made me feel numb, which is why I relied on them so heavily,” she said on Wednesday, May 14, while testifying at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in New York City. “I didn’t want to feel what was actually going on in my mind, in my life, in real time. It was just an escape for me.”
Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura, claimed that Diddy himself sometimes supplied her with opiates, more often at the beginning of their relationship. The two dated on and off from 2007 to 2018.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson alleged on Monday, May 12, that Cassie even overdosed during one of the freak offs.
“She tried the first freak off because she loved the defendant and wanted to make him happy,” Johnson added.
Throughout her testimony, Cassie has gone into detail about the alleged freak offs, claiming that they caused her to develop persistent urinary tract infections. She added that she would continue to participate despite the “horrible” pain.
“It just was a mess, really painful for a long time,” she said.
Diddy is on trial for sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution, stemming from his September 2024 arrest. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and has denied all of the allegations against him.
“We are disappointed with the decision to pursue what we believe is an unjust prosecution of Mr. Combs by the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” Diddy’s attorney Marc Agnifilo said in a statement at the time. “He is an imperfect person, but he is not a criminal. To his credit Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”
Since his arrest, Diddy has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. Judge Arun Subramanian denied his four requests for bail.
His arrest came nearly one year after Cassie filed a lawsuit against him accusing him of sexual and physical abuse throughout their relationship. He denied her claims in a statement shared by his attorney.
“Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations,” Diddy’s lawyer Ben Brafman said at the time.
One day after the suit was filed, Diddy and Cassie settled out of court. In May 2024, CNN published a hotel surveillance video of Diddy kicking and grabbing Cassie in 2016. He later apologized for his actions in a video shared via Instagram.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know are experiencing domestic violence, please call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 for confidential support. If you or someone you know is a human trafficking victim, contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.
