Gazeta Lodz - Sean 'Diddy' Combs' ex Cassie expected to testify

Jurors heard Monday that the hip-hop icon used violence and threats of reputational ruin to control women, including Ventura, whom he abused for years, before hearing graphic witness testimony.

In a hotel surveillance clip from March 2016 shown to jurors Monday, Combs is apparently seen brutally beating and dragging singer and model Ventura, who is now pregnant, down a hallway.

A former security officer at an LA area InterContinental hotel, Israel Florez, told the court Monday that he was first on the scene after the incident and that Combs sought to pay him off.

Florez's testimony provided the foundation for the prosecution to introduce the security footage that was published by CNN last year.

Prosecutor Emily Johnson also alleged Monday that Combs exerted control over Ventura by threatening to release videos of her participating in elaborate sex parties dubbed "freak-offs."

The panel of 12 jurors and six alternates responsible for determining Combs's fate heard of the famed artist's explosive outbursts and an attempt to preserve his own reputation and celebrity through bribery.

But the 55-year-old's defense team insisted while some of his behavior was questionable -- at times constituting domestic abuse -- it did not amount to evidence of racketeering and sex trafficking with which he is charged.

- 'Coercive and criminal' -

Combs has pleaded not guilty on all counts, including the racketeering charge that the hip-hop pioneer led a sex crime ring that included drug-fueled sex parties by use of force, threats and violence.

Johnson also told jurors Combs had set a man's car ablaze and dangled a woman from a balcony, and made impossible demands of his lovers and employees alike.

"Let me be clear," US attorney Johnson said, "this case is not about a celebrity's private sexual preferences."

"It's coercive and criminal."

But Combs's defense lawyer Teny Geragos told jurors the "case is about love, jealousy and infidelity and money."

Geragos called Combs's accusers "capable, strong adult women," and said his situation with Ventura was a "toxic relationship" but "between two people who loved each other."

"Being a willing participant in your own sex life is not sex trafficking," she said, adding that the defense would admit there was domestic violence -- but that Combs is not charged with such crimes.

Florez's testimony was followed by a male dancer who engaged in a sexual relationship, often in exchange for money, with Combs and Ventura from 2012 to approximately the end of 2013.

If convicted, the one-time rap producer and global superstar, who is often credited for his role in bringing hip-hop into the mainstream, could spend the rest of his life in prison.

The proceedings are expected to last eight to 10 weeks.

Q.Szulc--GL