The high-profile federal trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs enters its second day on Tuesday in lower Manhattan, where the 55-year-old music mogul faces charges including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and transportation to engage in prostitution.
Combs, who was arrested last September, has pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations.
On Monday, a jury of eight men and four women heard opening statements, and testimony from the first two witnesses called to the stand by the government.
Prosecutors allege that Combs ran a “criminal enterprise” through his business empire, aided by associates and employees, that engaged in crimes such as sex trafficking, kidnapping, arson, bribery, enticement to engage in prostitution and obstruction of justice – allegedly dating back to at least 2004.
In opening remarks, prosecutors accused Combs of using threats, violence and coercion to force women into sex acts with male escorts at drug-fueled parties that he orchestrated – events known as “freak-offs”.
Combs’s defense attorneys acknowledged that Combs perpetrated domestic violence in the past, but denied any involvement in sex trafficking or a racketeering conspiracy, and portrayed any group sex as consensual, describing it as part of a “swinger’s lifestyle”.
Following opening statements, the prosecution called two witnesses.
The first was Los Angeles police officer Israel Florez, who was working as a security guard at the InterContinental hotel in March 2016 when Combs was caught on surveillance video assaulting his then girlfriend, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura. Ventura is expected to testify.
Florez testified that he responded to a woman in distress on the sixth floor, and found Combs seated in a towel, motionless and with what he described as “a devilish stare”. Ventura, Florez testified, had a “purple eye”.
Combs offered him a wad of cash, which he understood to be a bribe, Florez told the court. Florez said: “He [Combs] was telling me, ‘Don’t tell nobody.’”
The second witness was Daniel Phillip, a former manager of a “male revue show”, which he described as a strip show for women.
He testified that at some point in 2012, Ventura paid him to have sex with her in front of Combs, and that similar encounters took place multiple times over the following year or so.
During more than an hour of graphic testimony, Phillip said he once witnessed Combs throw a liquor bottle at Ventura and, on another occasion, drag her by the hair into a bedroom. He testified that he then heard what sounded like slapping and her screaming coming from the bedroom.
Combs’s family, including his mother, Janice Combs, and his children, were seated in the courtroom’s front row on Monday. During Phillip’s testimony, Combs’s three teenage daughters left the room.
Phillip is expected to return to the stand for further cross-examination on Tuesday morning.
In accordance with federal court rules, the trial is not being televised. If convicted, Combs, who has been jailed since his arrest last year, could spend the rest of his life in prison.
