[Source: CNN Entertainment]

“The government calls Cassandra Ventura.”

With those five words, the prosecution dove into the heart of the racketeering and sex trafficking case against Sean “Diddy” Combs – the testimony of his former longtime girlfriend.

Known as “Victim 1” in the indictment and “Cassie” in the music world, Ventura – who is pregnant and in her third trimester – took the stand Tuesday in what is likely to be several days of intense testimony. She was on the stand for about 4.5 hours Tuesday and is set to return Wednesday for further questioning.

Prosecutors have said Combs and his inner circle used threats, violence, drugs, bribery, arson, kidnapping and lies to coerce Ventura and another woman into extended sexual performances known as “Freak Offs” and to protect the music mogul’s reputation.

The defense acknowledged Combs has been violent with romantic partners and has a “different” sex life. However, they argued the women consented to these sexual arrangements and evidence of domestic violence does not mean he committed racketeering or sex trafficking.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to five counts including racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted, he could face a sentence of up to life in prison.

First meeting since 2018

Tuesday’s highly anticipated testimony represented the first in-person meeting between Ventura and Combs in over six years.

The pair first began dating around 2007 and went public with their relationship in 2012. They split in 2018.

Ventura and Combs last saw each other in November 2018 at the funeral of Kim Porter, the actress who had three children with Combs, defense attorney Teny Geragos said in opening statements Monday.

When Ventura entered the courtroom, she walked down the center aisle with her eyes facing forward. Wearing a brown dress, Ventura passed by the jury box to the witness stand. Combs turned around in his chair and watched her walk to her seat.

She did not appear to make eye contact with him.

The start of Ventura’s relationship with ‘Sean’

Ventura, now 38, detailed how she and the now 55-year-old Combs – who she called “Sean” – began dating nearly two decades ago.

Ventura first met Combs when she was about 19 years old. She signed a contract with his company, Bad Boy Records, in early 2006, and they struck up a platonic relationship.

After a boat party in Miami, their relationship became more intimate and sexual.

“I wanted to be around Sean for the same reasons as everyone else at the time – just this exciting, entertaining, fun guy that also happened to have my career in his hands,” Ventura said.

“It felt special because not a lot of people got that time with him.”

She said she soon fell in love with him and “traveled with him everywhere…like (his) little shadow.”

Combs was controlling and abusive, she says

Over time, Ventura said she began to see Combs’ more controlling and abusive qualities.

“Control was everything, from the way that I looked, to what I was working on that day, who I was speaking to,” she said.

He had mood swings that led to physical abuse, she said.

“You make the wrong face and the next thing I knew, I was getting hit in the face,” she said. “If I was a brat or something, he would let me know I needed to ‘fix my face’ or ‘watch my mouth.’”

If he disapproved of something she did, he directed his staff to take her belongings away, she said. He’d also kick her out of the house or her apartment that he was paying for, she testified.

‘Bruises all over my body’

Ventura said some of her arguments with Combs became violent.

“He would smash me in my head, knock me over, drag me, kick me, stomp me in the head if I was down,” she said.

She added she suffered injuries from the abuse, including knots on her forehead, busted lips, and “bruises all over my body.” Asked how frequently he was physical with her, she responded, “Too frequently.”

How the ‘Freak Offs’ turned into a ‘job’

Early in their relationship, Combs proposed the provocatively named “Freak Offs” in which he would watch her have sex with another man while he pleasured himself, a form of sexual voyeurism, Ventura testified.

Each “Freak Off” would usually consist of two to three sexual sessions – each session lasting an hour to three hours – and could involve three or four different men, she explained.

“It’s his fantasy. He was controlling the whole situation, he was directing it,” she said.

The “Freak Offs” became almost weekly, she testified, and stretched until 2017 or 2018. When Ventura “gently” brought up not wanting to do them anymore, Combs was dismissive, she said.

“It got to a point where I just didn’t feel like I had much of a choice, didn’t really know what ‘no’ could be or what ‘no’ could turn into,” she testified.

“Sean controlled a lot of my life, whether it was (my) career, the way I dressed, like everything, everything. And I just didn’t feel like I had much say in it at that time, being really super young, naive, total people pleaser,” she said.

“I didn’t know if he would be upset enough to be violent or if he would write me off and just not want to be with me at all.”

She testified she took “all kinds” of drugs provided by Combs or his staff at the “Freak Offs” as a way of dissociating and numbing herself.

At a certain point, a “big chunk of her life” was spent recovering from taking drugs and dehydration stemming from the “Freak Offs,” she said.

“The ‘Freak Offs’ became a job, where there was no space to do anything else but to recover and just try to feel normal again,” she said.

Ventura breaks down in tears

Ventura stoically described the sexual acts that occurred during “Freak Offs” but eventually broke down when she was asked how she felt about them.

“I felt disgusting, I was humiliated,” Ventura said. “I didn’t have the words to put together at the time how horrible I really felt, and I couldn’t talk to anybody about it.”

When asked what she enjoyed, if anything, about the “Freak Offs,” Ventura broke down into tears.

“The time spent with him,” she said. “As sad as it was, I thought that like it was (the) only time I could get.”

Hotel assault came after she tried to leave a ‘Freak Off,’ she says

The central evidence in the trial so far has been surveillance video showing Combs beating and kicking Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel in 2016, and in court she offered more details on what led to that incident.

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