Jane Rosenberg/REUTERS
Sean Combs’ defense lawyers objected on Tuesday after prosecutors asked R&B singer Cassie Ventura some 20 times about the baby oil she said the millionaire rapper demanded be used in multiple “freak off” sex performances. Details of the private, at-the-bench discussion — during which the sides debated how many baby oil questions are too many — were released Tuesday night, and revealed a wisecrack by Combs’ lead lawyer.
“I was going to say slippery slope,” the lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, joked after the judge said prosecutors might be nearing the point of overkill on the topic. “But I’m not going to say it.”
The defense objection and sidebar discussion briefly interrupted Ventura’s first day of testimony at Combs’ federal racketeering and sex trafficking trial in Manhattan.
Prosecutors are using Ventura’s very detailed testimony about baby oil, drugs, lubricants, candles, and other alleged freak off supplies to bolster the charge that Combs personally “orchestrated” these elaborately-planned, dayslong sex performances.
Combs demanded that heated Johnson’s baby oil be available in large quantities for the nearly weekly encounters, during which he would film male escorts and strippers having sex with Ventura, according to her testimony and the indictment.
“Everyone,” she replied when prosecutor Emily A. Johnson asked who would apply the oil.
“You need to be glistening,” she said Combs would repeatedly demand.
The defense objection was raised after Ventura described a freak off she said happened at the L’Ermitage hotel in Beverly Hills. Combs demanded that a blow-up pool be brought to their hotel suite there, and that it be “filled with lube and oil,” she told jurors.
“Did you get into the pool?” Johnson asked.”I did, with my outfit, my shoes,” she said, referring to footwear she’d previously described as platform high heels. “It was quite dangerous.”
“It was his idea,” she said of Combs. “I couldn’t say no,” she said, for fear of his violent temper.”Were there freak offs where you ran out of baby oil?” Johnson asked.
At this point, Anna Estevao, who is expected to do the cross-examination of Ventura on Wednesday, objected, telling the judge that the testimony was “getting a little cumulative.”
“Let’s see if we can wrap this up and move on,” the judge responded.
But when Johnson’s next question involved “Astroglide,” and Estevao objected again, the sidebar was called.
Outside the jury’s hearing, the judge asked the prosecutor for “some guidance as to where we’re going next.”
Johnson responded that she intended to “go through the various supplies that were used, because those are supplies that were demanded by the defendant, that were at every freak off.” These supplies were consistent and “showed how he controlled the events that happened at these freak offs,” she told the judge.”I will not ask any more oil questions,” she added.
Ventura’s testimony continued Wednesday and is expected to last into Thursday.
On Wednesday morning, Ventura was shown the last of some 15 photos of male strippers and escorts she said were involved in the freak offs over the course of a decade, starting when she was in her early 20s.
“Did you have sex with all the individuals that we saw, during those freak offs?” Johnson asked.
“Yes,” Ventura answered, her voice quiet and her expression grim. “Sean’s money,” she said when asked who paid for the escorts.
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