As the second week of Sean Combs’s racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking trial begins, the first witness is set to be Dawn Richard, a singer in two music groups backed by Mr. Combs who says she saw him physically abuse his former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura.
A performer in the now-defunct groups Danity Kane and Diddy — Dirty Money, Ms. Richard began her testimony on Friday, recalling an incident from 2009 in which she said Mr. Combs attempted to hit Ms. Ventura, known as the singer Cassie, with a skillet, then punched and kicked her.
“She went into fetal position — you could see she was literally trying to hide her face or her head,” Ms. Richard testified. She also said that Mr. Combs threatened her and a bandmate to keep silent about the event, saying he told them that “where he comes from, people go missing if they say things like that, if they talk.”
Ms. Richard filed a lawsuit against Mr. Combs last year, shortly before he was arrested. She accused him in the suit of threatening her, groping her and flying into “frenzied, unpredictable rages” while he oversaw her career. The girl group Danity Kane was formed during the third iteration of Mr. Combs’s MTV reality show “Making the Band.”
After the jury had been dismissed on Friday, a lawyer for Mr. Combs called Ms. Richard’s accusation of abuse from 2009 a “drop-dead lie,” noting that Ms. Ventura had not mentioned it during her four days on the witness stand.
Ms. Richard is the first of a series of government witnesses scheduled for this week who are expected to testify about what they saw of Ms. Ventura’s 11-year on-and-off relationship with Mr. Combs.
Last week, Ms. Ventura detailed physical abuse from Mr. Combs that she said plagued her relationship and pushed her into reluctantly engaging in drug-fueled sex marathons with male prostitutes, known as “freak-offs.”
Mr. Combs has acknowledged physically abusing Ms. Ventura, but he vehemently denies sex trafficking her. His lawyers have denied allegations of a criminal conspiracy that are at the center of the government’s case and have argued that Mr. Combs engaged in perhaps unconventional, but not illegal, sex. Mr. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him.
After Ms. Richard finishes testifying, the next witness is expected to be a woman named Kerry Morgan, whom Ms. Ventura described as her best friend of about 17 years.
Ms. Ventura said the friendship foundered after a violent episode when Mr. Combs walked in to discover that the friends were planning to do drugs together, then grew angry and hit Ms. Morgan in the head with a wooden hanger. Ms. Ventura acknowledged on the stand that Ms. Morgan had made a legal demand on them following the incident, and that Ms. Ventura personally paid part of a settlement.
Other government witnesses scheduled for this week include Regina Ventura, Ms. Ventura’s mother; David James, a former personal assistant to Mr. Combs; Jourdan Atkinson, a former personal chef for Mr. Combs who accused him of shoving her to the ground; and Sharay Hayes, who has described himself as an exotic dancer known as “Punisher.” (Ms. Ventura testified that a man known as Punisher participated in several freak-offs with her and Mr. Combs.)
During Ms. Ventura’s testimony, the defense sought to complicate the narrative she has presented of a woman forced into sexual encounters and desperate to escape abuse. Seeking to chip away at her direct testimony, the defense seized on an inconsistency in the timing of a rape allegation, suggested that she consented to freak-offs, and posited that drugs and jealousy over mutual infidelities — not sexual coercion — were the true cause of violence in a troubled and toxic, but still loving, relationship.
Again and again, Ms. Ventura was asked by the prosecution if she had wanted to participate in freak-offs with escorts. Her answer was always no.
Anusha Bayya contributed reporting.
Julia Jacobs is an arts and culture reporter who often covers legal issues for The Times.
Ben Sisario, a reporter covering music and the music industry, has been writing for The Times for more than 20 years.
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