The federal trial of Sean Combs continued on Friday morning with a woman testifying that the mogul routinely refused her requests for male escorts to use a condom during drug-fueled sex marathons that left her exhausted and sometimes in tears.
The woman, who is appearing in court under the pseudonym “Jane,” was in a relationship with Mr. Combs from 2021 to 2024, which involved what she called “hotel nights” — encounters with male prostitutes, lasting up to 30 hours at a time, while Mr. Combs watched, masturbated and gave specific directions.
Jane is the second witness put forward by prosecutors as a victim of sex trafficking by Mr. Combs, who also faces charges of racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. Mr. Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and his lawyers have strongly denied that any of his sexual arrangements were nonconsensual.
At the start of her second day of testimony, Jane described asking Mr. Combs’s permission to have the other man wear a condom. He generally was “dismissive” of her request, she said, and pressured her to continue without protection.
The jury was played an audio recording that Jane said came from an iPhone video that had captured a “hotel night” involving a man she called Don. The recording was noisy, but Jane described a conversation in which she and Don were searching for a condom, and said that Mr. Combs entered the room and instructed her to touch herself.
“I just understood,” Jane testified, “that my request is just going to be denied, so just move on from this request.”
Jane testified that these sessions would usually occur without use of a condom, and that the man Mr. Combs hired to have sex with her would ejaculate on her body. She would then have sex with Mr. Combs, she said, because that is what he preferred.
Her voice breaking on the stand while she cried, Jane said that if she’d indicate to Mr. Combs that she was exhausted during these extended sessions, he would say something to the effect of, “You’re not getting tired on me, are you?” She said he would give her multiple doses of Ecstasy, which would help her stay awake.
Maurene Comey, a prosecutor, asked Jane who decided when one of these encounters would end.
“Sean,” Jane said.
She said that after one of these events, she began to cry. She had been promised it would be quick, she testified, but it ended up lasting about 18 hours, and she grew emotional when Mr. Combs said he then had to leave.
“He said, ‘Are you crying?’” Jane testified. “And just looked like almost disgusted with my face.”
The first of those witnesses, Casandra Ventura — the singer known as Cassie, who was in an off-and-on relationship with Mr. Combs for 11 years — has played a prominent role in Mr. Combs’s legal troubles over the last year and a half. Her bombshell lawsuit, filed in November 2023, led to the government’s investigation, and a leaked hotel security video showing Mr. Combs brutally assaulting her has been a key piece of evidence, shown to jurors repeatedly since the trial began four weeks ago.
At the start of her testimony on Thursday, she described herself as a single mother who was earning her living through social media promotions when she met Mr. Combs in 2020 on a trip to Florida. They began flirting, and gave each other nicknames: She was Bert and he was Ernie, after the “Sesame Street” characters. By early 2021, she said, they were in a passionate, intimate relationship (though Mr. Combs was clear that he was seeing other women at the same time).
What she said happened next parallels parts of Ms. Ventura’s testimony. Mr. Combs brought Jane to a Miami hotel suite where she said she saw “assistants” setting up with lights and beverages. Mr. Combs invited a male escort to the room and gave the two detailed sexual directions, she testified, while the famed music producer watched and masturbated.
At first, Jane said, she was exhilarated by the experience, calling it a taste of “taboo.” But these encounters, which she said were fueled by drugs and went for up to 30 hours at a time were repeated many times, up until Mr. Combs was arrested in September. (Jane called them “hotel nights” while Ms. Ventura used the term “freak-offs.”) Jane said that she became increasingly financially dependent on Mr. Combs, and that though she told him she did not want to have sex with the other men, he dismissed her objections and the hotel nights continued.
“It was a door that I was unable to shut for the remainder of the relationship,” Jane testified.
Mr. Combs’s lawyers may not get to cross-examine Jane until next week; prosecutors said that Jane’s full testimony could last five days, or even longer. But in its opening statement, the defense signaled its approach to Jane, describing her as a willing participant who enjoyed the thrill of her “kinky” sex life with Mr. Combs, as well as the perks of being with a wealthy celebrity.
“The evidence will show you,” Teny Geragos, a lawyer for Mr. Combs, told the jurors at the start of the trial, “that she did it over and over again for three years because she made the choice.”
Anusha Bayya contributed reporting.
Ben Sisario, a reporter covering music and the music industry, has been writing for The Times for more than 20 years.
Julia Jacobs is an arts and culture reporter who often covers legal issues for The Times.
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