Jury in Diddy trial sees frames of videos from ‘freak off’ sex parties

MANHATTAN (CN) — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday afternoon showed jurors still images of male escorts in video footage of the sex parties that entertainment mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs is accused of recording and keeping as blackmail material to coerce women into continued participation in the dayslong swinger trysts.

Across two days of witness testimony in Manhattan federal court, Combs’ former girlfriend Cassie Ventura has described in frank detail the physical abuse and emotional humiliation she says she experienced in connection to the drug-fueled, multi-day marathons where Combs directed her to engage in protracted sex acts with male escorts while he watched.

On Wednesday afternoon, jurors saw seven individual frames from videos of the so-called “freak-offs,” which came from broken cell phones turned over to investigators by Ventura.

The jury appeared focused and rapt as they looked at the video stills on the screens in the jury box: one juror shot his head back in a double take at one image, while another arched her eyebrows.

Otherwise sealed from the public, the images were published directly to monitor screens in front of each of the twelve jurors and six alternates, while lawyers viewed them in an evidence binder.

Ventura identified three male escorts hired for “freak offs” in the images from the videos — Jules, Dave and Greg — along with a friend who has previously been referred at trial under a pseudonym, Mia.

She testified earlier on Wednesday that Combs kept the recordings of some of “freak offs,” despite her requests to delete them, for the “leverage of having incriminating, or derogatory humiliating video” that he could threaten to make public if she didn’t behave a certain way.

“I just felt trapped,” she said, recalling Combs once showing her sex videos she thought had been deleted on his laptop during a flight after the Cannes film festival.

Ventura, who dated Combs for 11 years, said she worried he would use those videos to “ruin me, embarrass me, just make me out to be somebody that I’m not in a very unfair way.”

“I just feared for my career, I feared for my family,” she said. “It’s just embarrassing. It’s horrible and disgusting, nobody should do that to anyone.”

She testified Combs threatened to release a pair of explicit “freak off” videos in 2011 after he found out she was dating rapper Kid Cudi, in addition to threats of physical violence.

She said Combs boasted he was going to explode Kid Cudi’s car in his home driveway.

“Sean wanted Scott’s friends to see Scott’s car get blown up,” she said, referring to Kid Cudi by his birthname Scott Mescudi.

The “freak offs,” also dubbed “wild king nights” or “hotel nights,” took place at luxury hotels in New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami, Ventura testified, in addition to both her and Combs’ personal residences in Manhattan.

During the trial, prosecutors showed photos Ventura took documenting her injuries she sustained from beatings by Combs, including black eyes, a swollen cut eyebrow and bruises all over her body.

Ventura said she took the drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy, ahead of the “freak offs” for its effects on sexual arousal and inhibition, and also used ketamine and GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate) for their dissociative properties during the sex acts with strangers.

On Wednesday, she testified she was concurrently experiencing an ongoing opiate addiction, taking downers after the “freak offs” to come down from the stimulant effects of the MDMA.

In addition to the dehydration and sleeplessness from the “freak offs,” Cassie said the cycle of extended drug caused stomach issues and gastrointestinal problems.

Ventura said Combs expected her to participate in sexual performances while she was on her period, and testified Wednesday she had ended up doing successive back-to-back “freak offs” with an untreated urinary tract infection.

On Wednesday morning, prosecutors showed a message Ventura wrote to Combs in 2017, complaining about his controlling abuse.

“Nothing good comes out of [freak offs] any more, you treat me like you’re Ike Turner,” she wrote in the e-mail, referring to the years of violent domestic abuse that the late singer Tina Turner endured from her then-musical partner Ike.

Toward the end of her direct testimony on Wednesday, Ventura testified Combs raped her on the floor of her Los Angeles apartment after she broke up with him in 2018 over his infidelities.

Ventura said has been sober from illegal drugs since 2022, and sought rehab and trauma therapy in 2023 after experiencing traumatic flashbacks and suicidal ideation.

“I couldn’t take the pain I was in anymore, so I just tried to walk out the front door into traffic,” she said.

Ten months before Combs was arrested, Ventura filed a bombshell civil lawsuit against him in November 2023 accusing him of rape and repeated physical abuse. They settled the next day for an undisclosed amount.

Ventura testified Wednesday that Combs and his company paid $20 million to settle the lawsuit, which was brought under the New York’s Adult Survivors Act.

Combs, 55, is standing trial on a five-count indictment charging him with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.

The 12-person jury is composed of eight men and four women, while the six alternates are made up of four women and two men. The trial is expected to run up to eight weeks into early July.

Follow @jruss_jruss