184. Hijacked: Cassie Ventura’s Testimony and the Neuroscience of Survival

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
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(00:24):
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Speaker 2 (00:38):
Hello, and welcome to Revere True Crime. I'm your host page.
I wanted to do this episode ever since Cassie Ventura
filed her lawsuit against Sean Diddy Combs in November of
twenty twenty three. I've seen a flood of victim blaming

(00:59):
and haightful comments directed at Cassie ever since, but especially
since she had to take the stand in Diddy's racketeering
and sex trafficking trial. So many people have asked, why now,
why didn't she just leave, or why would she go
back to him if it was really that bad? Those

(01:23):
questions and those judgments ignore everything we know about what
abuse does to the brain, to a person's sense of
self and to their reality. First, we're going to walk
through the lawsuit that Cassie filed in twenty twenty three,
and then we'll get into the testimony that she gave

(01:45):
just last month when she took the stand during Ditty's trial.
Cassie was just a young woman when she stepped into
the spotlight. She was introduced to the world beside one
of the most powerful men in music and business. What
followed were years of coercion, violence, and control that most

(02:07):
people never saw. From the outside, it looked like luxury
and love, but behind closed doors, it was something else completely.
There were always whispers about their relationship and about Diddy parties,
but the rumors seemed too outrageous to be real. And

(02:30):
in the world Diddy built where money and influence often
could make the truth disappear, many people either looked away
or did not want to believe it. But now Cassie
has bravely reclaimed her voice. It's time we stop asking

(02:51):
why she didn't leave and start asking what kept her
trapped and what we can learn from it. We'll also
go through the abuse that Cassie suffered, physical, mental, emotional,
and sexual. Also the ways she was trapped not only
by the violence, but by the trauma that rewires the brain.

(03:15):
As a side note, some studies suggest that abuse affects
the brains of men and women in different ways. Since
we're discussing this specific case today with a woman being
victim blamed, I will use the female brain as an
example in this episode. I will definitely do another episode

(03:36):
in the near future talking about the abused male brain
and how the impacts are a little different. So let's
get right into it.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
First. Let's go through the most.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Recognized types of abuse and what the signs are before
we get into the lawsuit filed by Cassie and her
testimony from Ditty's trial. Psychological ssh emotional abuse. This includes
narcissistic abuse, which is manipulation and control by someone with

(04:13):
narcissistic traits, which includes gaslighting, devaluation, and idolized discard idolize
discard cycles, gaslighting making the victim doubt their own memory, perception,
or sanity. Verbal abuse yelling, insults, threats, belittling or constant criticism, intimidation,

(04:41):
using looks, gestures, or destruction to instill fear, blaming and shaming,
making the victim feel responsible for the abuse. Isolation controlling
who the victim sees, talks to, or r spends time with.

(05:02):
We move on to physical abuse, hitting, slapping, punching, choking
or strangling, kicking, shoving or restraining withholding medical care, using
weapons or objects to harm, sleep deprivation, forcing substance abuse.

(05:25):
Now we move on to sexual abuse, rape or attempted rape,
sexual coersion which is pressuring or manipulating someone into sexual acts,
sexual assault which is unwanted touching or groping. Reproductive coersion

(05:46):
which is controlling contraception, pregnancy or forced abortion, incest, or
childhood sexual abuse withholding sex as punk, sexual shaming, or degradation.
Then there's financial sh economic abuse controlling finances which includes

(06:13):
taking paychecks and denying access to money, sabotaging employment which
is preventing the victim from working, stealing money or assets,
creating financial dependency, coerced debt, which is forcing someone to

(06:35):
take out loans or open credit in their name. Then
we have cultural s spiritual abuse, mocking or attacking spiritual beliefs,
forcing religious practices, preventing the practice of one's religion or culture,
using cultural norms to justify control or violence. Then there's

(07:01):
digital slash technological abuse cyberstalking, GPS tracking or surveillance, monitoring phones,
emails or social media revenge, porn or non consensual sharing
of intimate images, impersonation online, or identity theft. Then we

(07:25):
have neglect failure to provide basic needs like food, shelter, clothing,
medical care, lack of supervision, abandonment, and medical neglect. This
is more commonly seen in child abuse and elder abuse.
Elder abuse and child abuse are also two of the

(07:48):
most recognized types of abuse, so elder abuse includes financial exploitation,
physical or emotional harm, neglect and care facilities, and abuse
by caregivers or family members. Child abuse includes physical, sexual,

(08:08):
and emotional abuse, exposure to domestic violence, neglect, parental alienation,
overt or covert incest slash emotional enmeshment. And then we
have legal abuse using the legal system to intimidate or control,

(08:31):
dragging out custody battles, filing baseless lawsuits, threatening deportation, and
immigrant situations. Last on the list is coercive control, which
is often a mix of the different types of abuses.
It's a pattern that combines several forms of abuse to

(08:54):
dominate and control a victim's life. This includes isolation, intimidation, surveillance, threats,
and depriving the victim of their independence. So let's dig
into the lawsuit Cassie Ventura filed in twenty twenty three.
This was when she first shared the experiences that she

(09:17):
had with her ex, Sean ditty Combs, and it shocked
people all over the world. This is also when I
first saw the victim blaming towards Cassie all over social media,
spreading like wildfire. According to the lawsuit, Cassie Ventura was

(09:38):
only nineteen when she met Sean ditty Combs. She was
a young artist, an aspiring singer trying to make her
way in the music industry. He was already a larger
than life figure, older, powerful, charming to many, and dangerous.

(10:02):
What started as a promising relationship quickly spiraled into something destructive.
Behind the glamour of fame and success did he signed
Cassie to his label and began to groom her control,
her appearance, her behavior, her relationships, and her freedom. Soon

(10:25):
she was living under his control, emotionally isolated, and increasingly
subjected to emotional manipulation and sexual coercion. By the time
she was in her early twenties. Cassie alleged that Didty
introduced her to a world of forced drug use, prescription pills,

(10:48):
and unwanted sexual experiences. He demanded sex at all hours,
regardless of her consent or mental state, and off often
filmed it without her permission. She described a terrifying routine
which included being coerced into taking drugs like GHB and ecstasy,

(11:14):
then being required to perform sexual acts, sometimes with others,
while he watched or participated, making sure he was always
in control. According to Cassie, he funded what he called
freak offs, explicit sexual encounters involving male sex workers that

(11:38):
Cassie says she never wanted but participated in out of
fear and survival. Diddy would often record these encounters and
use the footage as leverage, threatening to release it if
she ever left or disobeyed him. The abuse, she said,

(11:59):
was not only sexual, it was physical and violent. Cassie
described being beaten, sometimes so badly she had to seek
medical attention. In one incident, she said, Diddy stomped on
her while she was curled up on the floor. In another,
he blew up in a jealous rage and dragged her

(12:22):
out of bed, smashing furniture, hitting her, and threatening her life.
She lived in a state of constant fear, knowing that
her safety, career, and reputation were always at risk. Even
when she tried to leave him, Cassie said he stalked her.

(12:43):
She recalled an incident where he broke into her apartment,
slammed her against the wall, and took her phone. She
said that she feared for her life in that moment
and many others, and yet felt powerless to escape. Despite
years of trauma, Cassie stayed quiet. She said the imbalance

(13:08):
of power, like his wealth, his influence, and his capabilities
kept her paralyzed. Even when she broke off the relationship
in twenty eighteen, the fear was still there and the
memories haunted her. She says that she spent years trying

(13:29):
to heal, trying to move on and reclaim her voice.
In response to the lawsuit, Ditty denied the allegations, but
just one day after the lawsuit became public, the case
was quickly settled out of court. Fast forward to now

(13:49):
twenty twenty five. Let's go through some of her recent
testimony during Ditty's racketeering and sex trafficking trial. Cassie Ventura
took the stand pregnant in a very stressful situation, very
close to her due date. What she was about to

(14:09):
revisit wasn't just about the past. It was about how
she survived, and now she was taking her power back.
She began by confirming the basics. She was thirty eight
years old, now an entertainer by trade, and had spent
over a decade of her life in a relationship with

(14:32):
Sean ditty Combs. The years, she said, had been a
chaotic mix of highs and terrifying lows. She told the
courtroom quote there were good times, but if they were
violent arguments, it would usually result in some sort of

(14:53):
physical abuse and dragging, just different things end quote. She
described him stomping on her head, dragging her across rooms,
and kicking her when she was already down. The prosecutor
asked her how often the violence occurred, She said, quote

(15:15):
too frequently. The courtroom listened in silence as she spoke
about the freak offs, the term that Diddy used for
planned sex parties and demanded she take part in, often
with paid escorts, while he watched. She was barely twenty
two when it all started, Cassie said, the first time

(15:40):
he asked her, she was quote confused, nervous, but I
loved him very much. That love, after being twisted and
manipulated over the years, became another kind of trap. Cassie
described how she felt when Diddy proposed the first freak

(16:02):
off quote, my stomach fell to my butt. Just the
nervousness and confusion in that moment. But she didn't feel
she could say no, going on to say, quote, I
didn't know what no could be or what no could
turn into. She learned quickly that no could lead to blackmail, violence,

(16:28):
and or punishment. Her career, her body, even her clothing.
Everything about her, she said, was under Ditty's control. She
went on to say, quote, I just didn't have much
say in it at the time.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
End quote.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
At one point, the prosecution showed the court steal shots
from the twenty sixteen hotel surveillance video now seen around
the world, where Sean Combs was caught on camera violently
attacking her. Cassie identified the images, saying, quote, we were

(17:10):
having an encounter called a freak off, and I was
leaving there end quote. The implication was clear that this
act of defiance of trying to leave had triggered another
episode of abuse. Asked again why it was so difficult
to just say no to his demands, she said she

(17:33):
feared the violence, and she was also scared that he
would release black male videos from the encounters that he'd filmed.
Quote Sean is a really polarizing person, also really charming.
It's hard to really be able to decide in that
moment what you need when he's telling you what he wants.

Speaker 4 (17:57):
End quote.

Speaker 3 (17:59):
And when she was.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
Asked if she had ever truly known what would happen
if she refused, she answered honestly, saying I didn't know.

Speaker 3 (18:11):
I didn't know what would happen.

Speaker 2 (18:14):
Before this testimony began, a judge had ruled that her husband,
Alex Fine, could sit in the courtroom except during the
section when Cassie would discuss her rape allegation against Diddy
from twenty eighteen. Defense attorneys had claimed they might call
Alex as a witness later in an attempt to challenge

(18:38):
whatever Cassie said, But in these early hours on the stand,
it was Cassie's story alone, one that began when she
was a teenager newly signed to Bad Boy Records. In
two thousand and six, she spoke about how it all
began and how what seemed like a mentor relationship had

(19:01):
turned into something confusing and overwhelming. At her twenty first
birthday party in Las Vegas, she said that Ditty kissed
her in the bathroom of his hotel suite.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
Quote.

Speaker 2 (19:15):
I was just really confused at the time and young
end quote. What followed were invitations to luxury hotel rooms
in New York under the guise of talking about music,
But those meetings introduced her to much more than songwriting.

(19:36):
That's when Cassie testified that she was introduced to the
idea of oral sex. It was a turning point. She
said she was sexually inexperienced, and that Ditty was seventeen
years older, already very experienced in a world that she
had barely stepped into. Later, during a trip to Miami,

(20:00):
after an afternoon of wine, Diddy gave her ecstasy. That night,
she said, they had sex for the first time on
a boat. The drug blurred her judgment. That moment changed
their entire relationship. I felt closer to him. I thought

(20:21):
we were monogamous, she said, but in time she realized
she was wrong. Quote Sean Combs had many girlfriends end quote.
As her relationship with Ditty became more serious, so did
his control. Cassie described how even making the wrong face

(20:44):
could result in being slapped. Next thing, I knew I
was getting hit in the face, she told the jury.
And when she didn't pick up his calls right away,
he wouldn't just blow up her phone. He would involve
his staff, including security and finding her. Even the apartments

(21:06):
he rented for her in New York and La became
part of the trap.

Speaker 3 (21:12):
Quote.

Speaker 2 (21:13):
He had his own set of keys. He made a
lot of unannounced visits.

Speaker 4 (21:19):
End quote.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
In La, their apartments were so close he could reach
her by golf cart. In New York, her place was
only a few blocks from his. At the time, she
admitted that she was quote unquote insanely jealous, but she
chalked it up to being young.

Speaker 4 (21:41):
Quote.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
I didn't get that he was him, as he would say,
I'm puff Daddy, Puff Daddy has many rules and liked
the company of women.

Speaker 4 (21:53):
End quote.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
Yet he told her he.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
Wasn't seeing anyone else, she said. He told her it's
just us, so she stayed. Then came the freak offs.
The first one she said happened when she was twenty two.
It was coordinated, planned, and terrifying. Afterward, she said she

(22:19):
felt dirty, confused, and relieved. Quote he was really happy
with me.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
I did something right.

Speaker 1 (22:28):
End.

Speaker 4 (22:28):
Quote.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
That approval became her motivator. She said she didn't want
to make him angry and didn't want him to regret
quote unquote sharing something so personal, so she went along
with it. What began as an isolated incident became her life.

(22:50):
They happened weekly. Sometimes they lasted four days straight. Cassie
said that she'd spend thirty six to forty eight hours
in these sessions, surrounded by drugs and strangers. She needed
days to recover physically and emotionally. The freakofs became a job.

Speaker 3 (23:13):
She said.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
Her time, her energy, and her body were all consumed
by it. Her biggest dream was to have a music career,
and then when she finally had it, it faded into
the background. Cassie said she recorded hundreds of songs, even
enough for nine albums, but most were never released. Quote

(23:40):
much of my week went toward the freakoffs end quote.
She testified about one night during a freak off at
Ditty's La home, His bodyguard burst in breathless, telling Ditty
that Shug Night, Ditty's longtime rival was nearby. Mels drive

(24:00):
in without hesitation. Diddy threw on black clothes, opened a safe,
and grabbed guns. He and his bodyguard loaded into an suv.

Speaker 4 (24:13):
Quote.

Speaker 2 (24:13):
I was crying. I was screaming, like, please, don't do
anything stupid. I didn't know what they were going to do.
It's like I wasn't even there.

Speaker 4 (24:24):
End quote.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
When Diddy got back, he didn't say what happened, but
he didn't need to. The message was clear that his
world moved fast, recklessly, and she was always caught in
the middle. Each freak off was carefully arranged. Cassie recalled
a blow up pool placed in a hotel room filled

(24:49):
with baby ole. Ten bottles of Johnson's Baby Owl were
often used for each event.

Speaker 4 (24:56):
Quote.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
I was told to get inside in my outfit and shoes.

Speaker 4 (25:02):
End quote.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
It was performative, it was so humiliating, and it was constant.
She admitted to using drugs during every single one of
those encounters. When the prosecutor asked her why, Cassie didn't hesitate.
Quote for me, it was dissociative and numbing. I couldn't

(25:25):
imagine myself doing any of that without having some sort
of buffer or way not to feel it for what
it really was, which was emotionless sex with a stranger
that I didn't really want to have sex with.

Speaker 4 (25:42):
End quote.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
It wasn't just the sex, though, it was the feeling
of being disconnected from her own body, her own will.
Cassie said she was quote unquote heavily objectified during these
organized sessions. She spoke about trying to rush through the acts,
not out of pleasure, but just to reach the park

(26:07):
she could tolerate alone time with Ditty. Even then it
was complicated.

Speaker 3 (26:14):
Quote.

Speaker 2 (26:15):
It was his fantasy. He was controlling the whole situation.
He was directing it.

Speaker 4 (26:22):
End quote.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
Sometimes, she said she was forced to repeat sex acts
with the same escort. Other times there were multiple men.
In one encounter, she identified several of the male escorts
from pictures shown to the jury, some by name, others
only by nickname, Like the punisher. He didn't always stay.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
In the room either.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
Sometimes Ditty watched from another room through FaceTime. Other times,
Cassie testified his staff had acted access to the recordings.
Cassie said she remembered quote unquote feeling insane. When Ditty
began recording the encounters, she said that he explained it

(27:12):
was for him for after Sometimes they'd even rewatch the
footage during sex. She deleted what she could from her
own devices, but the rest recorded on his phones were
stored elsewhere accessible to employees. Then the court saw footage

(27:33):
from the twenty sixteen hotel security video of Ditty dragging
and kicking her near a hotel elevator. Jurors shifted their
eyes from the monitors to Cassie, as if trying to
reconcile the woman on the screen with the one in
the room with them. The defense, meanwhile, began attempting to

(27:57):
push its own narrative. Escort Daniel Philip returned to the stand,
and Ditty's attorneys suggested that Daniel had been infatuated with Cassie,
that he had wanted her for himself. Daniel denied it,
but admitted to being attracted to her. Quote if she

(28:18):
ever gave me the chance to dater, I absolutely would.

Speaker 4 (28:22):
Have end quote.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
Still, he was clear Ditty had directed the encounters. It
wasn't about romance or personal choice, it was about power.
The judge thought about allowing the defense to introduce texts
between Cassie and Ditty about a bar fight she was
allegedly involved in back in Connecticut. The defense argued this

(28:48):
showed that not all of their relationship issues revolved around
freak offs. They wanted to paint a picture of a volatile,
complex relation ship, one that revolved around substance use, jealousy,
and violence on both sides. Meanwhile, the press fought for

(29:11):
access to the graphic material shown only to the jury.
These were images and steals from the videos that Cassie described.
The judge, balancing privacy against the public's right to know,
said that he was leaning toward releasing some of it,
but not yet. Cassie returned to the stand that Wednesday morning.

(29:36):
The courtroom got quiet as prosecutor Emily Johnson resumed her questions.
She began by recalling the twenty sixteen hotel incident in
La Cassie described how Diddy had thrown a vase of
flowers at her, quote, I just remember it coming towards me.

(29:57):
I remember hitting a wall in quote. The aftermath was visible,
with her lips swollen and having a black eye darkening
beneath sunglasses. Photos she had taken during her uber ride
home were shown to the jury. The injuries told their

(30:18):
own story. A friend saw her as soon as she
walked into her apartment. She'd seen Cassie like this before,
black eyes and split lips. Her friend felt rage and
helplessness and called the police, But when the officers arrived,
Cassie couldn't bring herself to speak the truth quote in

(30:42):
that moment, I didn't want to hurt him that way.
I wasn't ready end quote. Even after that night, he
didn't stop. He continued texting and calling. Diddy was telling
her that the police were about to arrest him, and
when she would not pick up the phone, he sent

(31:03):
a message that sounded like a threat, dressed as despair, quote,
You'll never hear my voice again. Two days later, they
were photographed together at a red carpet premiere. Cassie wore
sunglasses to hide the bruises. At one point during the event,

(31:24):
she snuck into a popcorn closet to change clothes so
the bruises on her legs would not be seen. It
was a cycle that she couldn't escape, physically or emotionally.
Diddy had threatened several times to release recordings of the
freak offs. It was a constant source of fear.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
Quote.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
I feared for my career. I feared for my family.
It's just embarrassing. It's horrible and disgusting. No one should
do that to anyone.

Speaker 4 (31:58):
End quote.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
When asked if she ever fought back, Cassie explained that
in the earlier years of their relationship, she tried, but
she quickly learned it only made things worse. Quote it
could escalate the fight more, make it worse for myself.

Speaker 4 (32:17):
End quote.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
As she looked through the photos, Cassie identified thirteen male
sex workers that she said she had recruited for freakofs
in places like Las Vegas, Miami, and la She had
sex with all of them, though she couldn't recall their names.
Some she only knew by nicknames. One was advertised as

(32:43):
the Punisher. Recovery from these sessions became a routine of
its own. IV drips, massages, meals cooked by a private chef,
but nothing seemed to fix what was really wrong. USI
testified that she developed an opioid addiction. Quote opioids made

(33:06):
me feel numb, which is why I relied on them
so heavily.

Speaker 4 (33:11):
End quote.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
She suffered from frequent urinary tract infections and said the
emotional toll left her feeling hollow quote just really empty,
and I felt just gross end quote. And yet after
each one, she still felt like she had fulfilled her purpose,

(33:34):
saying I did my job. There were times when the
freak offs included escorts who brought their girlfriends along. One time,
Cassie said she ended up having sex with an escort
at a sex club. She told Diddy that going to
those places made her uncomfortable, especially seeing him with other women.

(33:58):
She told him, I'm not into seeing the person you're
in love with with somebody else, but he continued to push,
telling her that it would be fun and they wouldn't
stay long. And then there was twenty thirteen. Cassie was
packing for a music festival in Canada where Drake was performing.

(34:22):
There were friends in the room, and that alone seemed
to set something off.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
Ditty scuffled with.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
Them, then turned his anger on her, throwing her into
a bed frame. Cassie told the jury about a moment
she would never forget. It was the night she suffered
a quote unquote pretty significant gash above her left eye
after an outburst from Ditty. His security team rushed her

(34:51):
to a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills. The cut was
deep enough to need stitches. Afterwards, she texted Ditty a
photo of her bloodied face and wrote, so you can
remember his response, you don't know when to stop. You
pushed it too far and continued to push sad. At

(35:17):
the Cannes Film Festival that same year, Cassie was glowing
as she was being photographed, but behind the scenes she
said she had no place to sleep. Diddy, who was
angry and accusing her of taking drugs from him, kicked
her off the yacht they were staying on. She was barefoot.

(35:38):
Her passport and belongings were left behind. Cassie ended up
crashing at a hotel where some of Ditty's employees were staying. Later,
during the flight back to New York, Diddy played a
video on his laptop. It was a recording from one
of the freak offs. Cassie was mortified. She testified that

(36:01):
he warned her that he could embarrass her, ruin her
career and destroy her image. The prosecutor asked, there were
people around you, and she nodded, saying yes. That evening
after they landed and went out to dinner, they had
another freak off. At one point, she had compared herself

(36:24):
to Tina Turner, saying to Ditty, you treat me like ike.
Prosecutors had begun cataloging notable events of violence that Cassie
said she endured. The first she testified came in two
thousand and seven. They had been at dinner with friends
when she caught him flirting. Someone at the table gave

(36:47):
her a look. She just shrugged. Later that night, in
the car, Ditty attacked her. Quote he knocked me around
and he was just hitting me.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
I was shocked.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
End quote.

Speaker 2 (37:02):
Years later, in twenty eleven, Cassie returned home for Christmas
with bruises. She told her mother it was the first
time he'd ever hit her.

Speaker 3 (37:12):
It wasn't.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
The jurors were shown photographs of large, dark bruises across
her lower.

Speaker 3 (37:20):
Back, shoulder, and thigh.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
One of those attacks happened after she started dating the
wrapper kid Cuddy. When did he found out? She said
that he lunged at her with a corkscrew and kicked her.

Speaker 3 (37:35):
In the back.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
Some acts of violence would even spill over into her friendships.
She recalled watching him drag one of her friends back
over the railing of a balcony and throw her onto
patio furniture. Another time, he struck a longtime friend of
hers in the head with a hammer. Quote it just

(38:00):
ended our friendship end quote.

Speaker 3 (38:04):
By the time she.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Ended the relationship in twenty eighteen, Cassie said she was
experiencing full blown PTSD. She blacked out, sometimes sleepwalked, and
her body and mind were in constant survival mode. She
testified that Diddy raped her in her Los Angeles apartment

(38:26):
in twenty eighteen, after she had told him that she
was ending their relationship. She had agreed to meet him
for dinner in Malibu, hoping for closure after a decade
of pain, but he followed her home, he ignored her
please to leave, and then he forced his way in. Later,

(38:49):
she saw him again once more, this time it was
a consensual encounter. When asked why, Cassie said, quote, we'd
been together for over ten years. You just don't turn
feelings off like I didn't hate him. The prosecutor asked,

(39:09):
how many freak offs did you participate in? Impossible to know,
She said, maybe hundreds. By twenty twenty three, it all
came crashing down. She was filming a music video. When
the flashbacks became too much to bear, she went home

(39:30):
and told her husband Alex, quote, you can do this
without me. You don't need me here anymore. She was overwhelmed,
drowning in memories. On the stand, she said quote, I
couldn't take the pain anymore. Cassie walked to the front
door and tried to step into traffic, but her husband

(39:52):
stopped her. Weeks after her emotional collapse, Cassie entered rehab
and began trauma therapy. Her healing journey was only just beginning,
but in November of twenty twenty three, she made a
decision that would change everything. She filed a civil lawsuit

(40:13):
against Sean Ditty Combs, publicly alleging the years of rape, trafficking,
and abuse that she had endured. The case was resolved
the very next day for twenty million dollars. When asked
in court why she chose to testify now, she said, quote,

(40:34):
I can't carry this anymore. I can't carry the shame,
the guilt end quote. On the third day of testimony,
the defense pushed back. The judge began the morning by
denying their request to introduce explicit texts between Cassie and Ditty,
But as cross examination began, Ditty's attorney tried a softer approach.

(41:00):
She asked about the years Cassie had loved Diddy. There
were emails, texts, and affectionate nicknames like pop Pop and
baby Girl. The defense attorney read out warm exchanges between them,
with Cassie saying in one message, I love you so much.

(41:23):
I'm a lucky woman. The contrast was jarring. There had
been three days of graphic, violent testimony that were now
being followed by messages of affection from earlier years. Cassie
acknowledged the complexity of it all quote I had fallen

(41:44):
in love with him and cared about him very much.

Speaker 3 (41:48):
End quote.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
But soon the defense would switch course, going back to
the freak offs. They showed messages where Cassie had appeared
to express excitement. In one exchange, Ditty asked, quote, when
do you want to freak off? Cassie responded, I'm always
ready to freak off. The defense attorney had Cassie read

(42:14):
explicit messages out loud.

Speaker 3 (42:16):
In court, word by word.

Speaker 2 (42:19):
The prosecutor objected repeatedly, but the judge overruled many of them.
Cassie stayed composed, explaining that at the time, she was
trying to please someone that she believed she loved. She
admitted that she was confused, isolated.

Speaker 3 (42:42):
And following Ditty's lead through.

Speaker 2 (42:44):
This sexual world that she had not chosen. As their
relationship progressed, the cracks in their relationship became a little
more obvious even in their written conversations. In an email
from December of two thousand and nine, Cassie begged for
something deeper. Quote in order for me to be more

(43:09):
open with the things that we do in bed, I
need to feel safe, like home, Like this is my
husband and this is the only man that will ever
have this aggressive sexual side of me. When the defense
attorney suggested that Cassie had ruined Diddy's career by making

(43:31):
their private life public, Cassie responded, quote, I could understand
that there was no venom in her voice at all.
She just sounded really exhausted. Cassie testified that early on
she wore wigs and masquerade masks to hide her identity.

Speaker 3 (43:52):
During the freak.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
Offs, neither of them wanted her face to be recognized.
Quote definitely didn't want anyone to know. The encounter itself
was pretty crazy. I really followed his lead on that
because I had never done it before.

Speaker 4 (44:10):
End quote.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
Asked if she thought the freak Offs resembled a swinger lifestyle,
Cassie replied, quote in a sexual way, but they're very different.

Speaker 4 (44:24):
End quote.

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Then came this question, was Sean Combe's an addict? Cassie
answered carefully at first quote, I would say he's an addict.
The defense attorney asked to what, Cassie hesitated, saying success. Then,

(44:49):
when prompted further, she added opiates. The courtroom had barely
settled back in when the defense team hinted that they're
questioning of Cassie might stretch through the end of the week.
With her due date approaching really fast, both sides had
agreed that her testimony should wrap up by then. By now,

(45:13):
Cassie might have to return the following Monday for redirect
Inside the courtroom, did he now fifty five years old?
His once iconic image marked by gray hair and reading glasses,
sat quietly at the defense table. During breaks, he would
chat with attorneys, occasionally turning towards the gallery to acknowledge

(45:37):
reporters with a polite how you're doing. As cross examination
dragged on. There was definitely frustration at certain times. At
one point, when the defense attorney pointed out a text
message without context, Cassie looked back towards the judge and said, quote,

(45:57):
this isn't about what I feel is releive right now right,
because there's a lot we skipped over end quote. Jurors
leaned in to their monitors, reading along as explicit messages
between Cassie and Ditty were displayed. One woman shook her
head slowly during a particularly graphic exchange. The defense painted

(46:22):
a picture of a complicated relationship, not just abuse, but jealousy, codependence,
and moments of warmth. Cassie admitted feeling quote unquote some
jealousy toward kim Porter, the mother of Ditty's children, who
is now deceased, and as a little side note, people

(46:45):
have been wanting an investigation into.

Speaker 3 (46:48):
Her death for quite a few years.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
Cassie remembered the pain of Ditty leaving a freak off
to see kim Porter at another hotel. She recalled holidays
where he was with his family and not with her,
but jealousy went both ways. Cassie said she had a
burner phone to speak with Rapper kid Cuddy and Diddy,

(47:14):
who was threatened by kid Cutty's rising success, was often enraged.
When she was filming a movie in South Africa, Cassie
found messages from Ditty to another woman.

Speaker 3 (47:28):
She blocked him. Briefly, she began dating Michael B. Jordan.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
Cassie sent a text in twenty thirteen that said, quote,
you're making me look like a side piece, and that's
not what I thought I was. Yet, even with the
broken trust did he maintained the double standard. Cassie was
not to see anyone else while he continued his own affairs.

(47:54):
The defense also revisited Cassie's drug use. Cassie acknowledged her struggles,
even admitting that Diddy once told dealers to stop delivering
drugs to her. She said he had even urged her
to get help, though she believed it was more about control.
Quote he only wanted me to do drugs with him,

(48:18):
not with friends end quote. Messages were shown where Cassie
initiated or expressed enthusiasm about.

Speaker 3 (48:27):
The freak offs.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
In twenty thirteen, a text message she wrote said quote,
wish we could have foed before you left, And in
twenty seventeen, she texted quote I love our fos when
we both want it. But Cassie explained that those words
did not tell the full story, the performance, the language,

(48:52):
the willing tone. They were part of the role that
she had to play. Quote I just didn't want to
make him angry. I wanted to do something right end quote.
The defense showed messages exchanged before the now infamous twenty
sixteen freak off that ended with the security camera footage

(49:15):
of Ditty dragging and kicking Cassie in an elevator hallway.
These messages suggested that the couple had taken a quote
unquote bad batch of MDMA. That night, Cassie said again
what she had told the judge before, that this wasn't
the full story, not even close. With each passing hour

(49:41):
in the courtroom, the stakes got higher, and not just
for Ditty but for Cassie. Prosecutors were worried that she
might go into labor with her third child and urged
the judge to make the defense wrap up their questions
before the end of the week. Cross examination resumed Friday morning,

(50:04):
Ditty's defense attorney returned her focus back to that hotel
surveillance video. The jury watched this footage in silence.

Speaker 3 (50:16):
Afterwards, she asked Cassie.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
To read a text that she had written to Ditty
after the incident. In it, Cassie had pleaded for dignity
and humanity quote I am not a rag doll. I'm
somebody's child end quote. His attorney pressed on, showing that
just days later, Cassie had texted Ditty saying we need

(50:42):
a different vibe from Friday. It was one of many
messages where the pair expressed love even in the aftermath
of violence. This was what made the case so layered,
so human. The contrary addictions weren't evidence of lies, they

(51:03):
were evidence of trauma. Cassie told the jury how Diddy
could not stand the idea of her giving any attention
to another man. Even during the periods when they were apart,
He took her phone many times. There was a time
he took her phone when she was speaking to a

(51:24):
football player, and another time was when he suspected her
of dancing with Chris Brown. Cassie denied the latter quote,
he was possessive, but I learned to stop questioning it.
The jury was played a recording from twenty thirteen. It
was Cassie's own voice, weary and desperate. She's heard screaming

(51:50):
at a male friend who claimed to have seen a
video of her performing sex acts.

Speaker 3 (51:56):
She begged him to see the video.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
Then she quote, I have never killed anyone in my life,
but I will kill you.

Speaker 3 (52:06):
The room took.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
In the weight of that threat, not as violence, but
as a snapshot of this person coming undone under the
amount of so much pressure. Cassie confirmed that Didty later
made efforts to keep the video from being released. The
defense shifted gears to twenty twenty three. Cassie was asked

(52:32):
about her stay at a women's treatment center where programs
included sex addiction, love addiction, and sexual compulsivity therapy. Diddy's
attorney pushed the question, had Cassie been treated for any
of these No. Instead, Cassie told the court that she

(52:54):
received neurofeedback therapy. They hooked her brain up to sence
while she watched visual stimuli that helped regulate her brain waves.

Speaker 3 (53:06):
Quote.

Speaker 2 (53:07):
It was to help me process trauma end quote. She
also underwent em DR therapy, a widely used treatment for PTSD.
Cassie described it like this, quote, you go back into
a memory, a moment where you couldn't escape a room.

(53:29):
But through therapy, you learn how to experience it differently,
and you escape end quote, and then she said the
final break came in August of twenty eighteen. She saw
a picture of Diddy with another woman. He'd been seeing
this woman during the last stretch of their relationship. For Cassie,

(53:52):
that was it. She refused to keep going through all
the pain. By the end of it all, after years
of alleged abuse, surveillance, coercion, and compliance, Cassie found herself
staring at the remnants of what had once been a dream,

(54:13):
a dream.

Speaker 3 (54:14):
Of music, love and success.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
A dream that came true when she was barely out
of her teenage years and a man nearly two decades
older made her feel seen, only to make her feel invisible.
In the picture, Diddy stood beside another woman, a woman
that Cassie had long suspected never really left the picture.

(54:40):
She texted him shortly after, saying, quote, I just don't
trust anymore. That last shot put the nail in the coffin,
and she told him that he lied to her, that
she never really went away. That moment wasn't just heartbreaking,
it was also an eye opener Cassie said it was

(55:03):
then she knew she had to leave, and this time
for good. Soon after, she began dating the man who
would become her husband, Alex Fine. On the stand, the
defense attorney pressed Cassie, trying to poke holes in her story.
Quote you didn't hate him then, and you don't hate

(55:26):
him now. Cassie answered with a strong calmness, saying I
don't hate him.

Speaker 3 (55:34):
Do you still love him? She said? I have love
for the past. What it was.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
Cassie acknowledged that she and Diddi had consensual sex after
the alleged rape, and that their messages some sweet, some
sexual continued long after their official breakup. His attorney tried
to cast out, pointing out inconsistencies between Cassie's twenty twenty

(56:02):
three statements and her current testimony. The defense argued that
the rape was never mentioned in text, that Cassie continued
to show affection. Cassie didn't deny it. She simply told
the truth as she understood it, as complicated as.

Speaker 3 (56:20):
It is and was. She denied filing the.

Speaker 2 (56:24):
Lawsuit for financial gain. Cassie explained the twenty million dollar
settlement was not a payday, but that it was a reckoning.
She said her family's temporary move to the East Coast
had nothing to do with money. It was about making
space and healing and moving on. The defense showed Cassie's

(56:46):
Instagram posts from May of twenty twenty four that followed
the CNN broadcast of the security footage that showed Diddy
attacking her. She wrote, domestic violence is the issue. It
was an attempt to reframe her own lived experience and
truth on that stand and in her prior lawsuit, an

(57:10):
attempt to say that this was quote unquote just abuse
and not sex trafficking and not racketeering. But to Cassie
and to those who listened closely, the line between emotional
imprisonment and physical violence, between isolation and systemic exploitation, had

(57:33):
always been blurred. The defense's final move was to bring
it back to the intimate text messages, messages where Cassie
had appeared enthusiastic about the freak Offs, messages that the
defense tried to use again in an attempt to paint
her as a willing participant in her own humiliation. On redirect,

(57:56):
prosecutor Emily Johnson handed the rest of the story back
to Cassie Cassie cried as she recalled being beaten during
those encounters. She said, quote, it made me feel worthless,
like dirt, like I was nothing.

Speaker 4 (58:14):
End quote.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
She admitted that there had been a time that she
was more open to exploring those sexual experiences with Diddy,
but things only got worse as time went on. The drugs,
the pressure, the threat of being exposed, the blackmail, and
the bruises.

Speaker 4 (58:33):
Quote.

Speaker 2 (58:34):
I was worried for my safety. I worried for my
career end quote. She worried she would never get out
of this alive. Cassie said that she was expecting to
receive a ten million dollar settlement from the Intercontinental Hotel
in la where she was assaulted in twenty sixteen. The

(58:57):
hotel knew, and the silence had a Now in a
federal courtroom, she explained why she had finally come forward.
Quote I can't carry this anymore. I can't carry the shame,
the guilt end quote. There's a question that seems to

(59:17):
come up under nearly every story of domestic abuse. Why
didn't she just leave? Why would she go back? And
if you've ever read the comments sections under posts or
articles where a woman goes public about what happened to her,
You know how quickly the unsympathetic and downright heartless comments

(59:40):
pile up. People jump to blame her, not the abuser her.
But let's get into the truth backed by neuroscience. I
condensed this the best I could, because this part could
have been another episode in itself, really dug into the

(01:00:01):
science and had so much written that I might still
start a blog on the website and post it there
at some point, just to have that piece out there
if you'd like to read it, or if someone even
stumbles across it who might need it. I'll also have
all the links in the show notes to the sources
that have the information that I've been studying and learning about,

(01:00:24):
so that way you can do some research when you
have some downtime if you'd like to. The science of
it all makes it clear that leaving is not as
simple as packing a bag and walking out the door.
Abuse changes the brain literally, physically, chemically, and emotionally. It

(01:00:47):
rewires how you think, how you feel, how you remember,
and how you react to danger. When someone experiences domestic violence,
especially over a long time, the brain goes into a
constant state of survival. Most of us have heard of

(01:01:08):
fight or flight. But there's also another response that's just
as real freeze. The brain becomes hyper focused on staying safe,
not escaping. The amygdala, which is the part of the
brain that acts like a smoke alarm, becomes overactive. It's

(01:01:30):
always on high alert, always scanning for danger. Even in
moments that are quiet. That part of the brain learns
that any wrong move could trigger violence. So to survive,
victims often become compliant, silent, and still. It's not weakness,

(01:01:52):
its adaptation. It's the brain protecting the body the only
way it knows how. At the same time, the hippocampus,
which helps you form and store memories, actually shrinks. That's
the part of the brain that helps you make sense
of what's happening. But abuse throws everything into confusion. The

(01:02:17):
trauma scrambles the memory, and victims often feel like they're
in a fog, unsure of what happened first, what was real,
and what was said. That's not a coincidence, it's how
the brain responds to repeated trauma. Then there's the prefrontal cortex,

(01:02:38):
which is the part of your brain that handles decision making,
problem solving, and impulse control. Under chronic abuse, It weakens
that makes it harder for someone to plan their escape
or even imagine life outside of that relationship. It becomes

(01:02:59):
in incredibly difficult to see choices. Clearly every option feels dangerous,
even hopeless. Something that people rarely talk about is how
domestic violence is a major cause of TBI traumatic brain injury. Yes,

(01:03:20):
just like with football players or car crash survivors, head injuries,
often from being hit, shoved, or strangled, are incredibly common
in abusive relationships. NPR recently reported that domestic violence is
now one of the leading causes of TBI among women.

(01:03:44):
These aren't just bruises or black eyes. We're talking about
long term neurological damage. In many cases, women are walking
around with undiagnosed concussions or memory loss, struggling with light sensitivity,
balance issues, and chronic headaches, and no one's asking why not? Doctors,

(01:04:09):
not police, not the court system, and definitely not the
people in the comments section. The Brain Injury Association of
America has pushed to raise awareness around this because the
signs of brain injury and abuse victims are often misinterpreted.

(01:04:30):
Survivors might seem quote unquote off, confused, anxious, or inconsistent
in their stories when what they really need is medical care,
not judgment. So when you ask why didn't she leave,
remember her brain might be literally injured. Her ability to

(01:04:53):
think clearly, to remember, and to act might be compromised.
She might be in a trauma bond where abuse and
affection are tangled up so tightly that it's hard to
tell which is which. She might be terrified, dissociated, or

(01:05:14):
just desperately trying to make it through the day without
getting hurt again. The real question is not why didn't
she leave, it's what happened to her brain that made
leaving seem so impossible. Let's ask ourselves what can we
do to create a world where she never had to

(01:05:38):
survive this in the first place. Before we close, I
want to acknowledge something important again if this was missed
during the beginning. The effects of domestic abuse on the
brain are devastating, absolutely regardless of gender. But studies have
found that the neurological changes cause by trauma can look

(01:06:01):
different in the female brain versus the male brain. That
doesn't mean men don't suffer.

Speaker 3 (01:06:08):
In fact, I've done so many.

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
Episodes that I hope you go back and listen to
that are about men who were the victims or survivors
of their partners being violent and or abusive. In many forms,
it only means their brains may react or recover in
different ways, and I would like to do an episode

(01:06:33):
in the near future where we explore what trauma does
to the male brain. Today's focus was on the female
brain because the victim blaming in this case was directed
at a woman, a woman who had been hurt, judged,
and then shamed for not leaving, no matter the gender
of the victim. Though the blame never belongs on anyone

(01:06:57):
else but the abuser. Abuse changes the brain. It rewires
how a person thinks, remembers, and feels safe in the world,
and no one, no one should ever be faulted for
doing what they had to do to survive. Thank you

(01:07:18):
so much for listening to this episode and until next week, friends,
stay safe and take care.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
Thank you for listening to this episode. As we close out,
let us not forget. Awareness is our greatest defense in
a world that can be dark and grim. Vigilance is
our beacon of hope when it comes to the cases
we have explored together that have remained unsolved. If you
happen to hold a piece of the puzzle, dare to
step forward. As author Lois McMaster bouge Hold once said,

(01:07:50):
the dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a
duty of the living to do so for them. Until
we reconvene, my friends, stay vigilant and stay informed.

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184. Hijacked: Cassie Ventura’s Testimony and the Neuroscience of Survival

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