Defense concedes Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs had violent outbursts but says no federal crimes occurred

NEW YORK — The public knew Sean “Diddy” Combs as a larger-than-life music and business mogul, but in private he used violence and threats to coerce women into drug-fueled sexual encounters that he recorded, a prosecutor said Monday in opening statements at Combs’ sex trafficking trial.

“This is Sean Combs,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Emily Johnson told the Manhattan jury as she pointed at Combs, who leaned back in his chair. ”During this trial you are going to hear about 20 years of the defendant’s crimes.”

Those crimes, she said, included kidnapping, arson, drugs, sex offenses, bribery and obstruction.

Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos, though, described the trial as a misguided overreach by prosecutors, saying that although her client could be violent, the state was trying to turn consenting sex between adults into a prostitution and sex trafficking case.

“Sean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case. This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money,” Geragos told the jury of eight men and four women. “There has been a tremendous amount of noise around this case over the past year. It is time to cancel that noise.”

Geragos conceded that Combs’ violent outbursts, often fueled by alcohol, jealousy and drugs, might have warranted domestic violence charges, but not sex trafficking and racketeering counts. She told jurors they might think Combs’ is a “jerk” and might not condone his “kinky sex,” but “he’s not charged with being mean. He’s not charged with being a jerk.”

With the trial’s first witness, Israel Florez, prosecutors went right to proof of violence by showing footage of Combs kicking and dragging the R&B singer Cassie, his longtime girlfriend, on the floor outside a Los Angeles hotel’s elevators in March 2016.

After CNN aired video of the attack last year, Combs apologized and said he was “disgusted” by his actions.

Florez, who worked hotel security in 2016 but is now a Los Angeles police officer, said he knew who Combs was when he encountered him sitting by the hotel’s elevators as he responded to a report of a woman in distress.

He said he encountered Combs by the elevators in only a white towel and slouching in a chair “with a blank stare ... like a devilish stare, just looking at me.”

He said that as he was escorting Cassie and Combs to their room, she indicated she wanted to leave and Combs told her: “You’re not going to leave.” Florez said he told Combs: “If she wants to leave, she’s going to leave.”

Cassie left, and Florez said Combs called out while holding a stack of money with a $100 bill on top, telling him, “Don’t tell nobody.” Florez said he considered it a bribe and told Combs, “I don’t want your money. Just go back into your room.”

Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura, was expected to testify Tuesday.

The second witness called, Daniel Phillip, said he was a professional stripper who was paid $700 to $6,000 to have sex with Cassie while Combs watched and gave instructions, with the first encounter in 2012. He said he stopped meeting with them after he saw Combs throw a bottle at her and then drag her by her hair into a bedroom as she screamed.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Xavier Donaldson tried to attack Phillip’s credibility, mocking the slogan of the male review show company Phillip worked for and its slogan that it “provided the ultimate ladies night experience.”

Combs watched Monday’s proceedings attentively. When he entered the courtroom, he hugged his lawyers and gave a thumbs-up to family and friends. The case has drawn intense public interest. The line to get into the courthouse stretched down the block. Combs’ mother and some of his children were escorted past the crowd and into the building.

Combs, 55, pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment that could result in a 15-year-to-life prison sentence if he is convicted. Since his September arrest, he has been held at a federal jail in Brooklyn.

Lawyers for the three-time Grammy winner say prosecutors are wrongly trying to make a crime out of a party-loving lifestyle that may have been indulgent, but not illegal.

Prosecutors say Combs coerced women into drugged-up group sexual encounters he called “freak-offs,” “wild king nights” or “hotel nights,” then kept them in line by choking, hitting, kicking and dragging them, often by the hair.

In her opening, Johnson said Cassie was far from the only woman Combs beat and sexually exploited.

The prosecutor said Combs last year brutally beat another woman — identified only as Jane — when she confronted him about enduring years of freak-offs in dark hotel rooms while he took other paramours on date nights and trips around the globe.

The sex parties are central to Combs’ sexual abuse, prosecutors say. Combs’ company paid for the parties, held in hotel rooms across the U.S. and overseas, and his employees staged the rooms with his preferred lighting, extra linens and lubricant, Johnson said. Combs compelled women, including Cassie, to take drugs and engage in sexual activity with male escorts while he gratified himself and sometimes recorded them, Johnson said.

Combs would beat Cassie over the smallest slights, such as leaving a freak-off without his permission or taking too long in the bathroom, Johnson said. Combs threatened to ruin Cassie’s singing career by publicly releasing videos of her sexually involved with male escorts, the prosecutor said. “Her livelihood depended on keeping him happy,” Johnson said.

Combs sat expressionless as Johnson described what she said was a pattern of violence, sexual abuse and blackmail.

Cassie sued Combs in 2023, and the lawsuit was settled within hours, but it touched off a law enforcement investigation and was followed by dozens of lawsuits making similar claims.

Geragos claimed Combs’ accusers were motivated by money. She told jurors that Cassie demanded $30 million when she sued him, and another witness will acknowledge demanding $22 million in a breach-of-contract lawsuit.

“I want you to ask yourself, how many millions of reasons does this witness ... have to lie?” she said.

Geragos also conceded that Combs is extremely jealous and “has a bad temper,” telling the jury that he sometimes got angry and lashed out when he drank alcohol or “did the wrong drugs.” But, she said, “Domestic violence is not sex trafficking.”

The Associated Press doesn’t generally identify people who say they are victims of sexual abuse unless they come forward publicly, as Cassie has done.

The trial is expected to last two months.

Sisak and Neumeister write for the Associated Press. AP writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Conn., contributed to this report.