MANHATTAN, NEW YORK: Sean Combs, better known as Puff Daddy, Diddy, and Love, has been one of the most popular names in hip-hop for decades.
The artist was sued in federal court on Thursday, November 16, 2023, by Cassie, an R&B singer who was once signed to his label and has accused the rapper of rape and continual physical abuse over a decade.
Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura and who had long been Diddy's romantic companion, claims in the suit filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, New York, that not long after they met in 2005 when she was 19, he began a pattern of manipulation and abuse that included controlling her with drugs, beating her, and pushing her to have sex with a series of male prostitutes while he filmed the sexual encounters, according to The New York Times.
According to the lawsuit, at the end of their relationship in 2018, Diddy forced his way into her home and raped her. The suit claimed that the rapper was “prone to uncontrollable rage,” per Fortune.
Cassie said in her statement to the court, “After years in silence and darkness, I am finally ready to tell my story, and to speak up on behalf of myself and for the benefit of other women who face violence and abuse in their relationships.”
In response to these allegations, Ben Brafman, a lawyer for Diddy said, “Mr Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations.”
Brafman alleged, “For the past six months, Mr Combs has been subjected to Ms Ventura’s persistent demand of $30 million, under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship, which was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail.”
The lawyer also claimed, “Despite withdrawing her initial threat, Ms Ventura has now resorted to filing a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr Combs’s reputation and seeking a payday.”
What does Cassie’s lawsuit entail?
Douglas Wigdor, Cassie’s lawyer, said that the parties of the victim and the defendant had spoken before the suit was filed.
“Mr. Combs offered Ms. Ventura eight figures to silence her and prevent the filing of this lawsuit,” he said. “She rejected his efforts.”
The lawsuit portrays Diddy as a violent individual who, in addition to frequently assaulting Cassie, ordered her to carry his handgun in her purse. The suit also implies that he was responsible for blowing up a rival suitor rapper Kid Cudi’s vehicle.
According to the claim, Diddy once hung Cassie’s friend over a balcony from the 17th floor of a hotel.
The court documents further allege that others who worked with Diddy assisted him in controlling Cassie, at times by threatening her with retaliation — such as silencing her music if she did not heed his commands — or by assisting him in the concealment of his activities.
Diddy and several of his affiliated firms are named as defendants in the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.
Per Cassie’s suit, she was quickly drawn in by Diddy's jet-set lifestyle after meeting him and signing with Bad Boy Records, which released her debut album in 2006.
She alleged that he soon proceeded to exercise an excessive level of control over her life. He paid for her car, apartments, and clothing, and even had access to her personal medical data, in addition to controlling her career.
The suit specifies, that the results of an MRI scan she had — for memory loss caused by drug use or a beating she said she had suffered at the hands of Diddy — were sent straight to him rather than to Cassie herself.
Based on the lawsuit, the rapper allegedly gave Cassie "copious amounts of drugs," including ecstasy and ketamine, and urged her to consume them, and he frequently grew violent, beating her "multiple times each year."
The lawsuit also explains the reasons behind ‘Me & U’ singer not going to the police earlier, noting that she was afraid it would "merely give Mr Combs another excuse to hurt her."
To back her claim, the suit recounts an encounter in 2009 when Diddy allegedly became furious on noticing Cassie interacting with another talent agent in Los Angeles.
The suit further claimed that he then shoved her into a car and repeatedly kicked her in the face, causing her to bleed.
According to the lawsuit, Diddy then had his staff transport her to a hotel room for a week of rest. The suit says that even though she requested to return home to her parents, Diddy refused.
The suit noted that after witnessing the violent consequences of rejecting Diddy as well as the extent to which he would isolate her from her support network, "Ms Ventura felt that saying 'no' to Mr Combs would cost her something — her family, her friends, her career, or even her life."
Despite her attempts to leave Diddy, the suit claims, he dispatched employees to entice her back.
The 'Don't Play It Safe' singer also claimed that in early 2012, Diddy became so enraged over her dating rapper Kid Cudi that he threatened to blow up the musician's car. “Around that time,” noted the lawsuit, “Kid Cudi's car exploded in his driveway.”
Kid Cudi corroborated Cassie's report of his automobile exploding through a spokesperson, affirming that it is “all true.”
The suit claims that a few years into Cassie's involvement with Diddy, he began pressuring her “to engage in a fantasy of his called ‘voyeurism,’” in which she was forced to have sex with several male prostitutes while the rapper watched, masturbated, took pictures, and even recorded videos.
Diddy allegedly referred to these encounters as “freak offs,” and they entailed costumes such as masquerade masks and lingerie.
This transpired for years, taking place in high-end hotels across the United States and in Diddy’s residences. According to the lawsuit, he directed Cassie to browse escort service websites for male sex workers.
Cassie's suit notes that she took drugs at these parties, reasoning that they “allowed her to disassociate during these horrific encounters.”
The lawsuit states that Cassie would subsequently delete videos recorded on her phone from similar encounters, but Diddy disclosed to her that he still had access to those videos and once forced her to watch a video she believed she had deleted on a flight.
In one example, after a “freak off” at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016, an inebriated Diddy allegedly punched Cassie in the face, leaving her with a black eye.
According to the court complaint, he fell asleep and she attempted to leave the room, but he woke up and followed her into the hallway, where he smashed glass vases at her, throwing glass throughout the corridor.
The incident was captured on the hotel's security cameras, but the suit claims Diddy paid the hotel $50,000 for the footage.
Cassie’s lawsuit also included multiple accounts of her failed attempts to escape Diddy’s control.
The lawsuit claims that, when Mr. Combs and Ms. Ventura met for dinner in 2018, he forced his way into her apartment and raped her while she “repeatedly said ‘no’ and tried to push him away.”
Cassie then left him for good and married personal trainer Alex Fine the following year and now has two children with him. Her association with Bad Boy Records ended in 2019, according to the suit.
According to the lawsuit, Cassie became a victim of sex trafficking as a result of numerous sexual encounters in several different locations.
Diddy has been accused of sexual battery, sexual assault, and violating New York City’s gender-motivated violence law.
Cassie’s case, like other recent sexual assault lawsuits, is being brought under the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law that allows victims of sexual abuse to pursue civil suits after the statute of limitations has passed. The one-year period for filing cases under this law expires next week.
That law is highlighted in the 'King of Hearts' singer's complaint, and she acknowledged its significance in a statement.
"With the expiration of New York's Adult Survivors Act fast approaching," she went on to say, "it became clear that this was an opportunity to speak up about the trauma I have experienced and that I will be recovering from for the rest of my life."
Casandra Ventura's case is the most recent in the multitude of sexual assault legal complaints filed recently against well-known men in the music industry, including Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, producer L.A. Reid, and Neil Portnow, the former president of the Grammy Awards.
X stood with Cassie as claims of Diddy's abuse surface
Netizens were not at all fazed by men in power doing terrible things, with many feeling that the claims are very much plausible considering Diddy's history. A person reported the news of the lawsuit on X, writing, "Cassie just filed a lawsuit against Diddy for years of abuse, sexual assault, violence and sex trafficking among other disturbing claims," alongside a picture of the two.
One X user commented, "Diddy just one of those people, you believe everything they say about him"
Another user wrote, "If you look at the way he publically controlled cassies career after she signed to him and they way he held her back from releasing music etc. it doesnt surprise me that he would have been controlling her in darker ways behind the scenes. We stand with cassie."
Another angry X user alleged, "He been r4ping men, women, & kids for decades. get rid of him!"
One user remarked, "People go through horrific things behind closed doors and you wouldn’t know a damn thing."
A fifth person wrote, "Nah some of this stuff is unfathomable, lock him up forever bruh"
Another further condemned the rapper, alleging, "Proud of her for filing the lawsuit & speaking up. Diddy is such a predator. "
One X user wrote: "This is terrifying, I can’t imagine what she went through for years."
An eighth person simply said, "Justice For Cassie."
