Casandra “Cassie” Ventura has damaged her silence almost one week after the 2016 resort surveillance video of her ex-boyfriend Sean “Diddy” Combs assaulting her surfaced.
“The outpouring of affection has created a spot for my youthful self to settle and really feel secure now, however that is solely the start,” she wrote on Instagram on Could 23. “Home violence is THE challenge. It broke me all the way down to somebody I by no means thought I’d turn out to be. With a variety of laborious work, I’m higher right this moment, however I’ll at all times be recovering from my previous.”
The singer referred to as for folks displaying their help now to “open your coronary heart to believing victims the primary time.”
Kelly Rowland, Taraji P. Henson, Chloe Bailey and Jeannie Mai have been among the many many stars to point out help for Ventura within the feedback. Her husband, Alex High-quality, wrote: “Love you a lot, excellent instance for our daughters.”
Ventura accused Combs of bodily abuse, rape and intercourse trafficking in a November lawsuit that was rapidly settled. The rap mogul, who denied the allegations, didn’t admit to any wrongdoing as a part of the settlement. After the video was revealed by CNN on Could 17, Combs — who was seen kicking, hitting and dragging Ventura after she exited their resort room within the now-closed InterContinental Lodge in Century Metropolis, Calif. — posted an apology taking “full duty” for the assault and calling his conduct “inexcusable.”
Her authorized crew dismissed his apology. “When Cassie and a number of different ladies got here ahead, he denied all the things and steered that his victims have been searching for a payday,” stated Meredith Firetog, one in all her attorneys. “That he was solely compelled to ‘apologize’ as soon as his repeated denials have been confirmed false reveals his pathetic desperation, and nobody shall be swayed by his disingenuous phrases.”
Over the previous week, Combs — who had two of his mansions raided by feds in March amid a intercourse trafficking investigation — has seen his authorized troubles escalate. Former mannequin Crystal McKinney alleged in a brand new lawsuit that he drugged and sexually assaulted her in 2003.
Since’s Ventura’s lawsuit final 12 months, 4 others have filed civil lawsuits in opposition to him, alleging sexual assault, intercourse trafficking and different claims. His lawyer has vowed to “proceed to combat each single day to clear his title.”
Pending lawsuits in opposition to Combs
It’s been almost two months since Combs had two of his houses raided amid a federal intercourse trafficking investigation. Whereas there are not any updates on that case, it’s removed from his solely authorized disaster.
After Ventura — who dated Combs for a decade earlier than they break up in 2018 — filed and settled her explosive lawsuit in opposition to him, two different ladies slapped him with civil fits that month, additionally below New York Grownup Survivors Act. The ASA allowed individuals who stated they skilled sexual assault a one-year window to take authorized motion although the statute of limitations has expired.
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Plaintiff Joi Dickerson-Neal, in a lawsuit filed Nov. 23, 2023, accused Combs of drugging and raping her in New York Metropolis in 1991 when she was a school pupil. She additionally accused him of participating in revenge porn, filming the assault and sharing it with folks within the music trade. In April, Combs filed a movement to dismiss the intercourse trafficking allegation within the case.
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The identical day Dickerson-Neal’s case was filed, Liza Gardner additionally sued Combs, alleging that he and R&B singer-songwriter Aaron Corridor took turns raping her and a pal after they met at an 1990 occasion on the New York workplace of MCA Data. Gardner was 16 on the time. The lawsuit was amended in March with Gardner claiming she was “bodily compelled into having intercourse with Combs in opposition to her will.’”
A fourth lawsuit was filed in December below New York’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Safety Regulation, giving survivors of alleged gender-motivated violence, together with sexual abuse, till March 1, 2025, to make claims.
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The plaintiff, recognized as Jane Doe, filed a go well with in opposition to Combs alleging intercourse trafficking and gang rape in 2003, when she was a 17. She claimed within the Dec. 6 submitting that Combs and two different males plied her with “copious quantities of medication and alcohol,” then raped her in a toilet at Combs’s studio.
Combs issued a blanket denial of the allegations, saying he “watched folks attempt to assassinate my character, destroy my repute and my legacy,” however “sufficient is sufficient.” A fifth lawsuit adopted in early 2024.
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On February 26, Combs was sued by Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones, a producer on his 2023 album, for sexual harassment and assault. Jones claimed he was drugged, waking up bare and disoriented in mattress with Combs and two intercourse employees. He additionally claimed to have witnessed Combs and others “participating in severe criminality,” together with intercourse trafficking underage intercourse employees and drugging them. Jones amended his lawsuit in March eradicating some defendants in addition to including Cuba Gooding Jr. Combs referred to as Jones’s lawsuit “pure fiction.”
After the video of Combs assaulting Ventura was revealed, a fifth lady sued him.
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On Could 21, McKinney filed a lawsuit within the Southern District of New York below the state’s Victims of Gender-Motivated Violence Safety Regulation, alleging that Combs drugged and sexually assaulted her at his New York Metropolis studio in 2003. McKinney, who was a 22-year-old mannequin on the time, additionally claims Combs “blackballed” her within the modeling trade.
What’s occurred to Diddy because the raids
Virtually precisely one month after Jones’s lawsuit, Combs’s residences have been raided. Right here’s all the things that’s occurred since.
March 25: Diddy’s houses in L.A. and on Star Island in Miami Seashore, Fla., are raided associated to a intercourse trafficking investigation. The only real arrest is of Diddy’s assistant, Brendan Paul, for possession of cocaine and marijuana. Jones’s lawsuit alleged that Paul was Combs’s “mule” who acquires and distributes his medicine and weapons.
March 26: Diddy’s lawyer slams Homeland Safety’s “gross overuse of military-level drive.” He calls it an “unprecedented ambush” and “witch hunt,” saying it “results in a untimely rush to judgment” and that there “has been no discovering of legal or civil legal responsibility with any of those allegations.”
April 2: Misa Hylton — the mom of Combs’s son Justin, who was at his father’s California house when it was raided — shares footage from the raids and rips the federal government’s “overtly militarized drive.”
April 3: It’s reported that Ventura is cooperating with feds.
April 5: Diddy shares a clip from his outdated music video for “Victory” by which he evades the police.
Could 12: Diddy’s son Christian, additionally a defendant in Jones’s civil lawsuit, releases a “diss” monitor titled “Choose a Aspect,” which references the raids.
Could 15: Combs posts on Instagram: “Time tells fact.”
Could 16: Combs’s alleged drug mule Paul takes a plea deal to keep away from jail time.
Could 17: CNN releases a 2016 resort surveillance video by which Combs is hanging and kicking Cassie. The Los Angeles DA says Combs can’t be prosecuted.
Could 19: Combs apologizes two days after the assault video is made public.
Up to date, Could 23, 2024, 10:15 a.m. ET: This story has been up to date to incorporate Ventura talking out.
