Cassie accuses Diddy of rape, abuse and intercourse trafficking. A authorized skilled breaks down the ‘vital’ and what to anticipate within the case.
Cassie, the singer who appeared alongside music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs at occasions for years whereas they have been in a relationship and she or he was signed to his Dangerous Boy document label, has alleged in a lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal District Court docket in Manhattan, that she endured years of abuse and was raped by him.
These are explosive allegations in opposition to one of many largest names in music, which he has denied. (Extra about that beneath.)
Authorized affairs journalist Meghann Cuniff posted the complete doc on X, previously often called Twitter. It features a set off warning about “extremely graphic info of a sexual nature.”
Here is a breakdown of what is going on on.
Who’s Cassie?
Casandra Ventura, 37, is a singer, mannequin and actress who met Combs in late 2005/early 2006. She was 19 and he was 37, already a profitable musician and the pinnacle of his personal influential document label, Dangerous Boy Data. He signed {the teenager} and, in 2006, she charted with the singles “Me & U” and “Lengthy Approach 2 Go.”
By 2007, Combs had cut up from his then-partner, Kim Porter (who died in 2018), with whom he shares 4 youngsters, and he and Ventura reportedly coupled up. The 2 appeared to substantiate their relationship in a 2012 public look.
Whereas they by no means publicly introduced an engagement, hypothesis swirled after he posted a picture of a diamond ring in 2014 that she was later noticed sporting. In August 2016, TMZ reported that Cassie and Diddy had a combat in Beverly Hills after she tried to interrupt up with him — her mother purportedly known as the cops — which led to rumors they’d cut up. Nevertheless, a supply subsequently told Us Weekly that they remained a pair.
However in October 2018, her consultant stated in a press release to the journal that Ventura and Combs have been “certainly now not collectively and have not been for months.”
What are Cassie allegations in opposition to Combs?
Ventura says that Combs, who has additionally passed by the nicknames Puff Daddy and P. Diddy, managed, abused and sexually trafficked her. She says he gave her medicine and would each beat her and pressure her to have intercourse with different males whereas he filmed the encounters. As well as, she alleges that he raped her at her dwelling, after having compelled his manner in, in 2018.
This started a number of years after they met in 2005, in response to the lawsuit. He launched her to “a life-style of extreme alcohol and substance abuse and required her to acquire illicit prescriptions to fulfill his personal addictions,” then “compelled Ms. Ventura to have interaction in intercourse acts with male intercourse employees whereas masturbating and filming the encounters.”
He was “susceptible to uncontrollable rage” all through their relationship and “steadily beat Ms. Ventura savagely,” the go well with alleges. “These beatings have been witnessed by Mr. Combs’s workers and workers of Dangerous Boy Leisure and Mr. Combs’s associated companies, however nobody dared to talk up in opposition to their horrifying and ferocious boss.”
Ventura launched a press release: “After years in silence and darkness, I’m lastly prepared to inform my story, and to talk up on behalf of myself and for the good thing about different girls who face violence and abuse of their relationships.”
Her lawyer stated that the “I will Be Lacking You” rapper tried to repay his shopper moderately than take care of the lawsuit.
“Mr. Combs provided Ms. Ventura eight figures to silence her and stop the submitting of this lawsuit,” her legal professional Doug Wigdor told Deadline. “She rejected his efforts and determined to offer a voice to all lady that suffer in silence. Ms. Ventura needs to be applauded for her bravery.”
And what does Child Cudi must do with all this?
Ventura alleges in her lawsuit that whereas she was courting the “Day ‘n’ Nite” rapper in 2012, Diddy stated he would blow up Cudi’s automotive. In accordance with the lawsuit, the automotive “exploded in his driveway” round that point.
A spokesman for Cudi confirmed the story to the New York Occasions: “That is all true.”
The lawsuit says additional that Combs “hit her a number of occasions, after which kicked her within the again as she tried to expire the door” when he discovered emails the 2 had exchanged.
What’s Diddy saying?
The rap mogul’s lawyer Benjamin Brafman flatly denies Ventura’s allegations. He contends that his shopper is definitely the sufferer right here — of extortion.
“For the previous 6 months, Mr. Combs, has been subjected to Ms. Ventura’s persistent demand of $30 million, below the specter of writing a harmful ebook about their relationship, which was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail,” Brafman stated, per the Hollywood Reporter. “Regardless of withdrawing her preliminary menace, Ms. Ventura has now resorted to submitting a lawsuit riddled with baseless and outrageous lies, aiming to tarnish Mr. Combs’s fame and in search of a pay day.”
How sturdy is her case?
Lawyer Judie Saunders, a former prosecutor who leads the intercourse abuse division at ASK LLP, tells Yahoo Leisure that “the allegations do carry weight.”
She factors to lawsuit being filed below New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which permits individuals who say they skilled sexual assault to take authorized motion despite the fact that the statute of limitations has expired. That legislation expires subsequent week.
“I might say that the truth that this younger girl knew that this can be the final time that she has to talk out due to this closing window … very a lot falls in step with [other] survivors,” says Saunders, who helps eliminating such statutes of limitations altogether. “The humiliation and the disgrace. They do not need to communicate out, they do not need to say something. And it does take bravery in gentle of that one, simply generally to talk out in opposition to sexual violence, however then to talk to … a robust particular person about these sexual allegations. So I might say that they’re vital.”
Saunders says circumstances like this typically come all the way down to who the general public believes, as a result of nobody else is aware of what went on in a personal setting. Who can get to the press first? Right here, although, there are incidents that occurred in entrance of others, which Saunders believes will strengthen the case in opposition to the music icon.
Will the case go to trial?
Saunders factors out that there is been a development of defendants, even when there’s “overwhelming proof” in opposition to them, hitting again with their very own allegations, even defamation lawsuits.
“There’s a good likelihood that this will not settle. If the attorneys take what I see as a development to be extra aggressive and to go after the accuser, they positively can have the assets to dig up dust, if there’s any,” Saunders says, “and to actually intimidate, legally intimidate, publicly intimidate and have interaction their PR machines to intimidate these accusers.”
This concern of retaliation is commonly what retains victims of sexual abuse from taking authorized motion sooner, she says.
