Combs' ex-girlfriend returns to witness stand

Defense lawyers for Sean Combs have another stab Friday at the testimony of the music mogul's former girlfriend Casandra Ventura, who will return to the stand for a fourth day of marathon questioning in his sex trafficking trial.

Defense lawyer Anna Estevao spent much of Thursday pointing to loving moments between the couple, as well as implying that drug addiction played a key role in Combs's rage that Ventura has testified left her systematically battered.

Ventura said she and Combs -- whose various stage names include "Diddy" -- both suffered from addiction to opioid drugs, and the defense implied that both withdrawal symptoms and "bad" batches of party drugs could have resulted in erratic behavior.

But earlier in the week Ventura, the singer widely known as Cassie, told jurors that Combs raped, beat and forced her into drug-fueled sex parties during their more than 10 years together.

Her excruciating testimony opened her up to grilling from Combs's legal team, but so far, much of the defense's questioning has meticulously focused on a ream of text exchanges between the couple.

The defense highlighted the tender moments, pointing out messages in which Combs and Ventura expressed love for each other. Other messages were sexually explicit.

"I'm always ready to freak off lolol," read one of the messages from Ventura to Combs -- dated August 5, 2009, when she was 22 and Combs 39.

"Freak-offs" were elaborate sexual performances that involved Combs, Ventura and male escorts -- sessions directed by the music mogul that sometimes lasted days, according to Ventura.

Ventura, who is heavily pregnant with her third child, emphasized the subtext, saying that messages that might seem benign or even pleasant to outsiders contained pressures or other meanings that were clear to her.

And as Estevao directed her past a batch of texts Thursday, Ventura indicated the defense lawyer might be cherry-picking those elements that cast Combs in the best light.

"This isn't about what I feel is relevant, right? Because there's a lot that we skipped over," Ventura said of the voluminous text records she was given to read.

- Domestic abuse or sex trafficking? -

AFP

Alex Fine (C), Casandra Ventura's husband, was in attendance as she was cross-examined by attorneys for Sean Combs

Combs, 55, was once one of the most powerful figures in the music industry.

He is now incarcerated on charges of sex trafficking and leading an illegal sex ring that enforced its power with crimes including arson, kidnapping and bribery.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

High-profile witness Ventura spent two days on the stand giving vivid accounts of coercive sex parties demanded by Combs -- she participated in hundreds, she testified -- and his routine brutal beatings of her.

But the defense contends that while Ventura's relationship with Combs was complicated and included domestic abuse, it did not amount to sex trafficking and that she behaved erratically and even violently herself.

Judge Arun Subramanian on Thursday urged the defense to move more quickly in cross-examining Ventura given her late-stage pregnancy, and attorneys said they would attempt to wrap up their questioning of her Friday.

Prosecutors indicated Dawn Richard -- a singer who found fame on MTV's reality show "Making the Band," which Combs produced -- will be among the next witnesses.

Richard sued Combs last year on allegations including sexual assault and battery. She said in the court documents she had witnessed Combs physically abuse Ventura.