A male escort who claimed he was handed stacks of cash to have sex with Casandra “Cassie” Ventura while Sean “Diddy” Combs watched, gave a detailed and explicit testimony about freak-offs with the hip-hop mogul on Monday, claiming he grew fearful of the “danger” Ventura was in and eventually feared for his life as well.
Daniel Phillip, 41, took the stand as the second witness for Southern District of New York prosecutors on the first day of Combs’ high-profile sex trafficking and racketeering trial. Combs — who pleaded not guilty to the five federal counts against him — turned and watched Phillip enter the courtroom and take his seat in the witness box.
Phillip described how he initially felt excited to be part of the couple’s bedroom fantasy, after first meeting Combs and Ventura in approximately 2012. At the time, he worked as a manager for a male entertainment show when his boss called him and said a bachelorette party requested a Black male stripper. No one who fit the description was available, so Phillip said his manager asked him to fill in, to which he obliged, picking up a NYPD T-shirt as his costume.
But upon his arrival to the luxury Gramercy Park Hotel in New York City, there was no bachelorette party waiting inside. Instead, the “most beautiful” woman answered the door in a red wig, red lingerie, high heels, and dark sunglasses. Phillip said he later came to know the woman as Ventura.
Ventura allegedly told Phillip that it was her birthday and that she wanted to do “something special” with her “husband” to celebrate the occasion. Handing Phillip a stack of cash, Ventura asked if he’d be OK with them rubbing baby oil on each other and seeing where things went as her purported spouse watched.
Entering the dark and candlelit hotel suite, Phillip saw a robed man sitting in the corner of the room with a bandana covering his face and a baseball cap slung over his head. But once he heard the self-described “importer and exporter” talk, Phillip said he immediately recognized the man to be Combs.
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Over the next few years, Phillip said Ventura paid him for sex following encounters that could last upwards of 10-hours at hotels around New York City, Combs’ private midtown residence, and Ventura’s own apartment. He said he was paid anywhere from $700 to $6,000 for the visits.
Phillip described freak-offs as highly ritualistic, the rooms set up in similar fashion and Combs directing his and Ventura’s every move. He claimed that sometimes, it appeared another person had been in the room before him with half-empty bottles of oil and lubricant.
However, Phillip testified that his enthusiasm waned the first time he claimed to witness Combs attack Ventura during a freak-off. Combs called for Ventura to come to the bedroom, but when she didn’t immediately comply, Phillip claimed Combs threw a liquor bottle in her direction, with the bottle smashing into the wall. Combs then allegedly dragged a screaming Ventura by her hair back to the room, where he heard sounds of slapping and Ventura apologizing, saying, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”
“Bitch, when I tell you to come, you come now not later,” Phillip claimed he overheard Combs tell Ventura. The two later exited the room and Combs wanted the freak-off to resume, Phillip testified. “Are y’all ready to continue,” Combs purportedly asked.
“It came out of nowhere,” Phillip told the court. “I was terrified. I didn’t know what to do.”
After that incident, Phillip said he had trouble performing sexually during freak-offs with Ventura and Combs. During one moment they were left alone in another freak-off, Phillip said he tried to warn Ventura of the “danger” that he perceived she was in, asking why she was staying with Combs when he was “hitting” her. Phillip said Ventura attempted to reassure him, saying she’d be OK.
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Phillip’s testimony followed the government’s first witness, former hotel security guard Israel Florez. Florez testified that he responded to a call in 2016 of a “woman in distress.” When he arrived, he saw Ventura looking frightened and had her hoodie pulled up over her head. Still, he could tell she had a “purple eye.” He added that Combs had a “devilish stare” on his face.
According to Florez, Combs offered him a wad of cash to keep quiet about what he witnessed. “Don’t tell nobody,” Combs allegedly ordered him, he said. Florez added that he didn’t call the police because “there was no victim there, obviously nobody was pressing charges.”
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Ventura is expected to testify against Combs this week. In her opening statement, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Johnson said she’ll testify about the “dark hotel rooms” that Combs kept her in for days at a time, where she was allegedly forced to have sex with hired male sex workers. During these days-long “freak-offs,” Ventura was allegedly kept compliant and awake through a variety of drugs, including Ecstasy.
Combs’ attorney Teny Geragos argued in her opening statement that the case is not about sex trafficking, but people’s motivations for coming forward after so many years. She argued that Ventura and another prosecution witness who claims Combs physically abused her were fully capable women who made choices because they had something to gain from being in a relationship with Combs. She told jurors that Ventura filed a civil lawsuit before reporting her alleged abuse to authorities. “Ask yourself why,” Geragos said. “The answer is money.” Geragos admitted that Combs was violent in his past relationships but did not engage in any sex trafficking.
