NEW YORK — The R&B singer Cassie testified Wednesday that her ex-boyfriend Sean ''Diddy'' Combs kept her in a cycle of abuse and exploitation by threatening to release videos of her engaging in ''freak-off'' encounters with male sex workers that he orchestrated.
Addressing the court for a second day in Combs' federal sex trafficking trial in Manhattan, Cassie said she couldn't reject Combs' demands and continued participating in the encounters despite being disgusted and humiliated by having sex with strangers. She said she was scared that Combs would ruin her life and make her ''look like a slut'' by releasing the videos.
''I feared for my career. I feared for my family. It's just embarrassing. It's horrible and disgusting. No one should do that to anyone," said Cassie, whose legal name is Casandra Ventura.
The jury is expected to watch some of the videos during the trial, possibly later Wednesday. They will not be visible to the public, and jurors will wear headphones in the courtroom so no one else can hear the audio.
Prosecutors have accused Combs of exploiting his status as a powerful music executive to violently force Cassie and other women to take part in the drugged-up sex parties. Combs is charged with five counts, including sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion. He denies all of the allegations.
Combs' attorneys have acknowledged that he could be violent, but they say the sex he engaged in was consensual and that nothing he did amounted to sex trafficking or racketeering.
Combs' lawyers were expected to begin cross-examining Cassie later Wednesday, when they would get the chance to challenge her credibility or poke holes in her account of what happened.
Also Wednesday, prosecutors showed Cassie a binder of photos and she identified 13 as male sex workers she said she recruited at Combs' behest for freak-offs in Las Vegas, Miami and Los Angeles. She said she had sex with all of them, though she couldn't remember all of their names. She identified a half-dozen other escorts in court on Tuesday.
