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In 2022, Sean Combs obtained the Lifetime Achievement Award on the BET Awards. As a brand new lawsuit filed by Casandra Ventura recounts, he thanked his former girlfriend and Dangerous Boy Data signee in his acceptance speech. “I’ve to provide a particular shoutout, thanks, love, to the those that was actually there for me.” He named a number of folks, together with Ventura, higher often called the R&B singer Cassie, “for holding me down at nighttime occasions, love.”
Within the go well with, filed on Thursday in Manhattan federal courtroom, Ventura stated that she spent these occasions trapped by Combs in a yearslong cycle of abuse, violence, and intercourse trafficking. The grievance alleges a disturbing sample of assault and retaliation that came about all through their relationship starting when a 37-year outdated Combs, a longtime energy participant in hip-hop, met Ventura as an aspiring 19-year outdated entertainer in 2005. He signed her to his high-flying label and inside a couple of years, in keeping with the go well with, lured her into “an ostentatious, fast-paced, and drug-fueled way of life, and right into a romantic relationship with him her boss, one of the highly effective males within the leisure trade, and a vicious, merciless, and controlling man almost 20 years her senior.”
Ventura claimed within the go well with that Combs repeatedly beat her and compelled her to have intercourse with male prostitutes whereas he filmed the encounters. In keeping with the go well with, Combs described these encounters as “freak offs” designed to meet a fantasy he known as “voyeurism,” and so they typically concerned drug use that ultimately despatched Ventura on a path in direction of dependancy. In the direction of the top of their relationship in 2018, Ventura stated within the grievance, Combs compelled his manner into her residence and raped her.
In one of many alleged “freak offs” in 2016, the go well with stated, Combs punched Ventura within the face and gave her a black eye. When he fell asleep and she or he tried to depart their Los Angeles resort room, Ventura claimed, he wakened and adopted her into the hallway, the place he threw glass vases at her. In keeping with the go well with, Combs paid the resort $50,000 for the footage.
“After years in silence and darkness,” Ventura stated in a press release. “I’m lastly prepared to inform my story, and to talk up on behalf of myself and for the good thing about different ladies who face violence and abuse of their relationships.” She filed the lawsuit below the Grownup Survivors Act in New York, enacted final yr, which grants alleged victims of sexual abuse a one-year window, ending subsequent week, to file civil complaints in cases the place the statute of limitations has handed.
“Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations,” Combs’s lawyer Ben Brafman stated in a press release. “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 dangerous e book about their relationship, which was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail. 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’ status and looking for a pay day.”
In response to Brafman’s assertion, Ventura’s lawyer Douglas Wigdor stated, “Mr. Comb’s provided Ms. Ventura eight figures to silence her and stop the submitting of this lawsuit. She rejected his efforts and determined to provide a voice to all lady who are suffering in silence. Ms. Ventura must be applauded for her bravery.”
In 2011, throughout a tough patch in Combs and Ventura’s relationship, in keeping with the go well with, Ventura briefly dated the rapper Child Cudi. When Combs returned from a visit, the go well with stated, he demanded that Ventura take part in a “freak off.” Throughout this encounter, Ventura claimed, he discovered emails between her and Child Cudi on her cellphone and lunged at her with a corkscrew positioned between his fingers. Ventura ran away to Child Cudi’s residence, she stated, earlier than returning as a result of she felt that she wouldn’t have the ability to escape Combs and his workers, whom the go well with described as his “community of enforcers.” In keeping with the go well with, Combs then hit her a number of occasions and kicked her within the again.
The next yr, the go well with stated, Combs instructed Ventura he was going to explode Child Cudi’s Automobile with the rapper and his buddies residence when it occurred. “Round that point,” the go well with stated, “Child Cudi’s automobile exploded in his driveway.” (“That is all true,” a spokesperson for Child Cudi instructed the New York Instances.)
“Mr. Combs asserted full management over Ms. Ventura’s private {and professional} life, thereby making certain her incapacity to flee his maintain,” the go well with stated. “He supplied unprecedented avenues for fulfillment for the aspiring artist, however in return, demanded obedience, loyalty, and silence.”
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