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After four days with Casandra Ventura, the mogul’s former girlfriend, on the stand, prosecutors are seeking to corroborate her testimony with additional witnesses.
May 19, 2025Updated 1:24 p.m. ET
The singer Dawn Richard testified at Sean Combs’s racketeering conspiracy and sex-trafficking trial on Monday that while performing in a group backed by the music producer, she saw Mr. Combs punch, kick and slap his former girlfriend, Casandra Ventura.
Ms. Richard, who was a performer in the now-defunct groups Danity Kane and Diddy — Dirty Money, recalled an altercation at Mr. Combs’s Los Angeles home in 2009, when she said Mr. Combs attempted to hit Ms. Ventura in the head with a skillet that Ms. Ventura had been using to cook him eggs, then punched and kicked her while she was curled up on the kitchen floor.
In two other incidents that she said occurred during her time in Diddy — Dirty Money, which lasted from 2009 to 2011, Ms. Richard said she saw Mr. Combs punch Ms. Ventura in the face with a closed fist at his home in New York, and punch her in the stomach at a restaurant in Los Angeles.
“I told her she should leave,” Ms. Richard recalled of her conversations with Ms. Ventura, known as the singer Cassie, around those incidents. She testified that Mr. Combs warned her to stay out of his relationship, convincing her to back off.
Mr. Combs, who wore a khaki-colored sweater to court on Monday, shook his head at times during Ms. Richard’s testimony, passing notes to his lawyers on Post-its.
