Months before CNN obtained footage of a man identified as Sean “Diddy” Combs physically assaulting his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel, the R&B singer alleged in a lawsuit that Combs paid thousands of dollars to make the video go away.
CNN posted the footage on its website Friday, May 17. The surveillance video has a timestamp saying it was recorded on the morning of March 5, 2016.
Ventura detailed the hotel incident in her 35-page lawsuit, filed on Nov. 16, 2023. The complaint said there was a reason footage of the incident never surfaced publicly: “Upon information and belief, Mr. Combs paid the InterContinental Century City $50,000 for the hallway security footage from that evening.”
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The video shows a woman walking barefoot out of a room at the hotel. Dressed in a hooded sweatshirt, the woman is carrying her bags and quickly walks toward the elevators.
Wearing only a towel and socks, the man chases her down the hallway. Once he catches up to the woman, he violently grabs her by the back of the neck, shoves her to the ground, and kicks her multiple times. He then grabs her by her sweatshirt and drags her down the hall.
Another camera angle shows the man sitting in his room while still wearing the towel and throwing an object at the woman.
In a statement to Urban Hollywood 411 on Friday, Ventura’s attorney Douglas H. Wigdor reacted to the footage.
“The gut-wrenching video has only further confirmed the disturbing and predatory behavior of Mr. Combs. Words cannot express the courage and fortitude that Ms. Ventura has shown in coming forward to bring this to light,” Wigdor said.
Ventura met the Bad Boy Records founder in 2005, when she was 19 years old and he was in his 30s. He signed her to his label and the two dated on-and-off for over a decade.
She filed a sexual abuse lawsuit in Manhattan’s Federal District Court on Nov. 16, 2023.
The suit alleged rape, battery and trafficking, and said Combs forced Ventura “to engage in a fantasy of his called ‘voyeurism,’” in which she allegedly had sex with male prostitutes, while Combs watched and shot video.
Ventura stated in the lawsuit that she tried to break things off in 2018, and Combs allegedly raped her while she “repeatedly said ‘no’ and tried to push him away.”
Combs settled the lawsuit one day after it was filed. The mogul released a statement through his attorney, saying the agreement was not an “admission of wrongdoing.”
Three other women filed sexual abuse lawsuits against Combs in the days that followed.
The mogul maintained his innocence, and in December 2023 posted a statement on Instagram saying the accusers were trying to “destroy” his legacy.
“Enough is enough. For the last couple of weeks, I have sat silently and watched people try to assassinate my character, destroy my reputation and my legacy. Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth,” the music mogul said in the statement.
In February, male music producer Rodney “Lil Rod” Jones filed a fifth lawsuit accusing Combs of sexual abuse.
The initial 73-page complaint has a trigger warning on the first page noting that it contains “graphic images of the aftermath of a shooting, redacted images of sexual intercourse, redacted images of minors, sex workers and prostitutes, details of sex trafficking, and the illegal distribution of guns, and drugs.”
According to the lawsuit, Jones produced nine tracks on Combs’ The Love Album: Off the Grid, which was released in September 2023 and received a Grammy nomination.
The complaint said Jones also acted as the mogul’s personal photographer and lived with him in Florida, Los Angeles, New York, and on a yacht the rapper leased in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Jones said during the time he spent with Combs, there was “constant unsolicited and unauthorized groping and touching of his anus.” He also alleged he was forced to find sex workers and perform sex acts with them for Combs’ viewing pleasure.
The music producer added that he put his other work on hold for a year to work on Diddy’s album, but he alleged the hip-hop mogul stiffed him and was trying to “steal” his publishing. The lawsuit was amended in March to add more allegations.
Shawn Holley, an attorney representing Combs, released a statement calling the claims in Jones’ lawsuit “outlandish.”
“We have overwhelming, indisputable proof that his claims are complete lies. Our attempts to share this proof with Mr. Jones’ attorney, Tyrone Blackburn, have been ignored, as Mr. Blackburn refuses to return our calls,” Holley said.
On March 25, federal agents raided Combs’ homes in Los Angeles and Miami in connection with a sex trafficking investigation.
The mogul was not arrested, and his attorney slammed the raids as a “witch hunt.”
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