Thank goodness for the hotel security cameras.
Last week, CNN obtained and aired footage of music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs brutally assaulting a young woman in the hallway of a posh Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
As the video begins, a barefoot young woman is seen fleeing down a hallway towards the elevators, pausing to hastily put on her shoes. Moments later, Combs emerges from a room wearing only socks and a white towel around his waist. He chases the woman, knocks her to the ground, kicks her, punches her, drags her by her hoodie, and throws a vase at her.
All while skillfully managing to keep his towel in place.
The victim is R&B singer Cassie, whose real name is Casandra Ventura. In November, she filed a 35-page federal lawsuit against Combs and her label, Bad Boy Records, alleging that he had physically and sexually abused her for years and frequently forced her to have encounters with prostitutes that he watched and recorded. .
The lawsuit, which made me feel sick, presents a disturbing narrative of extreme abuse, forced drug use and sexual perversion throughout the couple's 13-year relationship, which began in 2005. When they met, she was 19 years old. . -old aspiring singer, while he was a 37-year-old rap icon and record label executive. He had her future in her hands and she describes being trapped in a classic cycle of abuse.
For more than a decade after she signed Ventura to her label, the lawsuit alleges, Combs orchestrated most aspects of her life, regularly hiding her in hotels (she alleges one such three-week stay in Hawaii), so than black eyes and chapped lips. he inflicted would heal.
Naturally, Combs' attorney, Ben Brafman, feigned outrage at the idea that his client was an abuser:
“Mr. Combs vehemently denies these offensive and scandalous allegations,” he told the New York Times. “For the past six months, Mr. Combs has been subjected to Ms. Ventura's persistent demand for $30 million, under threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship, which was unequivocally rejected as blatant blackmail.”
Au contraireVentura attorney Douglas Wigdor replied: “Mr. Combs offered Ms. Ventura eight figures to silence her and prevent the filing of this lawsuit. “She rejected his efforts.”
It took great courage for Ventura to file her lawsuit, which was made possible by the New York Adult Survivors Law. The law gave victims one year to file lawsuits for sexual misconduct that allegedly occurred before 2019 and for which the statute of limitations had expired. About 3,000 lawsuits were filed before the window closed in November, including the most famous, by E. Jean Carroll, who claimed that Donald Trump had raped her in a department store dressing room in 1996. A jury found Trump responsible for defamation and sexual assault. , which the presiding judge said was rape by another name.
Oddly enough, given Combs' claims of innocence and victimhood, Ventura's lawsuit was settled confidentially less than two days after it was filed. At the time, his attorney emphasized that the agreement in no way implied that Combs was guilty.
Except, come on now. The explosive video perfectly matches many of the allegations made in Ventura's lawsuit; she doesn't seem to have been making it up.
The lawsuit alleges that people in Combs' orbit (her lawyer, the president of her record label) pressured her to return to him when she tried to escape. “Every time Ms. Ventura attempted to flee,” the lawsuit alleges, “Mr. Combs and his powerful network would force her to return to him.
On Sunday, as expected, a tearful Combs posted a video on Instagram.
“I was screwed,” he says. “Bottoms out. I started going to therapy, to rehab. I had to ask God for his mercy and grace. Very sorry.”
I i i I. Not a word about the hell he put Ventura through or even a mention of his name. And anyway, when exactly did he hit rock bottom and have his epiphany?
After all, Ventura alleges that in September 2018, more than two years after the hotel hallway incident, he raped her at her home after they met for dinner in Malibu to discuss ending their relationship.
Within months of Ventura's lawsuit, four other lawsuits were filed accusing him of sexual assault and other crimes, including one filed by a woman who was in college when she alleges Combs drugged and assaulted her, and another by a woman who was third year high school student. when she alleges that Combs and the former president of her record label sexually trafficked and gang-raped her.
It's unfortunate that Combs can't be prosecuted for what he did to Ventura in that hallway. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office said he has no power to act because the statute of limitations has expired.
But Combs' problems may just be beginning. In March, his homes in Miami and Los Angeles were raided by Department of Homeland Security agents, who confiscated computers, hard drives and weapons, according to news reports, which said the raids were part of a sexual assault and sex trafficking investigation. of Combs, father of seven children. He has not been charged with any crime.
Someone leaked photos of the aftermath of the Holmby Hills raid to TMZ. The rooms looked like a tornado had passed through: papers, clothes, children's shoes and stuffed animals scattered everywhere. News video showed two of Combs' adult children handcuffed outside.
It was sad, yes, but it's an apt visual metaphor for the mess Combs has caused.
