Cassie’s Former Best Friend Said Diddy Assaulted Cassie on Several Occasions

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Casandra “Cassie” Ventura was determined to make a name for herself as a model in the early 2000s, but that changed after she started dating Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, according to Ventura’s friend at the time, Kerry Morgan, who testified on Monday. Morgan said that as time went on, her friend was no longer “herself.” “She lost her confidence,” Morgan told jurors. “She lost her spark.”

Morgan, wearing a pale blush button-down and dark pants, did not look at Diddy as she entered judge Arun Subramanian’s Manhattan courtroom around 12 p.m.. Diddy, who once again donned the caramel sweater-khaki slacks combo, watched as Morgan took the stand as a prosecution witness. Morgan recounted that she met Cassie around 2001 when they were teen models in New York City. The two were “best friends” Morgan said, but don’t currently speak after their friendship ended in 2018. Morgan, who was called to testify under a subpoena, said Diddy assaulted her with a clothes hanger at Cassie’s home that year.

But it was Morgan’s recounting of the years prior that painted a disturbing picture of Cassie’s life with Diddy. Early in their friendship, Cassie was “fun” and “worked very hard.” She was “very successful.” After they started dating around 2007, Diddy would take Cassie, Morgan, and other associates out to dinner or clubs, and on trips to locales such as Ibiza and Las Vegas. Drugs, like molly, were accessible. Diddy was “extremely generous, sort of intimidating — a strong presence,” she said. “He’d have mood swings. Sometimes, he’d be agitated or upset.” Morgan told jurors that she’d seen Diddy “hit,” “kick, and “push” Cassie on several occasions, including at Diddy’s house in Los Angeles. “I saw him push her,” Morgan said. After this happened, she and Cassie hid under a neighboring home’s stairs for 20 or 30 minutes, “face down” on the ground. “We were whispering,” Morgan said, because they could hear Diddy and his associate looking for them. “I didn’t know what to do. I just wanted to stay there until everyone calmed down.” Cassie wound up returning to Diddy’s house afterwards.

Morgan alleged that another attack unfolded during a group trip to Jamaica. Cassie went to the bathroom in the hotel suite and Diddy complained she was taking too long. A few minutes later, “I heard her screaming,” Morgan said. “They were coming out of the master bedroom and he was dragging her by the hair on the floor,” Morgan said. Morgan ran to grab her purse and phone, not knowing what to do. Then, outside, Diddy pushed Cassie to the ground. “She hit her head on the bricks,” Morgan alleged. Cassie didn’t move. “She fell on her side, like a …fetal position.”

Cassie remained on the ground, eyes closed, for 20 or 30 seconds. “Sean and I were yelling at each other and while we were arguing, she got up and ran to this wooded area,” Morgan said. There were two golf carts. Morgan jumped in one, and Diddy into the other, and they both set off on their separate ways trying to find Cassie. Morgan found her friend. “We ended up hiding in a ditch,” she recalled for what felt like “forever.” They eventually went back to the suite. Aside from these major blowouts, Morgan said she would see Diddy push or slap Cassie at other points over the years.

Morgan is among the many witnesses prosecutors are calling to back Cassie’s claims that Diddy abused her for years. At some points during the day’s testimony, Diddy could be seen leaning in to speak with his team. On at least two occasions, he appeared to pass notes to his lawyers. During a short break, he smiled at a handful of supporters in the gallery and tapped his heart as an affectionate greeting. “Mm-hmmm” could occasionally be heard in the gallery, suggesting an observer had been struck by lawyering or testimony. The first witness today was Dawn Richard. “He would punch her, choke her, drag her, slap her in the mouth,” Richard said about Diddy’s treatment of “Cassie.” “I saw him kick her, punch her in the stomach.” Richard, who wore a menswear-inspired pants ensemble, said that Diddy’s rage came without rhyme or reason. “It could be Cassie speaking up for herself, it could be random.” She “frequently” saw Diddy abuse Cassie and said injuries extended to “her face, her eyes, her lips, her arms, her knees.” She’d try to hide the injuries “with makeup, clothing, sometimes sunglasses.” Richard also alleged that Usher was present at a dinner where Diddy attacked Cassie. (She did not say that Usher witnessed this, just that he was at the dinner.) Richard, who was in the Bad Boy Records girl group Danity Kane, started testifying late Friday, bolstering Cassie’s allegations. Richard last week told jurors about an incident in 2009 at Diddy’s Los Angeles home. “I observed Cassie being attacked,” Richard previously said. “She was attacked by Sean Combs.” Richard said that Diddy bounded down the stairs, “screaming, belligerent, asking where his food was.” She alleged that Diddy tried to hit Cassie with a skillet full of eggs and that she watched him “kick her in the head and beat her in front of us.” Richard said that Diddy then dragged Cassie upstairs and she overheard “glass breaking and yelling.”

The next day, Diddy called Richard and a bandmate from another musical project into his home studio. “He said that what we saw was a passion and what lovers in relationships do. He said that she was okay and that it would be in our best interests if we didn’t say anything. He was trying to take us to the top, and that, where he comes from, people go missing if they say things like that, like, if people talk,” Richard said. “And then he gave us flowers.” Asked what she thought Diddy meant in his admonition about keeping quiet, Richard said in her initial testimony, “That people could die, death.”