Diddy trial live: Amber Heard trial expert offers heartrending testimony on what Cassie Ventura ‘endured’

Dr. Dawn Hughes has taken the stand as the next witness for the prosecution.

She shared that she was paid $6,000 for her services for the prosection.

She previously made headlines when she testified for Amber Heard in her case against Johnny Depp.

Heard’s first witness was Dr. Hughes, a New York-based clinical and forensic psychologist who is an expert in domestic violence.

Dr. Hughes, pictured below on Tuesday, said during that 2022 trial that women in abusive relationships get into them for the right reasons but slowly their partner turns.

The Philadelphia-born rapper, famous for dating Nicki Minaj, seemingly responded to speculation that he was one of the redacted names in a bombshell lawsuit against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs by music producer Rodney ‘Lil Rod’ Jones.

Jones claimed Diddy engaged in sexual relations with ‘a Philadelphia rapper who dated Nicki Minaj.’

Though the name of the rapper in question has been redacted from the lawsuit, social media personalities such as DJ Akademiks and Andrew Tate have publicly stated that they believe Meek is the person in reference.

To hear all the explosive testimony from singer Cassie Ventura and the other witnesses in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ trial, tune in to Daily Mail’s hit podcast The Trial.

From sworn testimony to video evidence and the rapper’s every subtle move, our team of journalists take you inside the courtroom of the world’s biggest celebrity case.

Daily Mail has been following Diddy’s downfall from the very beginning. Join us as we hear from experts involved in the case, and members of the rapper’s inside circle.

The imprisoned co-founder of Death Row Records made the bombshell allegations on Wednesday, hours after Diddy’s ex Cassie Ventura addressed the duo’s feud during her testimony in his criminal trial.

Diddy’s former assistant is being questioned about an incident Cassie Ventura mentioned during her time on the stand involving Suge Knight.

Cassie claimed Diddy one left her during a freak off at his Los Angeles home to confront rival record executive Suge Knight at Mel’s Drive-In, a landmark diner nearby.

‘R-Rock came in and said Suge was down at a diner. Sean drove over there…. I cried, said don’t do something stupid,’ Cassie said.

‘It was like I wasn’t even there. They put on a bunch of black clothes, went in the safe, grabbed guns.

‘Next thing I knew they were in the SUV just whipping down there. I saw them get dressed and leave the house.’

Knight, 59, was the CEO of Death Row Records while Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, 54, was the CEO of rival company Bad Boy Entertainment.

Their beef began in the mid 90s as East Coast and West Coast rappers became entangled in a heated battle that shook up the hip-hop scene.

A key witness to Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ ongoing trial testified that Usher was in attendance at a star-studded dinner when the disgraced rap mogul assaulted Cassie Ventura in a restaurant.

The alleged altercation occurred in 2010 at a dinner where the singer joined Diddy and Cassie, alongside rapper Ne-Yo and Interscope Records co-founder Jimmy Iovine.

In testimony from Dawn Richards, a former member of girl group Danity Kane that was signed to Diddy’s Bad Boy Records label, the court heard that Usher was at the dinner where a sickening attack on Cassie unfolded during an argument.

George Kaplan, one of Diddy’s former employees, took the stand on Wednesday and told prosecutors he intended to invoke his ‘constitutional right not to testify and not to answer any questions on the ground of potential self incrimination.’

Prosecutors then asked the judge to sign an order of immunity for the witness, which he did.

Kaplan is expected to return to the stand after a lunch break.

He is pictured arriving to court on Wednesday.

Narrowing of the attention, not all memories are getting in about the event that happened to you. That’s why it’s not complete,’ Dr Dawn Hughes told the court Wednesday.

‘The fragmented memories can be just as reliable but they’re just not as complete, they’re missing details.’

Hugues added that victims often use ‘coping mechanisms’ that affect their memory.

‘They’re trying to push it down, not talk about it, not think about it,’ Hughes explained.

‘Push it further into the recesses of their brain. It’s recognised as part of the PTSD diagnosis… Can interfere with the recall of the information.

In a dramatic moment in court on Wednesday, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent Gerard Gannon shows a firearm, recovered during a search in Miami, to jury members.

Homeland Security Investigations sent 80 to 90 agents to the residence on Star Island, used an armored vehicle to smash through the mogul’s security gate, handcuffed and searched a half-dozen employees, and deployed boats to patrol nearby waters, Agent Gerard Gannon testified.

Combs’ lawyer Teny Geragos portrayed the search as overkill during cross-examination.

‘So, HSI determined it would come in by land and by sea to secure the property?’ Geragos asked.

Gannon said Homeland Security Investigations waited to search the property until Combs was on a flight out of town with his family.

Trauma expert Dr. Dawn Hughes is being questioned by prosecutors about why victims of domestic abuse stay with their abusive partners.

Hughes explained there is moments of positivity – ‘Because these relationships start with love…the victim wants that, they want that back. When that’s shown to the victim it becomes reinforcing.’

The expert added: ‘They experience a tremendous amount of shame, humiliation, [it’s] degrading.

‘They don’t want to think about it in their own brain or come out of their mouth

‘If it’s something you can’t even talk about, these unspeakable acts, it prevents them from getting help.

Regina Ventura testified on Tuesday that Diddy demanded that Cassie pay him $20,000 after he learned she was dating rapper Kid Cudi.

She said she and her husband tok out a home equity loan because ‘that’s the only way we could get the money’ and they were scared for Cassie’s safety.

‘[Diddy] was angry he’d spent money on her and she’d been with another person.

‘His bookkeeper emailed me the wire information. I went to the (bank) and wired the money to the account.’

Regina said the money came back about ‘four to five days later.’

Judge Arun Subramanian provisionally denied a joint application by news outlets for the videos to be played in open court and be described by the media.

He agreed with a prosecution argument that playing them would ‘revictimize’ Ventura and one of the unnamed female victims who will testify later iun the trial.

The judge also denied an alternative proposal to allow three pool reporters to stay in court when they were played, and share reports with other outlets.

“I’m not seeing any case that would suggest in any way, shape, or form that images or videos of these types of acts that are alleged to be sexual abuse would be required to be shown in open court when they pose the obvious risk of revictimization,’ he said.

Robert Balin, the lawyer who argued on behalf of the press, earlier said the First Amendment was ‘at its zenith’ in the case.

He argued it was important ‘people, though the press, be able to see justice is being done’.

Balin said the best evidence of whether the sex acts in the ‘freak offs’ were coerced – which underpinned the prosecution’s case – were the videos themselves.

The application was only ever to view the videos and describe them, not for the footage to ever become public.

Defense lawyer Teny Geragos took a novel approach to defending Combs in her opening statement.

She conceded the hip-hop impresario has a ‘bad temper’ and is prone to violent outbursts that are often fueled by alcohol, jealousy and drugs.

But she maintained that while his actions might have warranted domestic violence charges, they aren’t proof he engaged in sex trafficking and racketeering — the charges he faces.

Geragos argued that Combs’ sexual habits were part of a swinger lifestyle involving consenting adults and reminded jurors that “kinky” sexual predilections don’t equate to sex trafficking.

‘Sean Combs is a complicated man. But this is not a complicated case,’ she said. ‘This case is about love, jealousy, infidelity and money.’

Three large plastic boxes containing at least 26 bottles of Johnson’s Baby Oil and 16 bottles of Astroglide lubricant were found in the mogul’s mansion in Miami by federal agents in a hallway closet.

Bizarrely, the boxes also contained at least two rubber ducks of the sort usually favored by children during bath time.

Diddy famously loved to use the liquids during ‘freak off’ sex parties.

Agent Gannon walked the jury through images of the items found in Diddy’s Miami mansion after the March, 2024, raid.

One of the items was a box with ‘DIDDY’ on it containing marijuana.

A box of nitrous oxide that may have been used as a party drug was also visible in the prosecution’s exhibits..

Diddy’s sons Christian ‘King’ Combs, 27, and Justin, 31, were seen entering the courthouse on Wednesday for the mogul’s trial.

Christian in the son of the late Kim Porter and Justin’s mom is Misa Hylton, who has also been seen in court.

The siblings were in court throughout last week’s disturbing testimony by Cassie Ventura but had been absent Monday and Tuesday.

The brothers were photographed in LA over the weekend with their twin sisters as they attended their high school prom.

The veil Diddy wore to disguise himself during a ‘freak off’ with an escort known as ‘The Punisher’ looked like an Islamic niqab, sometimes known as a burqa, his trial was told Tuesday.

A niqab covers the entire face, only leaving the eyes showing. It is often referred to as a burqa, although that is technically a covering that also has a fabric grill over the eyes.

‘I could not see his face,’ male performer Sharay Hayes said of the first time he met Diddy and Cassie, in 2012.

‘He had what the Muslim women wear, where their face is completely covered and you could only see his eyes,’ he adde, according to The New York Post.

‘The Punisher’ said he had between eight and 12 total encounters with the couple.

He said he’d also met with them at Essex House, a luxurious hotel on Central Park South, just a stone’s throw from the Trump International Hotel.

Hayes added that as Combs became more comfortable in his presence, he switched from wearing a veil to a baseball cap.

Prosecutors revealed that the rapper Kid Cudi will not be testifying on Wednesday because of scheduling issues.

Cudi was expected to take the stand to talk about being threatened by Diddy when he started seeing Cassie Ventura.

Cassie said in her settled lawsuit that Diddy threatened to blow up Cudi’s car before the car burned down.

It’s unclear when Cudi will now take the stand in the trial.

Cassie Ventura’s mom Regina glared at Diddy as she left the stand on Tuesday after describing incidents of violence and intimidation by the music mogul.

Diddy did not appear to acknowledge her stare from the defense table.

Meanwhile Diddy’s personal assistant David James nodded at Diddy on the way out of the courtoom, and Diddy nodded back at him.

James told the court about feeling in danger during his time working for the mogul.

He testified that the job seemed to have increasing perils. He said he quit when he realized Combs had put his life in danger by forcing him to drive a car as the angry rapper sat in the back with three handguns on his lap.

James said his job sometimes required him to ensure that hotel rooms where Combs stayed under the name ‘Frank Black’ were stocked with the musician’s comforts, including fresh underwear, an iPod, apple sauce, vodka, baby oil, Viagra and condoms.

Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs hosted a sex party at Donald Trump’s hotel in New York, the court was told this week.

An exotic dancer known as ‘The Punisher’ told the hip-hop mogul’s trial he was paid $2,000 to take part in a ‘Freak-Off’ with Combs and his then-girlfriend Casandra ‘Cassie’ Ventura.

Sharay Hayes, 51, said he poured baby oil all over himself and Ms Ventura during the ‘sexy scene’ at the Trump International Hotel in New York in 2012.

Combs, 55, watched the whole time and pleasured himself while wearing a veil to disguise his identity, Mr Hayes told jurors.

He said Ms Ventura told him it was her birthday and her partner had said she could hire a dancer for her and some friends.

Diddy had already been indicted at the time and was holed up in a hotel room at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Midtown Manhattan for over a week, waiting for his imminent arrest.

But according to prosecutors, the disgraced rap mogul was intent on having one last hurrah ‘freak off’ before being taken into custody, and when officers breached his room they found a trove of baby oil and drugs awaiting the sexual marathons.

Other bombshell images from the trial included injuries Cassie says she sustained in their turbulent relationship, and intimate pictures from the first time the couple had sex on ecstasy after her 21st birthday.

Prosecutors showed the jury photos of the upper and lower parts of AR-15 assault rifles that could be put together to form a working rifle. One had a red dot viewer to make it easier to hit a target.

Homeland Secuirty agent Gannon said that the guns had their serial numbers removed which would make it difficult or ‘impossible’ to trace them.

In a dramatic moment, he was asked to open an evidence bag in a cart next to him with scissors and stand before the jury holding up the upper part of the AR-15 rifle.

Gannon assured the jury the gun had been rendered safe and held it up with both hands: jurors craned their necks to see.

Gannon also held up evidence bags with the platform shoes and another bag containing the lower part of the AR-15 guns.

Homeland Security special agent Gerard Gannon told the court they used an armoured vehicle to smash open the gate to gain entry as quickly as possible.

He said that this was ‘quickest and safest option’ and was ‘standard practice’ to ‘not allow bad actors to set up (shooting) positions to harm law enforcement’.

Normally raids happen at 6am but they did this one at 3.40pm because Homeland Security – which oversees investigations into human trafficking – knew Combs and his family would be out.

The jury was shown photos of items seized in Diddy’s closet: seven inch platform shoes, sex toys, condoms, baby oil, astroglide and parts of AR-15 assault rifles.

First up on Wednesday, we will continue hearing from Gerard Gannon, a Homeland Security special agent who was part of the team which raided Diddy’s $40 million mansion on Star Island in Miami last year.

On Tuesday, Gannon held rifle parts found in Diddy’s home to the jury – he opened them from an evidence bag in a cart next to him.

The jury was also shown bags of platform shoes that were found in the home.

After Gannon concludes his testimony, Diddy’s former chef is expected to testify about incidents of violence, followed by the prosecution’s sexual assault expert Dawn Hughes – who was the same expert hired by Amber Heard in her case against Johnny Depp.

After that, Kid Cudi, the rapper who briefly dated Diddy’s ex Cassandra Ventura, is expected on the stand.

• Racketeering Conspiracy: This charge alleges that Diddy ran a criminal enterprise through his various businesses (including Bad Boy Entertainment, Combs Enterprises, and Combs Global) to facilitate and conceal his alleged criminal activities.
• Sex Trafficking by Force, Fraud, or Coercion: Diddy is accused of using force, threats, and coercion to compel individuals into commercial sex acts.
• Transportation to Engage in Prostitution: This charge involves the transportation of individuals, including commercial sex workers, across state lines for the purpose of engaging in prostitution

The rapper Kid Cudi is on the witness list for the prosecution for Wednesday.

Cassie previously testified that Diddy threatened to hurt her and Cudi after he learned they were dating.

Cassie said she began a brief relationship with Kid Cudi ‘during a rough patch’ with Diddy.

She claimed Diddy went through her phone and found emails between her and the American rapper and became enraged.

Diddy allegedly placed a manual corkscrew in between his fingers and lunged at her, according to the lawsuit and she ran away to stay with Kid Cudi, according to the suit.

Cassie later returned and the music executive allegedly hit her several times, and then kicked her in the back as she tried to run out the door, the filing claims.

During Paris Fashion Week, she claims Diddy told her he was going to blow up Kid Cudi’s car and that he wanted to make sure he was home with his friends when it happened.

‘Around that time, Kid Cudi’s car exploded in his driveway,’ the lawsuit stated.

Former President Barack Obama was bizarrely named in Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ ongoing federal trial in shocking testimony about drug-taking at the rapper’s infamous ‘freak off’ parties.

He did not say Obama was ever in attendance at the parties – but said celebrities would celebrate with ‘various pills in the shape of the former president’s face’, the court heard.

Eight men and four women are on the final panel of 12 with a further four men and two women listed as alternates. On the main juror panel, four are white, two are Hispanic, five are black and one is Asian. Of the six alternates, four are white and two are black.

Diddy has continued to put on the charisma for the audience in the courtroom during his federal sex-trafficking and racketeering trial in New York.

Before leaving the courthouse on Tuesday, he told the crowd in the gallery, ‘I love you all,’ and then said under his breath, ‘yeah. Love.’

The disgraced music mogul, 55, then addressed a woman, as reported by People, telling her to send a message to his eldest son: ‘Please let Justin know I’m thinking of him.’

Six of seven of Diddy’s children were in court last week bit have not been present this week.

He is seen blowing kisses to the audience on May 19.