New York (AFP) – An ex-girlfriend of Sean Combs testified Friday of sex with a network of paid male escorts at the music mogul’s behest and that he asked her to transport drugs for him. The woman speaking under the pseudonym Jane took the stand for a second day in the sex trafficking and racketeering trial, delivering emotional, graphic testimony in the federal criminal proceedings against Combs, the 55-year-old superstar known as “Diddy.” He faces life in prison if convicted in the case, and has denied all charges.
Jane told jurors in the Manhattan courtroom that she, assistants of Combs, or the artist himself would book travel for the escorts, who would frequently be paid by Combs in the thousands of dollars in cash or via apps. The payment was in exchange for choreographed sexual encounters that would sometimes last days, “hotel nights” that Jane described in lurid detail. Her description closely tracked with the testimony of a previous star witness, Casandra Ventura, who said the encounters were called “freak-offs.”
Jane, who was identified as a social media influencer and single mother, spoke through tears as she recounted instances that she told Combs she did not like having sex with the escorts while he watched. The encounters virtually always left her sore and in pain, and she suffered frequent infections, Jane testified. But when she protested or said she only wanted to be with him, Jane said Combs was “dismissive” and “belittling.”
Evidence read in court included lengthy text exchanges between Jane and Combs, as well as diaristic notes Jane had taken for herself on her phone that corroborate her testimony. Among the tranche of texts was one message in which she described the pattern of hotel nights as a “Pandora’s box” she couldn’t shut. “I’m so much more than being loved in the dark in hotel rooms doing things that make me feel disgusted,” she texted Combs. “I don’t want to play this role in your life anymore.”
“It’s dark, sleazy and makes me feel disgusted with myself,” she continued, saying that she felt he was paying her rent in exchange for the sex parties. “I don’t want to feel obligated to perform these nights with you in fear of losing the roof over my head,” Jane wrote. “Girl stop,” Combs wrote back. Her feeling of obligation had escalated in 2023, when the pair made a verbal “love contract” stipulating that while so-called hotel nights would feature into their relationship, so would a $10,000 monthly payment from Combs to Jane. She told jurors Friday that Combs continues to make her that payment, which she uses for rent, even as he is incarcerated.
Jane’s testimony of paying for the travel of escorts is key to the prosecution’s argument that Combs trafficked men and women across state lines with the intent of prostitution. She also told jurors that she transported illegal drugs for Combs on two occasions. When she expressed to a high-ranking staff member of Combs that it felt “unsafe” to fly with drugs from Los Angeles to Miami, the staffer replied that “it’s fine” and “I do it all the time.”
In their opening statements, the defense insisted that Combs’s relationship with Jane was consensual. But she described struggling to get through the hotel nights without the aid of drugs, namely Ecstasy. She recounted one instance when she attempted to stay sober while complying with Combs’s demands that she have sex with multiple men for hours, to the point that she threw up, saying she was “repulsed.” “Sean came in and I told him I had just thrown up and he was like, ‘that’s good then you’ll feel better.'” “Let’s go because the guy is here, the third guy,” Jane said he told her.
Jane previously told jurors that her relationship with Combs continued up until his arrest in September 2024. Prosecutors say he ran a criminal enterprise of employees and bodyguards who enforced his power and fulfilled his desires with illicit acts including trafficking, kidnapping, bribery, and arson. Along with Ventura — whose testimony included harrowing accounts of physical and psychological abuse — and Jane, witnesses have included former employees of Bad Boy Enterprises, Combs’s company.
Jane’s testimony could last days, with court proceedings expected to continue at least another month.
© 2024 AFP
