EGN NEWS DESK
Cassie, the singer who accused Sean Combs of years of bodily and sexual abuse in a lawsuit that she settled, on Thursday addressed footage of the music mogul assaulting her that emerged final week, saying in an Instagram submit that home violence had damaged her all the way down to “somebody I by no means thought I might turn out to be.”
“Thank you to everybody that has taken the time to take this matter critically,” the singer, whose full title is Casandra Ventura, wrote within the submit. “My solely ask is that EVERYONE open your coronary heart to believing victims the primary time. It takes a whole lot of coronary heart to inform the reality out of a scenario that you simply had been powerless in.”
It is the primary time that Ms. Ventura has spoken publicly about her accusations in opposition to Mr. Combs, whom she dated for a few decade, since her lawsuit was filed final November and settled in sooner or later. Since then, as Mr. Combs has confronted a cascade of authorized troubles, Ms. Ventura has spoken about her claims solely via her lawyer, who launched an announcement calling the footage of the assault “gut-wrenching” when it was printed by CNN final week.
In the footage from 2016, which appeared to come back from safety cameras, Ms. Ventura is seen ready for an elevator in a resort when Mr. Combs, sporting a towel, grabs the again of her sweatshirt and throws her to the bottom, kicking her twice earlier than dragging her down the hallway away from the elevators. The video corroborates a few of the particulars from Ms. Ventura’s lawsuit, which recollects Mr. Combs assaulting her at an InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles in 2016 as she tried to depart.
Although his lawyer denied the allegations within the lawsuit on the time, Mr. Combs launched an apology video following the discharge of the footage, saying that he took “full accountability” for his actions and that he had since been to remedy and rehab.
A pop and R&B singer who was related to Mr. Combs’s label, Bad Boy Records, till 2019, Ms. Ventura mentioned in her lawsuit that her relationship with Mr. Combs — which she mentioned concerned him plying her with medicine, beating her and forcing her to have intercourse with male prostitutes — got here to devour each her profession and her private life.
“The outpouring of affection has created a spot for my youthful self to settle and really feel secure now, however that is solely the start,” Cassie wrote within the submit. “Domestic Violence is THE concern.”
She went on: “With a whole lot of onerous work, I’m higher at present, however I’ll all the time be recovering from my previous.”
Since her lawsuit, 4 different ladies have sued Mr. Combs, accusing him of sexual assault, together with one in a grievance that was filed this week. Mr. Combs’s attorneys have been combating these lawsuits in court docket, and he has described them as “sickening allegations” made in opposition to him by “people on the lookout for a fast payday.”
His authorized troubles appeared to mount in March, when federal brokers raided two of his properties, confiscating digital units in what officers mentioned was at the least partially a human trafficking investigation.
