Disgraced rapper Sean 'Diddy' Combs had a serious overdose of painkillers in February 2012, his lawyer revealed during his sex trafficking trial in New York.
Defense attorney Anna Estevao brought up the incident Thursday afternoon (Pacific Standard Time) during the cross-examination of Casandra "Cassie" Ventura, Mr Combs' ex-girlfriend and the key witness in the trial, reports 'Variety'.
Ms Estevao asked Ms Ventura if she recalled Mr Combs' overdose in February 2012, and Ms Ventura asked, "Was that around the time Whitney Houston died?"
Recounting the events of the day, Ms Ventura said she and Mr Combs engaged in a "freak-off", one of Mr Combs' drug-fueled sex parties, then went to a sex club together in San Bernardino, California. Afterward, Mr Combs threw a party at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles and Ms Ventura went home.
As per 'Variety', that night, Mr Combs told Ms Ventura he took a "very strong opiate". so she took him to the hospital, where she learned that Mr Combs had overdosed on painkillers.
Both Mr Combs' and Ms Ventura's drug use was a major topic of the first day of her cross-examination, with Estevao asking Ms Ventura directly, "You were both addicts, right?" Throughout the trial, Ms Ventura has been open about her prior dependence on opioids, as well as her use of MDMA, ecstasy, ketamine, mushrooms, cocaine, marijuana and other drugs. (Ventura went to rehab in 2023 and testified that she has not taken drugs since).
Ms Ventura said she and Mr Combs did copious amounts of drugs independently as well as together, both during "freak-offs" and otherwise. She added that Combs did not like it when she consumed drugs with her friends, rather than with him, and that he would get angry when he found out about such instances.
Ms Ventura allegedly hid some of her drug use from Mr Combs, Estevao indicated, but he could tell she was using without him due to her "side effects," such as dissociation from ketamine use. According to Ms Ventura, Combs instructed drug dealers in Los Angeles not to sell drugs to Ms Ventura, but that did not work. Ms Estevao started the day off shaky, often withdrawing her own questions and multiple times introducing exhibits that had not yet been officially admitted as evidence, which caused a brief kerfuffle amongst the parties.
Ms Ventura, dressed in a white blouse under a black blazer with shoulder pads and peaked lapels, maintained her composure throughout, answering calmly as Estevao jumped across the timeline of her and Mr Combs' relationship. Many times, Ms Ventura was confused about the timeframe of Estevao's line of questioning, with Estevao at one point admitting, "I know I'm all over the place".
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