- An ex-dancer took the witness stand in Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex-trafficking trial.
- He testified that he would have sex for money with R&B singer Cassie Ventura.
- Combs faces a potential life sentence if convicted. The trial is expected to last two months.
When a male erotic dancer first met Sean "Diddy" Combs in 2012, the hip-hop mogul was unconvincing in how he described his career, the man testified Monday.
That dancer, Daniel Phillip, testified during Combs' sex-trafficking trial that he would then go on to be paid to have sex with R&B singer Cassie Ventura.
"He told me he was in importing and exporting," Phillip, the ex-dancer, said on the witness stand, giving the Combs jury its earliest firsthand account of what happened at a "freak off" — the elaborate performances at the center of the sex-trafficking case.
Phillip told rapt jurors that he believed he was called to Manhattan's Gramercy Park Hotel that night in order to perform as a dancer for a bachelorette party.
"I was expecting to do a little strip tease and that's it," he testified.
Instead, "Cassie opened the door and asked if it was OK if it was just going to be us," he told the jury.
"She said her husband wanted to do something special for her," he said Ventura told him, while wearing red lingerie, a red wig, and red high heels.
Phillip testified Ventura told him his assignment would be to rub baby oil on her — and more, if he was up to it.
Combs, meanwhile, sat in the corner of the darkened room, wearing only a bathrobe and the bandana that covered his face from the nose down, he said.
"He wasn't going to try to touch me or anything," Phillip said Ventura told him of Combs. "I said that's good, because I wasn't with that."
In the room, Phillip said he saw velvet couches and a table topped with lit candles, bottles of baby oil, and Astroglide lubricant.
Phillip testified he expected to be paid $200, and that he recognized Combs "as soon as he spoke to me."
"I complimented the room, the hotel that we were in, and I asked him what he did for a living," Phillip testified. That's when Combs said his job was in imports and exports, he added.
"We ended up having sex," Phillip told jurors of his encounter with Ventura.
Prosecutor Maurene Comey asked Phillip, "Before you and Ms. Ventura had intercourse, what, if anything, did you rub on each other?"
Phillip responded, "Baby oil."
He told the jury that during the encounter, Combs sat in the corner and masturbated."
At the end, "Cassie gave me more money. I think a couple thousand dollars more," he said.
Phillip said they had several more similar sexual encounters, including in hotels across Manhattan, in Combs' personal residence in Midtown, and in Ventura's home on Manhattan's west side.
At one point, during an encounter at JW Marriott Essex House, Combs stopped wearing a mask, Phillip said.
"This was the first time that Sean Combs opened the door as himself. You know, dressed in a suit," he said, adding that these encounters went on until late 2013 or 2014.
As the encounters continued, Phillip said he saw an angry side to Combs.
During one, Combs threw a liquor bottle at Ventura because she did not immediately come over when he said, "Babe, come here," Phillip said. Phillip said Combs then dragged Ventura into a bedroom, and that he could hear Combs slapping her.
Combs is on trial for sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. He faces up to life in prison if convicted on all counts.
The trial, set to run about two months, officially kicked off earlier Monday with opening statements.
If you are a survivor of sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline (1-800-656-4673) or visit its website to receive confidential support.
