{"id":5967,"date":"2025-05-22T00:31:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T00:31:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/psychologist-ex-assistant-take-witness-stand\/"},"modified":"2025-05-22T00:31:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T00:31:20","slug":"psychologist-ex-assistant-take-witness-stand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/psychologist-ex-assistant-take-witness-stand\/","title":{"rendered":"Psychologist, Ex-Assistant Take Witness Stand"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tJ<\/span>urors at Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs\u2019 sex-trafficking trial heard testimony Wednesday (May 21) from a psychologist about abusive relationships and from one of the hip-hop mogul\u2019s former assistants, who was granted legal immunity before he took the stand.<\/p>\n

\n\tMidway through the second week of Diddy\u2019s trial, prosecutors called Dawn Hughes, a clinical psychologist who also testified at the sex abuse trials of disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly and NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere, as well as in Johnny Depp\u2019s civil defamation case against Amber Heard.<\/p>\n

\n\tHughes is one of many witnesses already called by prosecutors, who claim Combs coerced longtime girlfriend Cassie Ventura and others into participating in drug-fueled sex shows known as \u201cfreak-offs.\u201d Defense attorneys have said the events were consensual.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the stand, Hughes said it\u2019s common for victims of abusive relationships to stay for years because they feel trapped: \u201cThey experience a tremendous amount of shame, humiliation, degradation,\u201d Hughes told the jury, as reported by CNN<\/em><\/a>, before later adding that victims often use substances to \u201cnumb\u201d themselves.<\/p>\n

\n\tLater in the day, the jury heard from George Kaplan, a former assistant to Diddy who was subpoenaed to testify, according to NBC News<\/em><\/a>. After concerns that Kaplan might invoke his Fifth Amendment right to not testify, prosecutors granted him immunity so that he could do so without concern of prosecution.<\/p>\n

\n\tKaplan testified that part of his job was setting up and cleaning up rooms for freak-offs, after which he would often find liquor bottles and baby oil strewn around the hotel rooms. He said he understood that Diddy\u2019s reputation had to be closely safeguarded: \u201cProtecting him and protecting his public image was very important and that was something I was very keen on doing,\u201d Kaplan said.<\/p>\n

\n\tCombs was indicted in September, charged with running a sprawling criminal operation aimed at facilitating the freak-offs \u2014 elaborate events in which Combs and others allegedly pressured Ventura and other victims into having sex with escorts while he watched and masturbated. Prosecutors also say the star and his associates used violence, money and blackmail to keep victims silent and under his control. (Read Billboard<\/em>\u2018s full explainer of the case against Diddy here.)<\/p>\n

\n\tOnce one of the music industry\u2019s most powerful men, Combs is accused of racketeering conspiracy (a so-called RICO charge), sex trafficking and violating a federal prostitution statute. If convicted on all of the charges, he faces a potential life prison sentence.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring the first week of the trial, Ventura herself spent four days on the stand detailing how Combs allegedly controlled and physically abused her during their 11-year relationship. She said the sex parties left her feeling \u201chumiliated\u201d but that she felt she had no choice but to participate.<\/p>\n

\n\tDefense attorneys maintain that Ventura and other women consensually took part in the sex parties. They\u2019ve admitted that Combs had committed domestic violence during his and Ventura\u2019s \u201ctoxic\u201d relationship and had unusual sexual preferences, but that he had never coerced her into participating in his \u201cswinger\u201d lifestyle.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile cross-examining Ventura, Combs\u2019 attorneys showed jurors huge numbers of text messages and emails between the couple \u2014 some romantic, others graphically sexual \u2014 in an effort to show that Ventura was a willing and, at times enthusiastic, participant in the freak-offs.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe trial will continue Thursday (May 22), first with more testimony from Kaplan and then from rapper Kid Cudi, who will likely be asked about an infamous incident in which Combs allegedly set Cudi\u2019s car on fire as payback for dating Ventura. Cudi, a surprise witness, was originally going to take the stand on Wednesday, but his testimony was postponed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jurors at Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs\u2019 sex-trafficking trial heard testimony Wednesday (May 21) from a psychologist about abusive relationships and from one of the hip-hop mogul\u2019s former assistants, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6044,6043,2201,3935],"class_list":["post-5967","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-exassistant","tag-psychologist","tag-stand","tag-witness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}