Cassie Ventura detailed her traumatic relationship with Sean "Diddy" Combs and pleaded with a judge to consider her and other victims' experiences ahead of the rap mogul's sentencing on Friday.
In a letter from Ventura, filed on Tuesday and addressed to Judge Arun Subramanian, she said she learned "victims and survivors will never be safe" but she "can hope for justice and accountability" in the sentencing of her ex-boyfriend.
Ventura testified for four days during the first week of the trial, as prosecutors attempted to lay the foundation of their criminal case against Combs.
She testified that they began an on-and-off relationship that lasted for more than a decade. While Ventura said their relationship had a loving and positive start, she testified that Combs became increasingly violent with her, threatened her if she ever disobeyed him and required her to participate in drug-fueled sex parties called "freak-offs."
Combs was ultimately found not guilty of the most serious charges against him -- racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking -- but was found guilty on two counts of transportation for the purposes of prostitution.
"For four days in May, while nine months pregnant with my son, I testified in front of a packed courtroom about the most traumatic and horrifying chapter in my life," wrote Ventura in the letter.
She summarized her testimony further, recounting the alleged "degrading and disgusting" sex parties which she said left her with "infections, illnesses, and days of physical and emotional exhaustion before he demanded it all again."
She also recounted details from her testimony surrounding the alleged threats and violence Combs allegedly imparted toward her and those around her.
"The entire courtroom watched actual footage of Combs kicking and beating me as I tried to run away from a freak off in 2016. People watched this footage dozens of times, seeing my body thrown to the ground, my hands over my head, curled into a fetal position to shield me from the worst blows," she wrote, referencing the now-infamous 2016 Intercontinental Hotel video footage showing Combs physically attacking Ventura.
In her letter, Ventura wrote that in her time dating Combs, she found herself "in a constant state of hypervigilance" and anticipating retribution. She wrote that her "descent into substance abuse" was tied to Combs' attempts to control several aspects of her life, adding "I used those drugs to push through the horrifying sex acts he demanded and to numb myself to the physical pain and emotional turmoil I was constantly in."
She also pushed back on the defense attorneys' characterization of her relationship with Combs as "a great modern love story," a term Combs' attorney used in trial.
Ventura said she has spent the last seven years, since their 2019 final breakup, recovering from the alleged trauma she endured.
"I still have nightmares and flashbacks on a regular, everyday basis, and continue to require psychological care to cope with my past," she wrote. "My worries that Sean Combs or his associates will come after me and my family is my reality. I have in fact moved my family out of the New York area and am keeping as private and quiet as I possibly can because I am so scared that if he walks free, his first actions will be swift retribution towards me and others who spoke up about his abuse at trial."
She also expressed doubt at the defense attorneys' characterization of Combs as "a changed man."
"His defense attorneys claim he is a changed man, and he wants to mentor abusers," she wrote. "I know firsthand what real mentorship means, and this disgusts me; he is not being truthful. I know that who he was to me—the manipulator, the aggressor, the abuser, the trafficker—is who he is as a human. He has no interest in changing or becoming better."
Ventura concluded her letter, drawing attention to the jury's final decision that Combs was not guilty of the racketeering or sex trafficking charges he faced.
"While the jury did not seem to understand or believe that I engaged in freak offs because of the force and coercion the defendant used against me, I know that is the truth, and his sentence should reflect the reality of the evidence and my lived experience as a victim," she wrote.
She finished, "I hope that your sentencing decision reflects the strength it took for victims of Sean Combs to come forward. I hope that your decision considers the many lives that Sean Combs has upended with his abuse and control."
Prosecutors have urged the judge to sentence Combs to 11 years in prison, arguing that despite his acquittal on more serious charges Combs is "unrepentant" and left victims in fear.
The recommendation is far in excess of what defense attorneys sought, which amounts to about time served.
In a filing this month, Combs' attorneys called the prosecutors' approach to sentencing "draconian" arguing "it would be unlawful, and a perversion of justice, for the Court to sentence him as if the jury had convicted him of sex trafficking and RICO, or to increase his sentence based on the Court's own findings about force or coercion or racketeering."
Combs' legal team also called his case "unique," since they said he made no money from the prostitution crimes. His attorneys appealed to Combs' character in urging the judge for a lenient sentence.
Ventura's initial civil lawsuit against Combs, which was filed in 2023 and alleged sex trafficking and sexual assault, settled quickly, but set the groundwork for the federal criminal case, which was ultimately levied against Combs.
ABC News reached out to a representative for Combs, who did not provide a comment on the matter.
