Three days into Casandra Ventura‘s testimony, the federal trial against Sean “Diddy” Combs was the most-talked-about topic on social media. Bombshell details about their sexual relationship over 10 years came into strong focus. Cassie provided never-heard information about sex and drug-fueled parties, nicknamed “Freak Offs,” “Wild King Nights,” and “Hotel Nights.” The singer’s testimony included mention of several male escorts and sex workers the couple engaged with, but who exactly are these men? Keep reading to see what we know about them, which two escorts testified in the trial, and even how a few look.
Daniel Phillip: Second Male Witness In Diddy’s Trial
Daniel Phillip was the second witness to take the stand on Monday (May 12) after a hotel security guard. On the stand, Phillip, a professional stripper, said he was paid to have intercourse with Cassie while Sean Combs allegedly watched. According to the Associated Press, he was paid between $700 and $6,000.
He said the first encounter happened at the Gramercy Park Hotel. At first, he expected to perform “a little stripper dance” at a bachelorette party seeking a Black male dancer. When he arrived, he noted Cassie in the room wearing a red wig, stockings, and sunglasses. There were also red couches and the lubricant Astroglide. Meanwhile, a male — later identified as Diddy in disguise — was sitting on the right side of the room. He allegedly wore a white robe, baseball cap, and a bandana over his eyes. Cassie reportedly paid him a few hundred dollars before the intercourse, and a few thousand after, Daniel testified.
Phillip also said he stopped going to “freak offs” after he witnessed Diddy harm Cassie. That abuse allegedly included throwing a bottle at Cassie and dragging her by her hair into a bedroom.
Jonathan Oddi: Trump Resort Shooter Who Previously Claimed To Be Diddy’s “Sex Slave”
During Cassie’s testimony, Jonathan Oddi went viral on social media as trial followers pointed out his previous attempts to “expose” Diddy. Oddi went viral in 2018 after he stormed the Trump National Doral Miami resort, and then got into a shootout and chase with police. He’s still in jail, by the way. Oddi is charged with attempted murder of law enforcement, armed theft, and burglary.
Five years before that hotel incident, the Miami Herald reports that he was a “regular stripper” for a website called Dancing Bear. The site previously created and published videos of women performing sex acts on male dancers at staged parties. He allegedly met Combs through an agency request.
After his arrest for the resort incident, Jonathan Oddi kept mentioning a few topics, from Trump to P. Diddy. At the station, he insisted that he was a “sex slave” for Sean Combs and Cassie.
“I had sex with Cassie and Sean. Basically, he would masturbate and tell me what to do to Cassie. I had like 15 encounters, and I heard lots of business…I was like a sex slave. For them, that’s what I was,” Oddi said in a recorded police interview, per NewsNation Now.
At the time, police brushed off his claims. However, during Cassie’s testimony, she confirmed that Oddi was one of the male escorts involved in the infamous FOs. She identified him as “Jonathan from Miami” and later admitted that she “didn’t trust” him and believed he had a video of her—which turned out to be true.
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Last week, Jonathan told NewsNation that Diddy paid him $800 for each encounter. Additionally, he said Combs would sometimes allegedly call twice or request he return again hours after one of the freak offs.
Oddi told NewsNation that he “got along well” with Cassie and thought she was “a decent person.” He also claimed he had “suspicion” about her situation with Diddy, but that her trial testimony confirmed his own experiences.
“And now, I understand what was going on in her life and what was happening, and him beating her up in the hotel shows me the type of individual he is and that everything that happened to me is … true and correct and in line with his personality,” Oddi told the outlet.
Oddi also claimed that Diddy was “scared” of being exposed, and that the music mogul followed and threatened him, often filtering threats through Cassie. The FOs with Oddi ended after an argument with Diddy.
Before then, though, Oddi allegedly recorded a session using a secret device after Cassie had reportedly passed out during a drug-fueled freak off. The male escort has gotten scared of someone overdosing and didn’t want to be held responsible, he said. Oddi also told NewsNation that he and Combs privately settled for $5 million in 2014 in exchange for the sexual video recording.
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Sharay "The Punisher" Hayes: Participant In 8-12 Freak Offs
Ahead of a lunch break on day seven of Diddy’s trial, prosecutors called Sharay Hayes to the witness stand. Hayes was an exotic dancer known as “The Punisher.” He testified that Sean Combs and Cassie brought him into the freak-offs world.
He said a woman named Janet — Cassie using a fake name — called and told him it was her birthday and that her husband said she should hire a dancer. Hayes, per the Associated Press, said he arrived at a Manhattan hotel room expecting to perform a striptease for a small group of people. Instead, he found the woman who hired him, Cassie, alone with an otherwise naked man who hid his face with a burqa-like cloth and had lubricant in his hand. That man, he said, turned out to be Diddy. Hayes recalled seeing bottles of baby oil in bowls of water and receiving $800 in cash. Later, after Diddy watched him have a sexual encounter with Cassie, Sharay Hayes said he got an additional $1,200 — the amount he’d get from freak offs. The freak offs lasted about four hours, used “a lot” of baby oil, and was tasked with “finishing” in a specific spot.
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He said he was a fan of Sean Combs but didn’t realize it was him in the room until another encounter at another hotel. There, the message on the TV screen said: “Essex House would like to welcome Mr. Sean Combs.” He also later allegedly saw Diddy’s face. In total, The Punisher testified that he participated in about 8 or 12 freak offs with Cassie and Diddy, and that he sometimes worried about losing the gig due to erectile dysfunction issues.
Later, during cross-examination, Hayes testified that he never witnessed violence between Cassie and Diddy or any objections to his directions during freak offs.
“I did not get any cues that there was a discomfort with what was going on. It seemed as if it was consented, as far as I was concerned,” Hayes said.
He did observe a “sigh” or a “wince,” but it appeared to lean more toward frustration than objection.
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Other Male Escorts Cassie Named In The Trial
Cassie testified that for years, she didn’t want the seedy details about the “freak offs” to be public knowledge. She continued to do them, she testified, under threats by Diddy to release recordings of her during the encounters. At one point, Cas involved her mother, Regina Ventura. Ventura testified that she took out a home equity loan and wired Diddy $20,000 to protect her daughter from his threat of releasing a tape of her.
Cassie also revealed that the “freak offs” were highly organized events, saying Diddy only dealt with “safe escorts.” She took that to mean men who wouldn’t snitch to the police or try to expose them. One way she said male escorts were solicited was via Craigslist and Backpage in New York, and Combs always paid cash, sometimes guards, and sometimes Cas, per testimony from her, Daniel Phillip, and “The Punisher.” And yes, there was lots of baby oil and Astroglide. Diddy, Cassie testified, hated dry skin and wanted her glistening — a detail Punisher confirmed in his testimony.
On the stand, Cassie also identified male escorts shown in pictures by the prosecution.
“Islander” was from the Latin Men site and participated in freak offs in Los Angeles and maybe Vegas. Other men she recognized in photos were Tommy and Greg. She couldn’t identify one man but said he looked “familiar from the freak-offs.”
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Photos & More Names Released By Prosecution In Diddy's Trial
Photography and videotaping aren’t allowed in the courtroom, but the prosecution put a face to the male sex workers named so far in the trial, and others.
In the photos:
Tony appears white or Hispanic, with a bald look and beard in government exhibit 2A-616.
Greg, a Black male depicted in government exhibit 2A-620.
Jake, who appears to be white or Hispanic, is in government exhibit 2A-618.
Johnny, a Black male, is in government exhibit 2A-619.
Jules, a male of unknown race, is in government exhibit 2A-628.
Brian, a Black male, is in government exhibit 2A-633.
Ash, a white or Hispanic male, is in government exhibit 2A-617.
Skylar, a white or Hispanic male, is in government exhibit, 2A 616.
Three unidentified Black men (exhibits 2A-602, 2A-632, and 2A-634) and two unidentified White or Hispanic men (exhibits 2A-601 and 2A-607) were also among the photos circulating on social media.
Associated Press Staff Michael R. Sisak and Larry Neumeister contributed to this report.
