Sean 'Diddy' Combs is on trial in New York for serious federal charges like racketeering and sex trafficking. He is accused of having run a criminal enterprise that for two decades (2004-2024) has exploited women, been violent and coercive, and used a lot of drugs and threats. Nobody has shined a harsher light on the situation than Cassie Ventura, Combs's ex-girlfriend. Kid Cudi (the rapper) has also testified against Combs, saying he used to tell Cudi that he (Combs) had had a car bomb detonated in his (Cudi's) face. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Expert witness Dr Dawn Hughes testified as a clinical psychologist and outlined how trauma can affect memory and behavior, stating that delayed PTSD and fragmented recall are common among abuse victims.
Victims of consistent violence and sexual assault remain in a relationship with their abuser for a multitude of reasons, which can be difficult to comprehend, commented Hughes. Expert witnesses are not allowed to examine the defendant, nor was she allowed to use any of the elements of a crime that have been proven in this case against Combs to help explain the abhorrent behavior of a man who has been figured in a great deal of testimony over the last week and a half.
Under even the best circumstances, breaking up with someone is difficult, Hughes said. When there's all this violence and abuse going on, you're just trying to live each day in a really micro way, she explained, devoting all your emotional resources to not getting hit and therefore having none left to figure out how to safely exit an abusive relationship.
Trauma victims, she said, experience a "tremendous amount" of shame, humiliation and degradation.
Hughes told the jury that when victims manage to get away from an abusive relationship, they frequently go back to their abuser. Hughes said that this was the case with Ventura, who had gone back to Combs. Ventura testified that she had gone back to Combs several times after trying to get away from him.
The rigorous cross-examination of Dr. Dawn Hughes, interrupted by sidebars and having to confer outside the jury's presence, focused on her "general" testimony that defense attorney Jonathan Bach said is "not keyed to the particular facts at issue" in the trial. Hughes's areas of focus were not the trial's particularities. She was not there to testify about the particulars at question.
Hughes was portrayed in the defense's version as a person who earns her living by testifying, not by practicing clinically. She was a sort of gun for hire.
"Isn't it a fact that you have never come into court, taken the witness stand in defense of a man accused of a sex crime?" Bach asked. "That's correct, I don't evaluate offenders," Hughes responded.
On re-direct, Hughes said she has testified for both the prosecution and defense in criminal cases.
"Have you also been retained by defense attorneys?" prosecutor Mitzi Steiner asked. "Yes of course," Hughes answered.
"Have you been retained by any of the defense attorneys in this case?" Steiner asked. "Yes, I have," Hughes replied.
Hughes had been retained in a case by Combs' attorney Brian Steel. On re-cross, Hughes said she was not called to testify in that case.
Her testimony is over. The next witness is George Kaplan.
Eddie Price
https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/ptsd/what-is-ptsd
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