The high-profile racketeering and sex-trafficking trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs began on Monday, with prosecutors declaring that “there was another side” to the hip-hop mogul, saying that he “ran a criminal enterprise” and noting that three women would testify during the trial who can speak to Combs’s alleged coercion and/or sexual misconduct.

Combs, 55, was arrested in September 2024 and has been charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation for prostitution –  all felony charges.

More than 100 people stood in line outside of the Manhattan courthouse on Monday morning to catch a glimpse of the players in this high-profile case and to watch it unfold. Among those in line were journalists, content creators, New York residents and fans of the music mogul.

Before opening statements began, the jury of 12 New York residents was selected and seated. In the courtroom, members of Combs’s family, including his mother, Janice Combs, and children, sat in the front row.

Prosecutor Emily A Johnson accused Combs in her opening statement of threatening, drugging and violently coercing women into sex. She said that Combs had an inner coterie who helped him cover up the alleged crimes, and that company resources were used to fulfill his sexual desires.

“He sometimes called himself the king, and he expected to be treated like one,” she said.

Combs, the prosecution alleged, along with his inner circle, “committed crime after crime” over 20 years.

The prosecution’s case, per Johnson’s opening statement, will include accounts by three women, Combs’s former girlfriend Casandra Ventura (known as Cassie), and two Jane Does. One of the unnamed women is a former employee who is slated to testify that Combs forced himself on her sexually on multiple occasions.

At the center of the prosecution’s case is an assault that took place with Combs and Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel in 2016. Surveillance footage of that incident rocked headlines when it broke last year, despite – as Johnson noted – an attempt by Combs and his chief of staff to “broker a deal” with the hotel.

Combs’s lawyer, Teny Geragos, began her opening statement by saying that Combs “is a complicated man, but this is not a complicated case”. Geragos said that prosecutors were attempting to dub consensual sexual relationships as sex trafficking, and said that Combs and his girlfriends engaged in a “swingers lifestyle”.

“It will not work,” she said, later adding: “This case is about Sean Combs’s private, personal sex life, which has nothing to do with his lawful businesses.”

Geragos said the women in Diddy’s life “were strong, capable, and they were were in love with him” and that “the evidence is going to show you a very flawed individual, but it will not show you a racketeer, a sex trafficker or somebody transporting for prostitution”.

Geragos added that the women had “freedom to make the choices they made” adding that they made “free choices every single day for years”.

Of the aforementioned video with Ventura, Geragos conceded that while it was “overwhelming evidence of domestic violence”, “it’s overwhelming evidence that this domestic violence is over a phone, and not over sex trafficking.”

The first witness called after opening statements was Israel Florez, a Los Angeles police officer who was a security guard at the InterContinental hotel in March 2016 when Combs was seen on video physically assaulting Ventura.

Florez testified that he was called about a “woman in distress on the sixth floor” and later found Ventura wearing a hoodie in a corner while Combs was seated with “a devilish stare”.

Florez then said he escorted Combs and Ventura back to their room, and testified that he witnessed Combs allegedly telling Ventura that she couldn’t leave the hotel, but then shortly after, telling her to leave.

After Ventura left the room, Combs allegedly offered Florez money. “He was telling me: ‘Don’t tell nobody,’” Florez said, adding that he “100%” thought Combs was bribing him.

The jury was shown the hotel surveillance footage that was published by CNN last year of Combs wearing a towel, hitting, kicking and dragging Ventura down a hallway. They were then shown images of the aftermath of assault, which included broken items and dirt on the walls. Additional video footage of the assault was also shown, which was surveillance footage recorded on Florez’s personal phone.

Florez testified that he did not call the police because Ventura had not answered his questions when he spoke with her and kept saying she wanted to leave, before leaving the hotel with a driver.

During cross-examination, Brian Steel, one of Combs’s lawyers, questioned Florez on why his initial incident report did not mention that he had heard Combs tell Ventura she couldn’t leave. Florez told the court that he didn’t believe it was a “significant fact” worth including at the time.

Following Florez, the prosecution’s second witness called on Monday was Daniel Phillip, a former manager of a “male revue show”, which he has called a strip show for women.

Phillip testified that in 2012, he was paid by Ventura to have sex with her in front of Combs, which he says was “something special” for her then partner. After that event, Phillip said he would return to have sex with Ventura several more times over the next year or two in various hotels in New York, as well as in Combs’s and Ventura’s homes in the city.

Of the first encounter, Phillip testified that Ventura paid him a few thousand dollars before having sex with her in front of Combs, who wore a white robe, a baseball cap, and a bandana over his face, while he masturbated. Combs, in an attempt to conceal his identity, told Phillip he was in the importing and exporting business, though Phillip testified that he recognized the voice as Combs’s.

Phillip testified that Combs asked for his driver’s license and took a picture of it, telling him at the time that it was “just for insurance”.

“I understood it to be that he was threatening me,” Phillip told the court.

Phillip said that during the sexual encounters, Combs would “direct” him and Ventura, telling them to act out certain scenarios and what sex acts to perform.

Phillip recalled a few incidents when he said he witnessed Combs either throw something at or hit Ventura. He said he was “shocked” and “terrified” and said that he did not intervene out of fear, as this was “someone with unlimited power and chances are even if I did go to the police, that I might still end up losing my life”.

On another incident when Ventura was struck by Combs, Phillip testified that he “tried to explain to her that she was in real danger if she stayed with him”.

As testimony got increasingly explicit, Combs’s three daughters in attendance left the courtroom. His sons stayed seated and were seen passing notes periodically.

The trial began in earnest after attorneys on both sides removed several jurors on Monday morning, with Combs’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo noting that prosecutors eliminated seven Black potential jurors. The prosecution said it did not demonstrate any bias during jury selection and selected a “very diverse group of jurors”. The judge denied Combs’s lawyer’s challenge and then proceeded with opening statements.

Federal prosecutors allege that Combs used his expansive multimedia empire as a “criminal enterprise” with the help of associates and employees, to engage in or attempt to engage in crimes including sex trafficking, kidnapping, forced labor, arson, bribery, enticement to engage in prostitution, and obstruction of justice, over several decades.

Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges and firmly denies any wrongdoing. Earlier this month, he rejected a plea deal during his final pre-trial hearing.

If convicted, Combs, who has been in custody since his September arrest, faces the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars.

The trial is expected to last about eight weeks, with testimony from at least three, possibly four, accusers, according to Reuters.

On Monday, court adjourned at 5pm ET. The trial is set to resume on Tuesday morning, with Phillip expected to re-take the stand again to continue his cross examination.

The proceedings are taking place at the federal district court in lower Manhattan. Due to federal court regulations, the trial will not be televised.

• Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organizations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html