The Punisher, Better known by his stage name Star, is an exotic dancer and sex worker who ended up at the center of a high-stakes legal battle swirling around music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs. He walked away from the courtroom wondering whose side he served.
The Punisher, who became notorious for attending private, high-dollar “freak-off” parties thrown by Diddy and his then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura, was arrested as a witness for the prosecution. But if his testimony was intended to tighten the noose around the music icon, it might have inadvertently loosened it.
“I’ll be honest, walking into that courtroom, I thought I was prepared,” he told Fox News Digital. “But it was very nerve-racking. I did not realize there were that many people.”
Shaken nerves and the eyes of the court upon him, The Punisher revealed the details of his encounters, personal, unorthodox, and drenched in baby oil. He remembered being hired in 2012 to do what he thought would be a run-of-the-mill striptease. Instead, he entered a bizarre tableau at the Trump International Hotel: Cassie and her bathrobe and wig.
Hayes said that he attended about 8 to 12 of these sessions over two and a half years, and the picture was not of anything that odd, much less incriminating. He described sessions in which Diddy wore a Muslim-style hijab to mask his identity. While the visual of the situation was strange, there was no mention in his testimony of Diddy being coerced, uncomfortable, or high on drugs, three themes the prosecution had previously depended on.
“I don’t ever see Diddy high or drunk,” he said. Even more telling: ‘‘I never once in my whole life saw Cassie appear uncomfortable.’
And the lack of that damning detail seemed to work against the prosecution’s case more than for it. Hayes himself appeared to be in on the twist.
“I truly believed my testimony, because there was nothing negative … I truly believed it was something the defense would use to gain advantage,” he said.
The prosecution’s approach seemed to be creating a pattern of control and exploitation, but Hayes’ memories failed to fit the mold. Far from striking the defense a blow, they could reinforce doubts about the consistency of the accusations.
“I’m not a legal analyst or anything,” Hayes said, “but sometimes I said, well, maybe the prosecution just wants to question me and have everything in case the defense calls me.
After his time on the stand, The Punisher grapples with more questions than he has answers to. In a trial fueled by sensual headlines and muddy truths, his testimony stands out not for its scandal but its bizarre detachment.
Wild card or miscalculation, I don’t know; the Punisher went to court thinking he’d land a punch. Then he walked out, thinking he might have just done Diddy one.
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