The court issued a Rule 412 ruling before the jury returned, then Casandra Ventura's cross-examination continued through messages, recordings, drug use, secrecy, and her accounts of alleged incidents.
Full day summary
Before the jury returned, the court ruled that Rule 412 applied to challenged defense text-message excerpts and excluded them, while permitting questions about other relationships and appropriate redactions. During continued cross-examination, Casandra Ventura answered questions about messages concerning relationship conflicts, freak-offs, recordings, drug use, and her communications involving Mr. Mescudi. She agreed that some messages discussed planning encounters, said she did not want sexual videos recorded, and qualified several defense characterizations of her motives, secrecy, and recollections. She maintained that she saw the alleged balcony incident involving Ms. Bongolan and clarified that she did not see the alleged hanger strike on Ms. Morgan. The court directed counsel to clarify non-hearsay purposes for messages, streamline exhibit review, and prepare for completion of cross-examination.