Quickly after viciously attacking his longtime girlfriend Cassie in a lodge hallway, Sean “Diddy” Combs sought out a safety guard and predicted precisely that his iconic profession could be ruined — his picture because the affable, profitable “Puff Daddy” destroyed — if video of the beating ever turned public.
Eddy Garcia, 33, testified Thursday that the hip-hop mogul made the remark repeatedly earlier than giving a brown paper bag filled with $100,000 in money to the then-guard with a view to purchase what he hoped was the one copy of surveillance footage of the March 2016 assault.
Prosecutors at Combs’ intercourse trafficking trial in Manhattan have made the footage of Combs kicking, beating and dragging Cassie on the Intercontinental Resort in Los Angeles a centerpiece of their federal case towards him. They contend it helps the claims of three girls, together with Cassie, who allege the Dangerous Boy Data founder sexually and bodily abused them over twenty years.
Prosecutors say Combs’ persistent efforts to hush up the episode match into allegations he used threats and his fortune and fame to get what he wished.
Combs, 55, has pleaded not responsible to intercourse trafficking and racketeering expenses.
After the assault, Garcia stated, he spoke a number of occasions to Combs’ chief-of-staff, Kristina Khorram, telling her he could not present her the recording however “off the record, it’s bad.”
He stated throughout one telephone name she put a “very nervous”-sounding Combs on the telephone, who “was just saying he had a little too much to drink” and that, as Garcia surely knows, “with women, one thing leads to another and if this got out it would ruin him.”
Garcia added: “He was talking really fast, a lot of stuttering.”
Within the night, Garcia stated, he turned nervous and scared when Khorram referred to as him on his cellphone — the quantity for which he had not supplied — and he or she put Combs on.
“He stated that I sounded like a good guy,” Garcia testified, including that Combs once more stated “something like this could ruin him.”
When he informed Combs he did not have entry to the server to acquire the video footage, Combs stated he believed Garcia may make it occur and that “he would take care of me,” which Garcia stated he took “to imply financially.”
Garcia stated he checked along with his boss and was informed he’d promote it to Combs for $50,000.
A former private assistant of Sean “Diddy” Combs was again on the stand to start week 4 of the intercourse trafficking trial. The girl, who is simply being referred to by the pseudonym “Mia,” confronted cross-examination after accusing Combs of sexually assaulting her on a number of events. NBC New York’s Erica Byfield studies.
When he informed Combs, he stated the music producer “sounded excited.”
“He referred to me as ‘Eddy my angel,’” Garcia stated, including that Combs informed him: “I knew you could help. I knew you could do it.”
Inside two days of the assault on Cassie, whose actual identify is Casandra Ventura, Garcia gave Combs a storage gadget containing the footage in trade for $100,000 in money — with Combs feeding payments by way of a cash counter and placing them in a brown paper bag.
Garcia signed a confidentiality and non-disclosure settlement, proven in court docket, that required he pay $1 million if he breached the deal. On the time, he stated, he was making $10.50 an hour working lodge safety.
Garcia stated he signed a declaration swearing that there was no different copy of the video.
He stated he signed the papers in an workplace constructing with Combs’ bodyguard and Khorram current. Garcia stated he didn’t totally learn the paperwork, explaining that he was nervous and “the goal was to get out of there as soon as possible.”
After signing, he stated, Combs requested him what he deliberate to do with the cash and suggested him to not make massive purchases. Garcia stated he took that to imply he shouldn’t do something that might draw consideration.
Garcia stated he gave $50,000 to his boss and $20,000 to a different safety officer. He pocketed $30,000 and used a few of it to purchase a used automotive, he stated.
He used money and, avoiding an extra paper path, by no means put the cash within the financial institution, he stated.
A couple of weeks later, Garcia stated, Combs referred to as him and requested if anybody had inquired in regards to the video. Garcia stated no, recounting Combs’ ebullient greeting: “Happy Easter. Eddy, my angel. God is good. God put you in my way for a reason.”
Garcia stated he requested Combs if the rapper may need future work for him, and Combs sounded receptive. However Combs by no means responded to his later inquiries, the witness stated.
Final 12 months, CNN aired footage of the safety video. One other lodge guard has testified he recorded the footage on his telephone so he may present it to his spouse.
