Global News Post Fastest Global News Portal
Related Articles
NOTE: The following article comprises hectic main points and video photos. Please learn at your individual discretion.
Sean “Diddy” Combs instructed a former Los Angeles resort guard it will break his occupation if a safety video of the hip-hop rich person kicking and dragging his ex-girlfriend Cassie Ventura in 2016 had been made public, the safety specialist testified Tuesday at Combs’ federal intercourse trafficking and racketeering trial.
Eddy Garcia, 33, testified to a jury that Combs made the remark time and again in March 2016, quickly after the assault, as he attempted to shop for what he was hoping was once the one replica of the video.
Prosecutors have made the photos from the Intercontinental Hotel a centrepiece of proof in opposition to the Bad Boy Records founder, pronouncing it helps the claims of 3 ladies, together with Ventura, who allege Combs abused them sexually and bodily over the last twenty years. They additionally say Combs’ power efforts to hush up the episode have compatibility into allegations that he used threats and his fortune and status to get what he sought after.
Combs has pleaded no longer in charge to more than one counts of an indictment accusing him of a development of abuse towards Ventura and others.
Day 15
After the assault, Garcia stated, he spoke a number of occasions to Combs’ chief-of-staff, Kristina Khorram, telling her he couldn’t display her the recording however “off the record, it’s bad.”
Garcia, who’s attesting below an immunity order, stated all over one telephone name she put a “very nervous” sounding Combs at the telephone. He “was just saying he had a little too much to drink” and that, as Garcia certainly is aware of, “with women, one thing leads to another and if this got out it would ruin him.”
“He was talking really fast, a lot of stuttering,” Garcia added.
In the night, Garcia stated, he turned into apprehensive and scared when Khorram referred to as him at house on his mobile phone — a host he had no longer supplied — and 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.”
“He was concerned that this video would get out and that it would ruin his career,” Garcia instructed the courtroom.
When he instructed Combs he didn’t have get right of entry to to the server to acquire the video photos, Combs stated he believed Garcia may just make it occur and that “he would take care of me,” which Garcia stated he took “to mean financially.”
Garcia stated he checked along with his boss and was once instructed he’d promote the video to Combs for US$50,000.
When he instructed Combs, he stated the tune manufacturer “sounded excited.”
“He referred to me as ‘Eddy my angel,’” Garcia stated, including that Combs instructed him: “I knew you could help. I knew you could do it.”
Get breaking National information
For information impacting Canada and around the globe, join breaking information signals delivered immediately to you once they occur.
Within two days of Combs’ assault on Ventura, Garcia delivered a garage tool containing the photos to Combs, who paid him $100,000 in money — feeding expenses via a cash counter and placing them in a brown paper bag.
Garcia signed a confidentiality and non-disclosure settlement (NDA), proven in courtroom, that required him to pay $1 million if he breached the deal. At the time, he stated, he was once making $10.50 an hour operating resort safety.
Garcia stated he signed a declaration swearing that, below the penalty of perjury, there was once no different replica of the video.
“He said it had to be the only copy and that he didn’t want it getting out and if I was sure nothing was on the cloud,” Garcia stated.
He stated he signed the papers in an place of job construction with Combs’ bodyguard and Khorram provide. Garcia stated he didn’t absolutely learn the paperwork, explaining that he was once apprehensive 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 recommended him to not make any giant purchases. Garcia stated he took that to imply he shouldn’t do the rest that will draw consideration.
Garcia stated he gave $50,000 to his boss, who had mentioned promoting the video for benefit sooner than Combs intervened, and $20,000 to every other safety officer. He pocketed $30,000 and used a few of it to buy a used automobile, he stated.
He used money and, fending off 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 someone had inquired concerning 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 that at the name, he requested Combs if the rapper may have long term paintings for him, and Combs sounded receptive. But Combs by no means answered to his later inquiries, the witness stated.
Ex-hotel worker spoke with former colleagues after video resurfaced in 2024
Garcia stated that when the video resurfaced within the media in 2024, he reached out to his former colleagues, Israel Florez and Henry Elias.
He stated he was once contacted by way of legislation enforcement in June 2024 concerning the incident however testified that he wasn’t fair about his involvement.
Garcia added that he deleted his textual content messages with Florez and Elias after assembly with investigators.
He stated he employed criminal recommend and met with the federal government later in 2024 and disclosed that Combs had paid him for the video.
Combs’ former head of finance takes the stand
Derek Ferguson, the previous head of the finance division for Combs Enterprises, stated he was once attesting in compliance with a subpoena.
He stated he labored for Combs and his firms from 1998 till 2017 and that he was once the manager monetary officer at Bad Boy Entertainment from 1998 to 2012.
Ferguson stated his obligations incorporated accounting, record-keeping and being all in favour of joint ventures and strategic partnerships. He was once additionally liable for Combs’ non-public budget.
He stated that after he first began on the corporate, he interacted with Combs “a couple times a week” however the interactions turned into much less widespread as soon as he was once introduced in to run the corporate.
Ferguson would then report back to the corporate president and when there was once no president, he reported immediately to Combs.
Prosecutors confirmed monetary information from one in all Combs’ financial institution accounts, which incorporated a $20,000 twine switch from Ventura’s father on Dec. 23, 2011.
Ventura’s mom up to now testified that Combs demanded the circle of relatives pay $20,000 after he threatened to liberate particular intercourse tapes of her daughter after studying she was once courting rapper Kid Cudi.
Prosecutors additionally famous two different $20,000 transfers that very same month, with an outgoing switch to Ventura on Dec. 14, 2011 and every other to an unidentified account on Dec. 27, 2011.
What Combs is on trial for
U.S. prosecutors allege that for 20 years, at the back of the scenes, Combs was once coercing and abusing ladies with assist from a community of comrades who helped silence sufferers via blackmail and violence.
Combs faces an indictment that comes with descriptions of “freak-offs,” that are outlined within the courtroom document as “elaborate and produced sex performances that Combs arranged, directed, masturbated during, and often electronically recorded.”
Numerous witnesses have come ahead to accuse Combs of terrorizing other folks into silence by way of choking, hitting, kicking and dragging them, in line with prosecutors. One indictment alleges that Combs dangled somebody from a balcony.
Although dozens of women and men have alleged in proceedings that Combs abused them, this trial will spotlight the claims of 4 ladies.
Combs is charged with intercourse trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to interact in prostitution. He has denied the entire fees in opposition to him and has rejected a plea deal, opting for to visit trial as a substitute.
If discovered in charge within the New York courtroom, he may just face lifestyles in jail.
—
—
Global News will probably be overlaying the Diddy trial in its entirety. Please take a look at again for updates.
— with recordsdata from The Associated Press
