Sean “Diddy” Combs handed a hotel security guard $100,000 to keep surveillance footage showing the music mogul’s attack on Cassie Ventura a secret, his trial heard.
The shocking 2016 video of Diddy kicking his then-girlfriend in the hallway of the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles was shown to jurors again on Tuesday.
Security guard Eddy Garcia told the court how the music mogul offered him a stack of cash in a brown paper bag to ensure the footage never got out.
Garcia, then 24 years old, said he began his shift hours after a “domestic dispute” involving Diddy and Ventura. He told jurors that an hour into his shift, he received a call from a New York area code and spoke to a woman who introduced herself as Diddy’s assistant, Kristina Khorram.
She asked Garcia for a copy of the video or whether she could see it for herself, noting that Diddy had “been intoxicated” at the time. Later that day, Khorram appeared in the hotel lobby, where Garcia told her bluntly, “Off the record, it’s bad.”
Diddy is on trial for five federal counts of sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution, and racketeering conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty. The alleged bribe was far from the only eye-opening moment in court Tuesday:
- “Eddie My Angel” — with Garcia’s name misspelled — was saved as a contact in Khorram’s phone, according to documents shown in court.
- Jurors saw a bank statement showing the $20,000 payments to and from Ventura’s parents in December 2011.
- Derek Ferguson, the former chief financial officer for Bad Boy Entertainment, testified he didn’t remember being involved in those transactions.
- A woman was thrown out of the courtroom after an outburst directed at Diddy: “Diddy, motherf*****s laughing at you.”
- A media outlet and other individuals allegedly broke the court’s pseudonym order by broadcasting the real name of Diddy’s former assistant Mia, who testified last week.
Later that day, he received another call from Khorram, who passed the phone to Diddy. The rapper “sounded very nervous” and “was talking very fast,” Garcia recalled. Diddy told the security guard that he had too much to drink that night and “if this got out, it would ruin him,” he testified.
Garcia stated that Khorram called him again on his personal cell phone number while he was at home. The guard recalled Diddy telling him that he sounded like “a good guy” and that he believed he could help. Diddy repeated that the video had the potential to “ruin his career” if it was released, but Garcia insisted he didn’t have access to the footage. The music mogul then said, “he could take care of me,” which Garcia said he understood to mean “financially.”
When Garcia told his supervisor, Bill Medrano, about the calls and how Diddy offered to pay for the video, Medrano said he would do it for $50,000, Garcia testified. The guard informed Khorram and Diddy, who “sounded excited” and started referring to Garcia as “Eddy, my angel,” the witness recalled. Diddy reportedly said he wanted it done as soon as possible. Medrano then handed Garcia a black USB drive and said, “Done.”
Two days after the incident, on March 7, Garcia went to a West Los Angeles-area address that Diddy had provided him and was greeted by the rapper’s bodyguard. “He’s a good guy. You’re doing a good thing,” Garcia recalled Diddy’s bodyguard saying as he took Garcia up to a room, where Diddy and Khorram were waiting.
There, Garcia handed over the USB drive to Diddy; the rapper asked if this was the only copy. Not entirely sure, he called Medrano, who assured him it was. Garcia then expressed concern that Ventura would file a police report, prompting Diddy to call Ventura. “Let him know you want this video gone too,” Diddy allegedly told her. She told the men that she had a movie coming out soon, so she wanted the video to go away, Garcia recalled.
Diddy then asked for ID cards belonging to Garcia, Medrano, and the responding security officer. Garcia said he called Medrano and since Israel Florez, the security officer who responded to the incident, was a “by-the-book guy,” Medrano gave a copy of another officer’s ID. Garcia complied — and then signed a non-disclosure agreement.
“Nervous,” he signed the agreement. The document, shown in court, stipulated that Garcia would have to pay $1 million as “liquidated damages” in the event of a breach of the agreement; Garcia said he was making $10.50 an hour at the time.
Diddy then put through stacks of cash — $10,000 at a time — through a money counter before handing Garcia $100,000 in a brown paper bag — $50,000 more than what the music mogul had initially promised. That additional cash was for Garcia and the responding officer, the guard testified.
Garcia kept $30,000 for himself, gave $50,000 to Medrano, and $20,000 to the other officer, he testified.
The security guard admitted he wasn’t initially honest with prosecutors when they asked him about selling the video to Diddy. During cross-examination, the defense pointed out a paragraph in the non-disclosure agreement that stated it didn’t prevent them from making truthful statements to the government or law enforcement.
