A security officer testified on Tuesday that Sean Combs paid him $100,000 in a brown paper bag for surveillance footage that captured the mogul beating his longtime girlfriend Casandra Ventura at a Los Angeles hotel in 2016.
The security officer, Eddy Garcia, is testifying under an immunity order after telling the government that he intended to assert his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.
Mr. Garcia testified that on March 5, 2016, the date of the assault, he received a call from an employee of Mr. Combs, Kristina Khorram, who asked him if there was a way she could get a copy of the footage. He testified that he told her no and declined again when she showed up in the lobby later that day.
That evening, Mr. Garcia testified, he received another call from Ms. Khorram, who connected him with Mr. Combs. The music mogul sounded nervous, Mr. Garcia said, and explained that he had “a little too much” to drink the day of the assault. If the video got out, “it could ruin him.”
Mr. Garcia, who said he was 24 years old at the time, testified that he rebuffed Mr. Combs again, but Ms. Khorram and the mogul called again, and Mr. Combs said “he would take care of me,” suggesting a potential payment. Mr. Garcia later called his supervisor, who agreed to sell the footage for $50,000.
When Mr. Garcia told Mr. Combs that they would be willing to sell the footage, the officer said, “He was excited, said ‘Eddy, my angel, I knew you could help. I knew you could do it.’”
