Forensic expert breaks down Cassie hotel footage as Diddy trial resumes in court

Los Angeles Premiere Of "Can
Cassie and Sean "P. Diddy" Combs attend the Los Angeles premiere of "Can't Stop Won't Stop" at the Writers Guild of America, West. (Image via Getty/Jerritt Clark)

At the government's behest, forensic video expert Frank Piazza was summoned to the court to “track the movement of individuals inside the events," i.e., Cassie Ventura and Sean "Diddy" Combs.

As the Bad Boy Records founder's legal trial for sex trafficking and racketeering rages on, Piazza was ordered to compile video clips to “track the movement of individuals inside the events," CNN has reported. The video in question refers to the now-viral clip of Diddy dragging, beating, and leaving his former girlfriend sprawled across a hotel lobby floor.

TMZ has reported that Piazza runs a website called Legal Audio Video and has also worked with the U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI, the New Jersey Bar Association, and private law and investigation firms in the past. When questioned by the prosecution about his expertise, he said he'd been qualified "50 times."


Everything we know about the surveillance footage that shows Diddy beating Cassie Ventura:

As reported by CNN, during court today, Frank Piazza testified that the footage recovered from the InterContinental Hotel system, dated March 5, 2016, had not been fabricated or altered in any way. He also testified to enhancing 10 “sex videos” recorded in 2012 and 2014, which were recovered from one of the laptops that purportedly belonged to Cassie Ventura.

NewsX has reported that the video is now a pivotal piece of evidence in the ongoing trial. Eddy Garcia, the hotel's security guard, testified that Diddy had paid him $100,000 in cash to make the video disappear. He called the video “damaging” and “very bad.”

"He was concerned that this video would get out and it would ruin his career," he reportedly said on the stand.

Prosecutors presented the video in court to inform the jury that it helps establish a pattern of behavior, one that involved violence and coercion. In one of her testimonies, Ventura said that the video was shot shortly after she tried to make a break for it from Diddy's notorious "freak-off," which allegedly were days-long, drug-fueled sex parties.

“Sean followed me into the hallway before the elevators and grabbed me up, threw me on the ground, kicked me, [and] tried to drag me back to the room,” she testified, adding that he gave her a black eye that day.

After Piazza was dismissed from the stand, Bryana Bongolan, one of Ventura's friends, was summoned to testify. She recounted an alleged instance where Diddy dangled her body over a 17th-floor balcony nine years ago, as per CNN.

Edited by Sroban Ghosh