courtroom rendering of Diddy sitting at a table

(NewsNation) — A former security employee at the Los Angeles hotel where Sean “Diddy” Combs violently assaulted ex-girlfriend Casandra “Cassie” Ventura is expected to take the stand Tuesday in the criminal trial for the music producer. 

Prosecutors are slated to call Eddie Garcia, who worked in security for the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles, as their first witness of the day. 

He will be testifying under immunity for prosecution. Garcia appeared Monday to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Garcia’s former place of work was the scene of a violent attack by Combs on Ventura in 2016. 

A video of the attack was first released by CNN last year and showed Combs running in a towel after Ventura, who is seen standing in front of a hotel elevator bank. He aggressively grabs and drags her down and then kicks her before picking up her luggage. He is then seen dragging her on the floor back to a hotel room as she braces her head.

Ventura testified about the attack while on the stand earlier in the trial. Jurors were shown the complete surveillance video as evidence. 

Ventura said she has reached a $10 million settlement with the Intercontinental Hotel in Los Angeles but did not disclose the details while testifying. 

Garcia’s testimony follows a three-day-long questioning of Combs’ former assistant, known only under the pseudonym “Mia.” 

Sean Diddy Combs sits at the defense table before the start of jury selection at Manhattan federal court on May 5 in New York. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)

On Monday, Combs’ lawyer, Brian Steel, conducted an aggressive cross-examination of the former assistant who had testified she had been sexually assaulted by her ex-boss a number of times. 

The defense attorney presented several texts that Mia sent, showing her admiration for Combs after she stopped working for him.

Steel presented a text from Mia to Combs on January 15, 2019, in which she mentioned having a nightmare featuring R. Kelly, and Combs came to her rescue.

The defense attorney questioned why she would consider her alleged abuser as her “savior” and why she would share this dream with him.

In that back-and-forth with Steel, she detailed how she “did love that dude,” referring to Combs, and during that time, the public still adored the mogul.

In a more tense exchange with Steel, he asked if Mia had any supporting evidence in real-time of her allegations against Combs.

“Do you have anything where you contemporaneously wrote (about abuse)?” Steel questioned her.

She replied that she would not do that during that time and shared she never told anyone about the alleged abuses she suffered.

Defense attorneys went after Mia hard on her credibility, to which Mia stood firm, saying, “I have never lied in this courtroom, and I will never lie in this courtroom.”

Steel also questioned if she is seeking monetary compensation from Combs and if she will sue the fallen entrepreneur over sex abuse claims, to which Mia says no.



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