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When the former security officer Israel Florez came from an elevator in the Intercontinental Hotel on March 5, 2016, he found a broken vase on the floor. A visibly injured woman. Cassie Ventura. And Sean Combsthat was only dressed with a towel. And stared at him with a “devilish look”, as he reported to the jury on Monday.
Process against Sean Combs: Witness describes violence and hotte in the hotel
As the first witness in the trial against Combs Blackmail and sex trade In Manhattan, Florez said that he reacted to an emergency call about a “woman in need” on the sixth stick. He said the woman was scared. And had pulled her hood over her head. Nevertheless, he saw a “blue eye” with her, he said.
First statement in the courtroom: ex-security officer Israel Florez reports on the incident
Florez, who is now a swearing -in officer of the LAPD, said he had accompanied the woman who was identified by the public prosecutor as Combs’ former partner Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, back to the hotel room, where she lived with Combs. He said Combs asked that the woman should stay. But Florez stopped at the door threshold. Until Ventura had grabbed a bag and had gone. He said Ventura did not answer his questions. And told him: “I just want to get away.”
Sow money in the game? Combs is said to have offered cash
According to Florez, Combs offered him a bathing in cash so that he was about the silence seen. ‘Tell anyone,’ Combs supposedly ordered him, he said. Florez added that he did not call the police. Because ‘there was no victim. And obviously nobody wanted to file a complaint.
In the cross -interpretation by Combs’ defender Brian Steel, Florez admitted that he “definitely” considered the money offer as bribery. But also remember to have said Combs that he had to pay for the damage in the hotel. Florez said he had not mentioned a third person, an unknown man who was in the hotel room. Because the man didn’t say anything.
Public prosecutor: violence, surveillance video and purchase with cash
In the opening speech of the public prosecutor’s office in the criminal trial against Combs on Monday, deputy US prosecutor Emily A. Johnson declared the jury that Combs Ventura attacked, stepped and dragged in the hall that day after she had fled out of her hotel room. Where she was forced to a threesome with a male sex worker. Johnson said the evidence would show that Combs then bought the surveillance video of the incident on the sixth floor from the hotel security with $ 100,000 in cash in a brown paper bag.
Hotel video as evidence: Combs is said to have bought recording for $ 100,000
Received in May Cnn from A confidential source of a copy of the shattering surveillance videos from the hotel. The jury saw the hotel video on Monday when it was played by the public prosecutor’s office in the courtroom. After first rejecting Ventura’s allegations against him, published Combs an apology in May last year on social media. In which he admitted that his “behavior in this video” was unexcused “.
Attack in the hallway: Cassie Ventura is said to have been kicked and dragged
The 55-year-old Combs was charged in September. And has not guilty known for sex trade, organized crime and transport for the purpose of prostitution. He was arrested in New York City on September 16. And since then has been in custody in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. He is accused of having acted and another woman who was identified under the pseudonym “Jane”.
In her opening speech on Monday, Combs’ defender Teny Geragos explained to the jury that the video from the Intercontinental Hotel showed an unfortunate incident of domestic violence. But no proof that Combs used its power and wealth to exploit women and cover up this, as the public prosecutor claims. Geragos claimed that the fight in the hotel had been triggered by evidence of alleged infidelity that had been found on a mobile phone. She denied that Ventura had tried to escape sex trade incident.
Ventura is expected to testify as an important witness during the eight -week process. The prosecutor’s indictment largely reflects the claims that it in theirs Sensational complaint about sex trade had set up in November 2023.