Sean Combs trial updates: 'Jane' testifies on 'hotel nights' with Combs

Bryana Bongolan took the witness stand and promptly told the jury that Sean "Diddy" Combs allegedly held her over a 17th-floor balcony nine years ago.

"I was held over a 17-story balcony" in September 2016, she testified, an allegation that Cassie Ventura also made during her testimony.

Then, Bongolan told the jury, Combs "threw me onto the balcony furniture."

"Were you injured?" prosecutor Madison Smyser asked.

"I had a bruise on the back of my leg and back and neck pain," Bongolan testified. "I had night terrors, paranoia, and I scream in my sleep sometimes."

Combs has denied Bongolan's claim.

Bongolan, who also is known as Bana, told the court that she met Cassie Ventura while they worked together at a streetwear company and called Ventura "one of my close friends."

Asked what she and Ventura would do together, Bongolan testified, "Get high." She told the court they would use "a lot of marijuana, cocaine, ketamine, stuff like that." Eventually, she testified, it "definitely created a habit."

Bongolan was reluctant to meet Combs, she told the court: "I just wasn't ultimately fond of what I was seeing."

Asked to elaborate, Bongolan testified that Ventura would seem upset during phone calls or appear with a black eye. She told the court about one time before the premiere of the film "The Perfect Match," in which Ventura starred, when she said Ventura called her on FaceTime.

"She just panned from one side of the face to the other," Bongolan testified.

"What did you see?" Smyser asked.

"Her black eye," Bongolan testified. "I was a little quiet and I remember saying, 'I'm sorry.'"

Bonglan further testified about another time she said she was asleep in Ventura's apartment and was awakened "by the banging," adding "Puff was banging at the door."

Bongolan told the court that she didn't recall what Combs said but she did recall his tone of voice.

"Upset," Bongolan testified. "I just remember seeing a knife get thrown in her direction," referring to Ventura.

Smyser asked, "How did Cassie react when the knife was thrown in her direction?"

"She threw it back," Bongolan testified in response.

"Did the knife hit Mr. Combs?" Smyser asked.

"No," Bongolan told the court.

On cross-examination, the defense questioned why the time stamps on the videos jump around, reflecting a concern the defense has raised that the footage may make it appear as if the depicted events transpired faster than they actually did.

"As a result, the assembled compilation gives the false impression to the viewer that the actions are taking closer in time to one another than is actually in fact the case," defense attorney Teny Geragos asserted outside of the jury's presence.

On the witness stand, forensic video analyst Frank Piazza testified that the cameras were not synced and the hotel's surveillance system was buffering some of the time when the footage was recorded.

"In that process, sometimes, that time is dropped," Piazza told the court. "There were some portions that were motion-activated and that took out the time."

Additionally, the hotel's video surveillance system "has the potential of being taxed" and was not always able to produce smooth motion, Piazza testified.

On re-direct examination, prosecutor Madison Smyser asked, "Did you conclude the video we watched today reliably and accurately depicted what happened?"

Piazza testified, "Yes."

Combs has never disputed what the video shows. After it first appeared on television last year, he issued an apology on social media.

"I mean, I hit rock bottom but I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable," Combs said in the apology video, in part.

A forensic video analyst testified at the Sean Combs federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial that the 2016 hotel surveillance footage capturing Combs attacking then-girlfriend Cassie Ventura was manually unaltered.

The defense has raised questions regarding whether the footage was manipulated but the analyst, Frank Piazza, testified, "There are no anomalies going on in the file to indicate it had been manually altered."

Piazza's testimony gave prosecutors the opportunity to play the video several more times for the jury.

The first 55 seconds of the video show Ventura standing in bare feet by the elevator at the InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles, then retrieving shoes from her bag and putting them on. Combs, clad in a towel and colored socks, is seen rounding the corner. He then grabs Ventura, throws her to the ground and kicks her before retrieving her belongings, stomping on her and then dragging her off down the hallway.

Combs is then seen in the video retrieving a cell phone from Ventura, who remains largely out of frame. Combs walks away but then turns back. Through a mirror, Combs is seen sitting on a chair and hurling a vase at Ventura.

"The male picked up an object on a small table, what appears to be a vase, and threw it across the room at the woman," Piazza testified.

The jury re-watched video taken from a different camera angle that captured Ventura in the hall outside the hotel room from which, she testified, she was trying to escape after a "freak-off" sexual encounter had allegedly turned violent.

"The woman is walking down the hallway in the direction of the camera," Piazza testified, referring to the footage of Ventura.

Another camera angle captured Combs dragging Ventura back toward the hotel room but losing his grip, enabling Ventura to walk back toward the elevator, at which time Combs threw the vase.

The jury re-watched long sequences of the videos during Piazza's testimony, including the moment a security guard appears, is seen talking to Combs and Ventura, and then talking to Combs alone outside his room. The video also shows Ventura entering the room to retrieve her duffel bag and then walking off.

Combs is then seen walking down the hallway with a cell phone in his hand while his other hand holds up the towel around his waist.

Piazza testified that he also reviewed 10 of what he described as "sex videos" admitted into evidence under seal after they were extracted from one of Ventura's electronic devices. Piazza told the court that he enhanced the audio on a "sexually explicit video" that was also admitted under seal.

Federal prosecutors contend that Combs recorded the "freak-offs" and used the videos as a means to blackmail Ventura and ensure her compliance with his demands. Combs denies the allegations.

The jury in the trial of Sean "Diddy" Combs is expected today to see more of the 2016 hotel surveillance footage that captured Combs physically assaulting his then-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, as video expert Frank Piazza takes the stand as the day's first witness.

The jury on Tuesday heard a hotel security guard testify that Combs allegedly paid him $100,000 in cash for the video.

The guard, Eddy Garcia, testified about Combs putting stacks of bills, $10,000 at a time, through a money counter. Combs also allegedly advising him "not to make any big purchases" and made him sign a nondisclosure agreement, Garcia told the court.

Garcia further testified that at the meeting, Combs put Ventura on FaceTime and she allegedly told Garcia that because she had a movie about to be released "it wasn't a good time" for the video to come out "and that she wanted it to go away."

The jury also saw a document that Garcia signed that affirmed to Combs that his was the only copy of the video. After the footage ended up on television last year, Combs apologized, calling his behavior "inexcusable."

Combs has conceded that he could be violent but his lawyers say he is no sex trafficker or racketeer, as federal prosecutors have charged. Combs has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

Piazza's testimony is expected to be followed by that a friend of Ventura's, Bryana Bongolan, known as Bana, who has accused Combs of dangling her from a balcony at Ventura's Los Angeles apartment.

Ventura testified that Bongolan was allegedly draped over the balcony railing and then thrown onto balcony furniture. She made similar allegations in a civil case. Combs has denied Bongolan's claims.

The jury also could begin hearing later in the day from another alleged Combs victim who will be testifying under the pseudonym "Jane."