Diddy Trial Resumes, Forensic Video Expert Takes Stand, Dissects Cassie Video

Sean “Diddy” Combs‘ federal sex trafficking and racketeering trial continues in NYC Wednesday morning … and the 16th day of testimony begins with the prosecution calling a forensic video expert to the stand.

In terms of his qualifications, Frank Piazza says he runs a website called Legal Audio Video and has previously worked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the FBI, the New Jersey Bar Association and private law and investigation firms. When asked by the prosecution this morning if he’s been qualified as an expert in his field, he responded, “50 times.” The defense has no objection to his qualifications as an expert witness.

Piazza is asked how many times he’s worked for the Southern District of New York — the federal body prosecuting Diddy in the case — and he says “50 or 100 times,” and he’s asked if that will influence his testimony. He points out he does “75 percent defense work.” He says he’s paid $295 per hour.

He’s asked about technical details regarding cellphone and surveillance video — the prosecuting attorney shows the infamous video of Diddy in a towel chasing Cassie down a hotel hallway from 2016. Piazza says this is a “video of a video” shot on an iPhone 6, at 30 frames per second. He says it doesn’t appear to have been edited or otherwise tampered with. In his estimation, the video is accurate. But he says “there were issues” with surveillance videos.

Piazza says the surveillance video, which was not altered, plays at 22 frames per second, so the phone’s 30fps rate makes the action play faster … he says they counted the frames and used software to correct the timing.

There’s discussion about pixelation and motion activity … Piazza points out in a frame-by-frame look that the file is corrupted. He confirms he made a compilation at the prosecution’s request, which is played for the court, and he says he’s deemed this footage accurate. He notes he inserted a black screen to mark separate edited segments.

Prosecutors introduce sex videos that were under seal, recovered from the “Frank Black” user — Diddy’s pseudonym often used for booking hotel rooms — from a device provided by Cassie. Piazza confirms he was asked to enhance the audio component of the sexually explicit videos.

Eddy Garcia, a security supervisor for the now-defunct InterContinental Hotel in Century City in L.A. testified Tuesday about turning over the hotel security video to Diddy, allegedly in exchange for a payment made to him, his own boss, and a third security person. Garcia said his supervisor had deleted the original video from the hotel’s server at Diddy’s request.