Cardi B has prevailed in a civil lawsuit filed against her by Beverly Hills security after two days of testimony from the rapper that was sometimes colorful and incited jurors.
Emani Ellis is suing Cardi B for $24 million, accusing her of assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress after a confrontation in the hallway outside an obstetrician’s office. Ellis claims the rapper scratched her with a long nail extension during the set, leaving a scar on her face.
The hip-hop star was deemed unfit after less
than an hour of deliberation.
“I swear to God, I’ll say this on my deathbed, I did not touch that woman,” Cardi B said outside the courthouse after the trial concluded. She added that she had missed her children’s first day of school because of the civil case.
“I want to thank my lawyers,” she said, “I want to thank the jury, I want to thank the judge, and I want to thank the respectful press.”
Cardi B, whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, testified that she never touched, scratched, or spat on the security guard who she claims filmed her on his cellphone. The rapper was four months pregnant and had an appointment scheduled for the day of the incident, February 24, 2018.
Ellis worked as a security guard at the Beverly Hills building where Cardi B had a medical appointment, and she testified that she was doing her rounds when she saw the celebrity exiting an elevator. She testified that she was overcome with excitement and declared, “Wow, it’s Cardi B.”
Ellis claimed the performer then turned to her and said, “Why the F— are you telling people you saw me?” Cardi B then accused him of trying to spread the word that she was at the doctor’s office, she testified during the four-day trial.
Cardi B cursed at her, used the n-word and other slurs, called her names, threatened her job, body-shamed her and mocked her career, Ellis said. She alleged that Cardi B spat on her, took her swings and scratched her left cheek with a 2- to 3-inch nail.
But jurors believed Cardi B’s version of events, which was that Ellis was the aggressor in the area.
The rapper blasted the plaintiff in the Alhambra courtroom, saying she was seeking a payout. Cardi B said the pair went chest to chest and exchanged angry words, but nothing more.
She told jurors that she told Ellis, “B—, get out of my face. Why are you in my face? Why are you recording me? Shouldn’t you be security?”
“I thought to myself, ‘The girl is big!'” she testified. “She has big black boots. I’m like, ‘D—, the hell am I going to do now?'”
The rapper said she is 5-foot-3 and 130 pounds and pregnant at the time of the incident. She would not have tried to fight the guard, who was much bigger, she said.
Asked if she was “disabled” during the incident, Cardi B’s comments in the courtroom were hilarious: “At that point when you’re pregnant, I’m very disabled,” she said with an eye roll. “You want me to tell you things I can’t do?”
Tierra Malcolm, a receptionist at Dr. David Finke, who Cardi B had an appointment with that day, told jurors that she saw the celebrity in Ellis’ corner. The receptionist said she then got in between them and the security guard tackled the rapper. Malcolm said she ended up with a cut on her forehead.
Finke testified that he saw the security guard inflict the injury, as well as hit the receptionist in the shoulder. He also said that Ellis was not injured. Both testified that they never saw Cardi B hit Ellis.
During closing arguments on Tuesday, Ellis’ attorney, Ron Rosen, told the Janfaza jurors, “Cardi B needs to be held accountable.” “There was no video camera … so it’s really one thing – do you believe, Ms. Ellis, a guard with a good record? She’s a model citizen,” he told jurors.
Rosen Janfaza noted that during cross-examination, the rapper admitted that she and Ellis were chest-to-chest when explanations were exchanged, and that alone amounted to unwanted touching and battery on the client, he said. He told jurors that the receptionist and the doctor did not see the 40 to 50 seconds during which Cardi B marked his client’s fat, spat on her and groped her.
He said his client suffered for seven years and “it was a violent attack”.
Cardis B’s lawyer, Peter Anderson, said jurors had to use common sense to reject the security guard’s story and that the preponderance of the evidence showed his client did nothing more than scream and curse, and “that’s not something you can sue for.”
“The question is whether Cardi ever struck the plaintiff,” Anderson said. And the evidence is overwhelming that she didn’t, he said. Anderson said the security guard testified that she never filed a police report, didn’t seek immediate medical attention, didn’t even use band-aids, but went home and got high.
