Cardi B has testified in court, refuting claims of assaulting a security guard.
The music artist is facing a lawsuit from Emani Ellis, a security guard who claims the Grammy winner physically attacked her outside a medical office in 2018.
Known by her real name, Belcalis Almanzar, Cardi B appeared in an Alhambra courtroom on Tuesday, August 26, for the civil proceedings.
Her legal team argues that while there was a verbal dispute, no physical altercation occurred. The charges against Cardi B include assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and false imprisonment.
Previously, a criminal battery charge against Cardi was dismissed after she was accused of using a microphone to assault a fan.
When approached by a reporter upon arriving at the courtroom, Cardi was questioned about whether she believed the lawsuit was “a shakedown for money.”
Cardi’s response to the reporter was: “Absolutely!”
In her testimony, Cardi explained that the security guard was caught recording her with a cellphone as she approached a medical office in Beverly Hills.
Ellis also alleged that she required plastic surgery due to cuts from Cardi’s long nails.
Cardi maintains that the security guard initiated the confrontation and that the incident escalated when she protested against being filmed.
The rapper testified that Ellis was recording her outside her OB-GYN’s office during her first pregnancy, which she had not yet disclosed to the public.
During her court appearance, she remarked: “I could hear her. She was talking on the phone. She said, ‘Oh my god, Cardi B is here!’ So I kind of speed walk [away], but I feel her behind me.”
She continued: “I turned around and saw she was recording me… so I said ‘aren’t you supposed to be security?’ to which she said ‘oh my bad’, but she kept following me and I’m getting annoyed, like b****, you’re the security guard of the building.”
A reporter inquired: “Was she recording you without your knowledge?” Cardi confirmed: “Yes, and nobody touched each other,” adding, “She didn’t hit me, I didn’t hit her, there was no touch.”
“You’re recording me. Now you’re following me, like back up. And she’s like, ‘I can do what I want.’ It’s like, ‘No, you can’t. You can’t do what you want.’ And that’s when we started arguing,” Cardi B explained.
In court, she was asked: “Did you spit on Ms Ellis? Did you call her the N-word?” to which she denied both allegations.
Admitting to raising her voice, she recalled telling the guard: “B****, get the f*** out of my face.”
Ellis initially brought her lawsuit in 2020, asserting she was violently attacked by Cardi B.
She alleges that she was struck on the head, face, and body, and that Cardi also spat on her while using racial slurs.
“The whole incident was super traumatizing for me. She did a lot that day,” Ellis stated on the trial’s first day.
Cardi challenged the claim that her nails could inflict such harm.
She was questioned about her nails length in court: “How long are those fingernails? Half an inch, one inch, two inches?”
“I think it has to be less than an inch,” Cardi responded, when asked if the nails were ‘pointy’.
“To me, they are not pointy. They are like, circle,” she explained.
Plastic surgeon Dr. Brent Moelleken testified, noting he treated Ellis in 2022 for facial scars.
“She had vertically oriented, up and down scars, there were two of them,” he recounted.
Cardi B’s defense team pointed out inconsistencies in Ellis’ testimony. The trial is set to continue over the next two weeks.