Cardi B has been cleared of assaulting a security guard by scratching her with her fingernails, with a Los Angeles jury deliberating for less than an hour to bring an end to a colourful civil trial.
Emani Ellis had alleged that the Grammy-winning rapper cut her cheek with a three-inch (7.5cm) fingernail and spat on her outside an obstetrician’s office in 2018.
The jury took just under an hour to clear the rapper, whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, of the allegations of assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and false imprisonment.
Outside the Alhambra courthouse, Cardi B thanked her lawyers, media and fans and denied again that she had ever touched Ellis.
“Let’s just put this behind,” she said. “But I’m giving a warning: I am not that celeb you gonna sue and you think is going to settle. Especially when I am super, completely innocent.
“I know I’ve got a little reputation but I swear to god I am innocent,” she added, to laughter from the media.
The civil trial revolved around an obstetrician appointment Cardi B attended when she was four months pregnant with her first child in 2018. The office had closed to other patients for the day to shield her privacy as her pregnancy was not then public knowledge.
The rapper claimed Ellis, who was a security guard for the building, had followed her up to the office on the fifth floor, said her name to someone on the phone and appeared to be filming her, all of which made her fear her pregnancy would be revealed, leading to what the rapper described as only a “verbal fight”.
Ellis, who lost her job after the encounter, claimed Cardi B had also scratched her face with a fake nail, which resulted in a scar that required cosmetic surgery. She testified that she had been left humiliated and traumatised.
Ellis was seeking damages including medical expenses, compensation for emotional and physical suffering and lost wages, along with punitive damages.
Cardi B claimed on the stand that she was being sued for $24m but Ellis’s attorney said in closing arguments that it was up to the jury to decide a dollar amount.
Many of Cardi B’s responses during her testimony went viral, including when she described Ellis as “security-heavy”. When asked by Ellis’s attorney if she called Ellis “fat”, Cardi B replied: “No. I was calling her a bitch.”
A significant chunk of time was dedicated to the rapper’s rhinestone-decorated acrylic nails. When Cardi B was asked by Ellis’s attorney whether she was physically able to scratch someone at the time of the incident, the performer replied: “But I didn’t because I had a baby inside me.”
The attorney then asked: “Are you disabled? Yes or no?”
“At that moment, when you’re pregnant, I’m very disabled. Do you want me to tell you things I can’t do?” Cardi B said, prompting laughter in the courtroom.
The rapper denied that she or Ellis touched one another but acknowledged that their argument had become heated, recounting much of the swearing the two women had exchanged. She said while that they were chest-to-chest at one point, the fight never became physical.
“She couldn’t get a scratch from me because I didn’t touch her,” Cardi B said.
When Ellis’s attorney asked her if she had been angry, Cardi B replied: “Yes I was angry! Because I’m pregnant! And this girl’s about to fucking beat my ass!”
Both David Finke, the doctor Cardi B was seeing on the day, and Tierra Malcolm, the office receptionist who broke up the argument, gave testimony that mostly supported Cardi B’s account, saying they had seen no physical fight.
Asked to characterise the argument, Malcolm said she wasn’t sure if she could swear in court.
“We’ve heard just about everything so far, so it’s OK,” Judge Ian C Fusselman said, to laughter from the courtroom.
