US rapper Cardi B has denied allegations that she assaulted a security guard during a confrontation outside a Los Angeles obstetrician’s office in 2018. The Grammy-winning artist, whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar, told jurors at a civil trial on Tuesday that the incident with Emani Ellis was purely verbal and did not involve any physical violence. Ellis is suing Cardi B for assault, battery, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Ellis alleges that the rapper cut her cheek with a 3in (7.5cm) fingernail and spat on her during the altercation, leaving her “deeply traumatised.” She testified that the star accused her of spreading news about her private medical appointment before insulting and physically attacking her. A plastic surgeon, testifying for the plaintiff, claimed he treated Ellis for a hypersensitive facial scar “most likely” caused by fingernails, although his first examination took place in 2022, four years after the alleged incident.
Cardi B, however, rejected the claims, insisting she never touched Ellis. She told the court that Ellis followed her down a hallway after spotting her at the clinic and appeared to record her on a phone, despite her repeated demands to back away. The rapper, who was then attending an appointment regarding a pregnancy not yet made public, said she shouted obscenities at Ellis in frustration but stressed that their exchange never turned physical. “It was like a verbal fight, but it didn’t get physical at all,” she said.
Her lawyer argued that Cardi B was concerned for the safety of her unborn child at the time and suggested that Ellis had “changed her story” since the incident. The defence also highlighted the lack of contemporaneous medical evidence, casting doubt on the origins of Ellis’s facial scar. Jurors heard that the confrontation escalated after Ellis allegedly told someone on the phone that the rapper was in the building, further invading her privacy.
Ellis, who was working as a security guard at the medical office, maintains that she never attempted to film Cardi B and only uttered her name out of excitement. She filed the lawsuit in 2020, two years after the incident. The case continues, with the jury set to weigh conflicting accounts of whether the confrontation was an invasion of privacy that spiralled into insults—or a physical assault that left lasting scars.
