ALHAMBRA, California (Reuters) -Pop star Cardi B won a decisive court victory on Tuesday against a security guard who filed a $24 million lawsuit accusing the then-pregnant rap performer of physically assaulting her outside a Beverly Hills obstetrician's office in 2018.
The 12-member Los Angeles Superior Court jury deliberated for less than an hour before reaching a unanimous verdict siding with the 32-year-old, Grammy-winning recording artist, whose biggest hits include "Taki Taki" and "I Like It."
The jurors found that the former security officer, Emani Ellis, failed to convincingly prove allegations that Cardi B physically attacked her, scratched Ellis' face with her fingernails, spat on her and shouted racial slurs. Both women are Black.
Ellis testified during the trial that she had demanded Cardi B leave the grounds of the medical building because she was "causing a disturbance."
Taking the witness stand in her own defense, Cardi B testified Ellis was the aggressor in what the singer called a "verbal altercation" that began when Ellis, then working as a uniformed security officer, began "invading my privacy."
According to Cardi B, Ellis started following her and trying to take a cellphone video of the singer on her way to an obstetrician visit when she was pregnant but had yet to publicly announce the pregnancy.
At the time, Cardi B, whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar, was expecting the first of her three children fathered by rapper Offset.
The singer, known for a provocative public image, acknowledged cursing at Ellis as the two women yelled at one another "chest to chest," but she testified that no physical contact was made, and she denied spitting or using racial epithets.
Court TV video clips showing the New York City-born rapper of Caribbean descent, appearing from one day to the next in different wigs and hairstyles, went viral on social media.
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse in the Los Angeles suburb of Alhambra after the verdict, Cardi B vowed to be more proactive against any unwarranted legal claims she faces in the future.
"The next person to try to do a frivolous lawsuit against me, I'm going countersue, and you're going to pay," she said. "I'm not that celeb that you're going to sue and I'm going to settle. ... I work hard for my money."
Addressing the media separately after the trial, Ellis said she was "not at all" sorry for pursuing the case and was gratified to have her day in court.
"I don't want it to be overlooked. I don’t want it to be something that's brushed under the rug," Ellis said. "What she did to me was real."
(Reporting by Rollo Ross in Alhambra, California, and Danielle Broadway in Los Angeles; Writing by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Leslie Adler, Jamie Freed and Saad Sayeed)
