The courtroom showdown between Cardi B and a Beverly Hills security guard began this week, revisiting an incident from 2018 that has followed the Grammy-winning rapper for years.
The case stems from a July 2018 encounter at a Beverly Hills medical building, where Cardi B—whose real name is Belcalis Marlenis Almánzar—was visiting her obstetrician while pregnant with her first child. The plaintiff, Emani Ellis, worked as a security guard in the building at the time. She testified Monday that after she recognized Cardi stepping out of an elevator, she casually said something like, “Wow, that’s Cardi B.” According to Ellis the rapper quickly turned around and accused her of spreading news about the pregnancy, which had not yet been made public.
From there, Ellis alleges, things spiraled. She claims Cardi B got in her face, struck her head, face, and body with her long fingernails, spat on her, and hurled racial slurs. Ellis says the cuts on her face required plastic surgery. “The whole incident was super traumatizing for me. She did a lot that day,” Ellis testified.
Cardi B, who took the witness stand on Tuesday in Alhambra, tells a very different story. She says Ellis was the aggressor, holding up her phone as if recording her entering the office. “You’re recording me. Now you’re following me, like back up. And she’s like, ‘I can do what I want,’” Cardi said. “It’s like, ‘No, you can’t. You can’t do what you want.’ And that’s when we started arguing.” But, she insists, “nobody touched each other.”
When asked in court to describe her nails at the time, Cardi explained they were “less than an inch” and rounded, not sharp. The detail matters, as Ellis maintains Cardi’s nails caused injuries to her face.
Ellis first filed suit in 2020, accusing Cardi B of assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, and false imprisonment. She is seeking monetary damages. During cross-examination Monday, Cardi’s attorney, Peter J. Anderson, pressed Ellis on inconsistencies between her complaint and earlier reports to her supervisor, particularly about where she was allegedly cut and whether she was holding a phone. Anderson argued Ellis’s story doesn’t hold up and portrayed Cardi as a young, pregnant woman fearful for her safety. “This is her first pregnancy, and a very large woman was advancing towards her,” Anderson said. “She was utterly confused that a security guard could be her attacker.”
Cardi herself has cast the case in blunt terms. When asked by reporters whether she saw it as a shakedown, she replied, “Absolutely.”
The trial is expected to continue this week as testimony unfolds. What’s at stake isn’t jail time—this is a civil case—but money, reputation, and credibility.
