Cardi B’s accuser denied second trial

A woman who accused Cardi B of assault and battery has been denied a second trial. In September, the WAP hitmaker, whose real name is Belcalis Almanzar, was found not liable in a civil lawsuit brought against her by security guard Emani Ellis. The woman took action in 2020 over an alleged incident two years prior, and Cardi B secured another victory last Friday when a judge found no basis to overturn the original verdict.

Ellis’s legal team had argued the jurors were “intimidated” by Cardi after seeing her throw a pen outside the courthouse shortly before the verdict was returned, and requested two witnesses be barred for late disclosure.

Video footage had showed the 33-year-old rapper toss a pen to the ground after YouTuber Donat Ricketts quizzed her about her rumoured pregnancy, which she didn’t announce until two weeks after the trial, as she told him not to “disrespect” her.

Los Angeles County Judge Ian Fusselman was given a sworn declaration from the vlogger, who claimed the pen bounced off the ground and stuck him, with the incident seen by a witness, who he claimed approached him afterwards with a group of people who asked if he planned to sue, which he was not.

Cardi argued the pen “hit no one” and suggestions that the jurors were intimidated as a result were hearsay.

The judge noted Ellis’s lawyer had sought an instruction about the incident which would have ensured jurors heard what had happened, and, if anything, he felt the row would have supported the security guard’s claims, rather than scaring them.

He said: “We’re speculating about how it impacted them. Wouldn’t that tend to help your case, rather than hurt it? Isn’t that why you wanted the jury to find out about it? You came into court and said, ‘I want the jury to know this just happened.’

“They were free to ask any questions or make any comments, and they didn’t. I don’t find anything outside the courtroom had any impact on the jury’s deliberations.”

Cardi B was also accused by Ellis’s lawyer, Ron Rosen Janfaza, of having “intentionally hid” the identity of obstetrician Dr David Finke and receptionist Tierra Malcolm after Cardi insisted she wasn’t sure of the doctor’s name in the early stages of the lawsuit because it was a one-off visit.

The lawyer wrote: “[It] is undisputed that defendant’s counsel learned of the doctor’s name by repeatedly going office-to-office in his building.

“Importantly, plaintiff knew all along the identity of the doctor and his receptionist who intervened. Plaintiff was working as a security guard at the building, and shortly after the incident, plaintiff tried to enlist Ms. Malcolm in plaintiff’s scheme to sue defendant.”

But the judge noted that while he allowed the two to be added to the witness list after an initial cut-off period, Emani had also been allowed to add names to her proposed list even later.

As well as ruling in favour of Cardi, Judge Fusselman made it clear he planned to sanction Ellis’s lawyer over his conduct during the trial after he repeatedly told jurors that his client had been treated by a psychologist, even though the doctor had been barred as a witness and no evidence was offered to show they had ever met in person.

The judge said: “I have trouble believing it was an innocent mistake when you did it over and over again.”

He also noted he would issue an order requiring the lawyer to pay attorney’s fees to the defence counsel related to their request he be held in contempt.