A Los Angeles judge on Friday (Dec. 5) sided with Cardi B and denied a new trial to Emani Ellis, the security guard who unsuccessfully sued the superstar for assault over a 2018 altercation at a doctor’s office.
After jurors easily rejected the lawsuit in September, Ellis asked for a new trial, including by arguing that Cardi “intimidated” jurors by throwing a pen at a reporter in a media scrum. Cardi’s lawyers called that request “baseless” and “absurd” and said it should be “rejected out of hand.”
Related
At a court hearing on Friday, Judge Ian C. Fusselman largely agreed, rejecting the pen-toss argument and finalizing a tentative ruling that denied Ellis a new trial.
“Even if plaintiff had provided sufficient evidence of these asserted facts, the court finds unpersuasive the speculation that defendant’s purported action of throwing a pen could have ‘intimidated’ the jurors into finding against Plaintiff given the nature of Plaintiff’s claims,” the judge wrote in that ruling.
Attorneys for Ellis also claimed the facts of the case simply did not align with the jury’s verdict, but the judge was unmoved: “The Court finds that sufficient credible evidence supported the jury’s verdict.”
Ellis sued Cardi in 2020, claiming the star had assaulted her when she worked as a security guard at a Beverly Hills gynecologist’s office in 2018, when Cardi was four months pregnant with her first child. Ellis said the star cursed and spat at her and scratched her cheek with a sharp acrylic nail, requiring plastic surgery to repair the wound.
Related
At an August trial, Cardi said she never touched Ellis. During two days on the witness stand, the rapper testified that she and Ellis had a verbal-only altercation after she realized that the guard was recording her — a major concern, Cardi said, because she was still concealing her pregnancy from the public.
The rapper said it was Ellis who got aggressive during the encounter, backing her into a corner and refusing to leave her alone. Cardi also said her nails weren’t capable of cutting anyone, and the jury saw a photo of her at the NBA All-Star Game the week of this incident, sporting square nails that she described as less than an inch long.
After less than an hour of deliberations, the jury unanimously found that Ellis did not prove her legal claims of assault, battery, infliction of emotional distress and negligence. And on the courthouse steps a short while later, Cardi warned against future “frivolous” lawsuits.
“I work hard for my money for my kids and for people I take care of, so don’t you ever think that you gonna sue me, and I’m just gonna settle and just give you my money,” the star said at the time. “It’s not gonna happen.”
After Friday’s hearing, one big issue remains unresolved. Cardi’s lawyers have asked the judge to punish Rosen Janfaza, Ellis’ attorney, for alleged misconduct during the trial, including by asking Cardi on the witness stand if she had any gang affiliations. Judge Fusselman did not decide that issue on Friday, but could do so as soon as next week.
