A jury gave Cardi B a quick and absolute victory Tuesday at a trial in the lawsuit of a security guard who alleged the rap star assaulted her at a doctor's office during her then-secret first pregnancy.
The jury of six men and six women at a small courthouse in Alhambra, California deliberated for only about an hour before finding Cardi not liable in the lawsuit brought by Emani Ellis, who alleged Cardi cut her face with a fingernail and spat on her in the hallway of a Beverly Hills obstetrician in February of 2018.
Only nine of the 12 jurors were required for a verdict in the civil case, but their decision in Cardi's favor was unanimous.
“The next person who tries to do a frivolous lawsuit against me, I’m going to counter-sue, and I’m gonna make you pay, because this is not OK,” she said outside the courthouse, where she posed for pictures with fans. “I am not that celeb that you sue, and you think is going to settle. I’m not gonna settle. Especially when I’m super completely innocent.”
She said she had to miss her kids' first day of school because of the trial, and said her forehead was “raw, raw, raw” after all the elaborate wig changes during the trial that at one point even left her lawyer confused over which was her real hair. (None of them were, she said with a laugh.)
In two days of testimony last week that were livestreamed, widely viewed and full of viral moments, the hip-hop star testified she feared that Ellis was going to make her pregnancy public. She acknowledged that the two argued, but said it never got physical.
“I will say it on my deathbed. I did not touch that woman," she said after her win. "I did not touch that girl. I didn’t lay my hands on that girl.”