Cardi B civil assault trial over 2018 Beverly Hills medical visit

A civil assault trial in Los Angeles opened with competing narratives about a 2018 incident in a Beverly Hills medical building, where Cardi B is accused of harming a female security guard who was monitoring the rapper’s confidential obstetric visit. The plaintiff, Emani Ellis, testified that she encountered Cardi B outside a fifth-floor OB-GYN office while Cardi B was four months pregnant, and that what followed left her traumatized. Cardi B’s legal team countered that Ellis was aggressively attempting to film the encounter and that Cardi B did not touch her, framing the confrontation as verbal and defensive rather than physical.

Ellis told jurors she was conducting routine rounds when she spotted Cardi B exiting an elevator and exclaimed, “Wow, that’s Cardi B,” prompting a confrontation she described as highly volatile. Ellis said Cardi B became enraged, accused her of using her phone to publicize the private medical visit, and moved in close, placing a finger in Ellis’s face. She testified that Cardi B struck her on the left cheek with a three-inch fingernail, spat on her, and used obscenities, actions she described as deeply traumatic. Ellis acknowledged at one point that...