LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Grammy award-winning rapper Cardi B took the witness stand in her civil assault trial in an Alhambra courtroom on Tuesday.
The rapper, whose real name is Belcalis Almanzar, is being sued by a security guard who claims the rapper assaulted her outside of a Beverly Hills medical office in 2018. Cardi B’s defense claims there was no physical altercation, just a verbal altercation.
Tuesday was day two of the trial surrounding the civil suit.
“How are you today, Cardi?” a reporter asked the rapper as she arrived.
“I’m OK,” she said.
“Do you look at this case as a shakedown for money?” a reporter asked.
“Absolutely,” she replied.
Cardi B claims the security guard used her cellphone to record her heading into a medical building in Beverly Hills, which sparked a confrontation in which Cardi B claims the security guard was the aggressor, not her.
“Was she recording you without your knowledge?” a reporter asked.
“Yes, and nobody touched each other,” she replied.
Cardi B claims the security guard recorded her entering the medical building without her consent, and if there was any confrontation, there was no assault.
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Eyewitness News briefly talked to the rapper on Monday, and she appeared confident heading into court.
“I feel good, very confident… very optimistic,” she said.
Cardi B argues that the security guard, Emani Ellis, was the aggressor, alleging that Ellis was trying to record her entering her OB-GYN’s office while she was visibly pregnant with her first child. It was a pregnancy that, at the time, was not known to the public.
In her lawsuit filed in 2020, the Los Angeles-based security guard alleges Cardi B violently attacked her at the Beverly Hills medical building, striking her on her head, face and body, spitting on her, and shouting racial slurs. She claims the rapper’s long fingernails caused cuts on her face that required plastic surgery.
“The whole incident was super traumatizing for me. She did a lot that day,” Ellis said on the stand on day one of the trial.
While on the witness stand on Tuesday, Cardi B was asked to show the courtroom her fingernails.
“How long are those fingernails? Half an inch, one inch, two inches?” she was asked.
“I think it has to be less than an inch,” she replied.
“Are they pointy?” she was asked.
“To me, they are not pointy. They are like, circle,” she said, feeling her nails.
On the witness stand, the rapper said on the day of the alleged incident, the security guard was clearly the aggressor.
“You’re recording me. Now you’re following me, like back up. And she’s like, ‘I can do what I want.’ It’s like, ‘No, you can’t. You can’t do what you want.’ And that’s when we started arguing,” Cardi B said.
During cross-examination on Monday, the defense poked holes in Ellis’ testimony, pointing out what it says are inconsistencies in Ellis’ account.
Cardi B is accused of assault and battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and false imprisonment. As this is a civil case, Ellis is seeking monetary damages.
ABC News contributed to this report.
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