Cardi B Wants To Keep Her Stripping Past Out Of Assault Jury Trial

Cardi B wants to keep her past out of a lawsuit that involves an alleged attack against an L.A. security guard.

As The Blast previously reported, the “WAP” rapper was sued by a security guard who alleged that she attacked him in Los Angeles. Cardi B insisted that were actions were "reasonably necessary” to protect herself from the “assault” that occurred back in 2018.

According to new court documents obtained by The Blast, Cardi B, born Belcalis Marlenis Almanzar, anticipates that the security guard, a woman named Emani Ellis, is going to try to turn the jury against her by entering arguments based on Cardi B’s character that she heard from “third parties.”

There have been other alleged altercations between Cardi B and others that she is worried Ellis is going to bring up in court. She is also worried about potential criminal charges or police reports being used against her, as well as her use of “obscenities” that she has used against others and in her music.

Not only is Cardi B afraid that Ellis will use her lyrics against her, but she is also worried about allegations of drug use, her past as an exotic dancer, and other media reports and lawsuits in order to attempt to defame her character and make a jury question her moral character.

In the court filing, Cardi B notes that the alleged incidents are “inadmissible character evidence, has no probative value, will unduly prejudice [Cardi B], and will unnecessarily consume court time and resources.” She went on to say that there may not be any truth to the other allegations Ellis plans to use against her, saying that it amounts to “inadmissible hearsay.”

According to the court documents obtained by The Blast, the alleged encounter is said to have taken place for no more than sixty to ninety seconds on a single occasion on Saturday, February 24, 2018. Cardi B, who was pregnant at the time, was visiting her obstetrician’s office for a scheduled appointment. Emani Ellis had been employed as a security guard for the filming.

It is unclear what led Ellis to begin filming Cardi B; however, the “Be Careful” rapper said that she asked the security guard to put her phone away and stop recording her, as her pregnancy had not been public knowledge at the time.

It is unclear exactly how things went down, but Ellis alleges that Cardi B “scratched her with her fingernail, yelled racial slurs at her and spit on her.” That being said, Ellis has no pictures of the alleged injuries. She has no written documents to show that she reported the incident. She also did not seek any medical care for the scratch, as per the court documents.

However, Ellis alleges that she suffered “physical, emotional, and psychological damages” as a result of the brief alleged altercation. In addition, the security guard also claims that there is a “scar” on her cheek from the incident that Cardi B notes “is not visible” in the court filing.

Cardi B has filed to keep the legal case between them strictly limited to the facts above and does not want the security guard to try to bring in claims from third parties, also known as hearsay, into the trial in order to try to debase her character.

The "Up" rapper claims that any other allegations that Ellis may try to use against her are “highly prejudicial and a transparent and improper attempt to cast [Cardi B] in a bad light based on purely extraneous matters.”

She goes on to say that she believes that there "is a serious danger that the jury will believe, based largely on hearsay evidence, that because [Cardi B] may have acted and/or has been alleged to have acted in a certain manner at a different time and place involving different people" that the jury might conclude that she is a "bad person" and "seek to improperly punish her."

The filing goes on to say that adding such allegations into their case “will not only necessitate undue consumption of court time on extraneous matters, but it will create a substantial danger of undue prejudice, confusing the issues, and misleading the jury.”