Cardi B Testifies at Security Guard Assault Trial: ‘I Didn’t Touch Her’

Cardi B testified Tuesday that when she stepped off an elevator to visit a Beverly Hills obstetrician while secretly pregnant seven years ago, a female security guard blabbed her name into a phone, stalked her down a hallway, appeared to be recording her, and refused to back up. She claimed the guard, Emani Ellis, then started “wilding out” when others intervened.

The rapper, born Belcalis Almánzar, told jurors on the second day of a civil trial in Alhambra, California, that she had gone out of her way to conceal the medical visit, even asking her personal security guard to wait downstairs in the lobby. She wasn’t yet ready to announce she was expecting her first child with Migos rapper Offset, she said.

When she encountered Ellis and felt like she was being cornered, a “verbal altercation” ensued, she testified. Almánzar was adamant she never laid a finger on Ellis. “I didn’t touch her,” she said repeatedly on the witness stand Tuesday. “It was like a verbal fight, but it didn’t get physical at all.”

Ellis, 32, has sued Almánzar with claims the “I Like It” rapper assaulted her outside the fifth-floor medical office after falsely accusing Ellis of blowing her cover. Ellis claimed Almánzar got in her face, cut her cheek with a three-inch nail, and spit on her, leaving her “deeply traumatized.”

Appearing relaxed under rapid-fire questioning by Ellis’ lawyer, Ron Rosen Janfaza, Almánzar scored a laugh from several jurors when asked how she would characterize her grilling. “We’re having, I’ll say, a debate,” she replied with a smile. Rosen Janfaza had just deemed her a “hostile witness” and opened his examination by asking if she was affiliated with a gang. (The judge ruled that the question was out of bounds.)

Walking the jury of six women and six men through her memory of the incident inside the Beverly Hills medical building on Feb. 24, 2018, Almánzar said she saw Ellis immediately after the elevator doors opened. She said Ellis had a phone up to her ear.

“I could hear her. She was talking on the phone. She said, ‘Oh my god, Cardi B is here!’” So I kind of speed walk [away], but I feel her behind me,” Almánzar testified. She said Ellis mentioned her name again, so she turned around. At that point, Ellis purportedly was holding her phone in front of her chest, the singer testified. Almánzar alleged it appeared she was taking a video. Ellis denies this.

“I asked her, ‘Yo, why are you recording me?’” Almánzar testified. “I’m like, ‘Why are you recording me? Aren’t you security?’ And she’s like, ‘Oh, my bad.’ But then I’m walking, and I feel her still following me. So as I’m speed walking trying to look for the office, I turn around again, and I’m like, ‘Why are you following me?’”

According to Almánzar, Ellis replied, “Because I can.” To this, Almánzar says she replied, “No, you can’t.” Again, Almánzar rebuked Ellis for allegedly recording and following her.

“She’s getting closer and closer. Now she’s like in front of me, where I can’t really maneuver,” Almánzar testified. “I’m like, ‘Ain’t you supposed to be security? … You’re recording me. Now you’re following me. Like, back up!’ She’s like, ‘I can do what I want.’”

The Grammy winner said she accused Ellis of “invading” her privacy. “Now, we’re like chest to chest,” she said. “I’m thinking to myself, this girl is big. She’s got big black boots on. I’m like, damn, what the hell am I going to do now? She’s literally right in my face, like, on my chest, and we’re arguing, I’m telling her to back up. And she’s not backing up.”

Almánzar admitted she shouted an obscenity at Ellis. “Bitch, get the fuck out of my face,” she recalled saying.

“We’re literally screaming at each other,” she said. When the receptionist for the doctor’s office came out to investigate the disturbance, Ellis falsely accused Almánzar of striking her, Almánzar testified.

“She started wilding out, [saying] ‘This bitch hit me,’” Almánzar claimed. “I’m looking at her like, girl, I couldn’t hit you if I wanted to.” She said the doctor came out too, and at that point, Almánzar scurried into the office for her appointment.

‘When I got sued, I was like, ‘Oh, I know I didn’t touch her. Look for the cameras because they’ll tell you. I didn’t touch her,’” she testified, saying it turned out the fifth floor didn’t have cameras. The rapper told the jury she sought medical attention that day because she was on a trip to Los Angeles and felt something was off with the pregnancy. After the minute-long confrontation with Ellis, she saw the doctor and moved on, she said. Then Ellis filed her lawsuit.

Almánzar was called as the sixth witness at the civil trial in Alhambra, California. She is expected to resume her testimony on Wednesday. Earlier Tuesday, a plastic surgeon testified that he treated Ellis for a “hyper-sensitive” scar on her left cheek after first examining her on Nov. 4, 2022. He said Ellis told him Almánzar had scratched her four years earlier with long fingernails that had sharp objects on them.

Testifying as both a treating physician and paid expert for Ellis, Dr. Brent Moelleken said Ellis had three parallel scars on her face, with the “center scar” being the largest at two centimeters. Pairing Ellis’ account of what happened with the “direction of the scars,” he said the scrapes “most likely” were caused by fingernails, with a longer middle finger causing the deepest scrape in the middle.

Under cross-examination, Dr. Moelleken was confronted with a portion of his videotaped deposition in which he said the scrapes appeared to be caused by a “right-handed” individual swiping “downward.” One of Almánzar’s lawyers, Eric Lamm, pointed out that the rapper is left-handed.

Psychologist Nichole McKenzie testified right before Almánzar. She had evaluated Ellis in April 2022, two months after the incident, as part of Ellis’ worker’s compensation claim. According to a written report from McKenzie read aloud in court, Ellis told the psychologist that Almánzar’s “really long” nails were “almost touching” her nose during the incident. In the report, McKenzie described the confrontation as a “screaming match.” Under a section on “physical symptoms,” McKenzie wrote that “Ms. Ellis reports that she experiences headaches at least four to five times a week that last for several hours. She is also sleeping more than she used to.” The section did not list any injuries to Ellis’ face.

McKenzie testified Tuesday that if a physical injury was part of Ellis’ worker’s compensation claim, “I would have noted it.” Rosen Janfaza then read another line from McKenzie’s report for the jury. That line said Ellis reported to the psychologist that after the incident, a security guard for Almánzar “reportedly apologized.”

Ellis’ mother and grandmother also testified Tuesday, telling jurors that Ellis called them after the alleged assault in tears. “She was hysterically crying,” Ellis’ mom, Leanne Shmidt, testified. “She could barely get it out, she was so upset.” The mother and grandmother said Ellis has suffered from anxiety and depression over the last seven years linked to the incident.

Ellis, 32, first sued Cardi in February 2020. In her 13-page complaint, she claimed Almánzar physically attacked her and then “used her celebrity status to get [her] fired.” On Monday, Ellis’ lawyer confirmed his client had dropped the employment claim related to the alleged plot to get her fired.

During her own turn on the witness stand Monday, Ellis told jurors she was conducting her routine rounds in the medical office building when she saw Almánzar exit the elevator and audibly blurted out the rapper’s name. She said she was not talking to anyone on her phone and never recorded the rapper.

“She was extremely upset,” Ellis testified. “She put her finger in my face.” Ellis claimed Almánzar yelled obscenities at her, cut her left cheek with a three-inch fingernail, and spit on her. “I was deeply traumatized about what happened,” Ellis testified.

Under cross-examination, Almánzar’s lawyer, Peter Anderson, confronted Ellis with an incident report she submitted to her supervisor two days after her alleged assault. In the report, Ellis admitted she was pressing her personal cell phone to her ear around the time the encounter started. Ellis also wrote in the report that Almánzar scratched her nose, not her cheek, Anderson said. “You changed your story,” Anderson claimed during the line of questioning.

“She touched my nose, but she scratched my cheek,” Ellis replied on the witness stand.

In his opening statement, Anderson said Almánzar felt threatened by Ellis. “Cardi B was facing someone, with all respect, who testified she was 240-250 pounds, wearing black military boots, hovering over her, yelling and screaming at her, taking swings at her, trying to get to her,” he told the jury. “There will be evidence that it was [Ellis] who yelled, ‘I will fuck your shit up.’ That’s when someone intervened and dragged [Ellis] to an elevator and said, ‘You have to leave.’”

Anderson said Almánzar “feared for her unborn baby. This is her first pregnancy, and a very large woman was advancing towards her. She was utterly confused that a security guard could be her attacker.”

The trial is set to continue on Wednesday before breaking early for the holiday weekend and resuming on Tuesday.