Six months after a jury unanimously sided with Cardi B and rejected a security guard’s assault claim, a judge ruled Thursday that the rapper can recover nearly $20,000 in trial costs.
The security guard, Emani Ellis, tried to get the legal tab tossed out, claiming the Grammy-winning musician waited too long to seek reimbursement and that her submitted bill was “a sham.” But the judge who oversaw the trial wrote a tentative ruling ahead of a hearing Thursday morning, calling the costs not only timely, but “necessary” to the defense Cardi mounted.
“My client doesn’t want me to submit, but we’re going to just let it be,” Ellis’ lawyer Ron A. Rosen Janfaza, said after appearing by video for the morning hearing. The court then adopted the judge’s tentative ruling, finding the $19,690 tab for things like deposition costs, court reporter fees, and photocopies was “reasonable” and must be paid to Cardi.
Ellis and Janfaza first fought the costs in a November court filing that claimed Cardi, born Belcalis Almánzar, “proceeded in bad faith and should not be rewarded.” In response, lawyers for Almánzar said they followed the rules. They called Ellis’ claims of bad faith and a missed deadline “meritless if not patently frivolous.” The judge agreed.
The Thursday ruling was the latest in a series of victories for Cardi. At the civil trial, the jury needed only an hour to return a unanimous verdict in favor of the musician whose testimony went viral. After that, Los Angeles County Judge Ian C. Fusselman shot down Ellis’ request for a new trial in December. In January, he again sided with Cardi and fined Janfaza $1,500 for asking the “Bodak Yellow” rapper about alleged “gang affiliation” on the witness stand.
In his Jan. 29 ruling, Judge Fusselman said Janfaza violated a pretrial order barring references to alleged prior bad acts. The judge had ruled such topics, including alleged altercations with third parties and purported gang affiliation, were irrelevant and unduly prejudicial to Ellis’s claim that Cardi scratched her face during a 2018 confrontation outside a Beverly Hills medical office.
Janfaza tried to sidestep the sanctions, arguing he was sleep-deprived. But the judge called the question a “knowing and intentional” violation. He ordered Janfaza to report the sanction to the State Bar within 30 days and pay the fine or face collection efforts.
At trial, jurors found Ellis failed to prove Cardi assaulted her during the February 2018 dispute, which began after Cardi believed Ellis was filming her while she was pregnant and visiting an obstetrician.
Cardi testified there was no physical contact, describing only a verbal confrontation. Two defense witnesses, including the doctor and a receptionist, supported her account, saying Ellis appeared to be the aggressor.
After the verdict, Almánzar released special “Courtroom Edition” CD covers for her sophomore album, Am I the Drama?, which showcased her viral moments and hairstyles during the trial. The civil court victory wasn’t her first. She previously scored a $4 million jury verdict against celebrity gossip vlogger Latasha Kebe, professionally known as Tasha K.
A New York judge also sided with Almánzar and dismissed a libel lawsuit that named her as a defendant alongside her sister, Hennessy. Almánzar further won at a California-based federal trial where she was accused of using a portion of a man’s back tattoo on the cover of her early mixtape Gangsta Bitch Music Vol. 1.
Blair Brown*
