Cardi B Demands Any Talk of Her Working as Stripper, Past Gang Ties Be Banned From Assault Trial
Cardi B asked a judge to ban any talk of her past as an exotic dancer or any alleged incidents involving drugs as part of an upcoming court trial, In Touch can exclusively report.
Cardi, 32, and a female security guard named Emani Ellis are in the middle of an ugly court war. The trial is scheduled to begin on May 12.
Emani sued the entertainer in 2020 over an alleged incident at a medical office in Beverly Hills.
The alleged incident took place on February 24, 2018. In her lawsuit, Emani claimed she walked up to Cardi, which allegedly led to the rapper striking her in the face, head and body.
She claimed Cardi used her 'long fingernails and sharp objects' to cause an injury on her face. Emani claimed Cardi also spit on her and used 'multiple profanities and racial slurs against [Ellis] who is African American.'
The security guard claimed Cardi and her team called her bosses, and used her 'celebrity status" to get her fired from her job at the medical building. Emani's lawsuit demanded unspecified damages.
Cardi denied all allegations of wrongdoing or that she ever touched Emani. She said any actions on her part were done in self-defense.
In her recent filing, Cardi demanded the court not allow certain topics from being discussed in front of the jury at the trial.
Cardi said the jury should not hear about alleged altercations between her and third parties not associated with the case, any criminal charges or police reports filed against her, incidents in which she uttered obscenities, either in her music or at others or police investigations concerning her.
In addition, Cardi said the jury should not hear about any alleged incidents involving her and drugs or drug use, her past as an exotic dancer or any former association with a gang or gang members during her youth or other media reports about her and other lawsuits filed against her by third parties.
In 2018, Cardi opened up to GQ that she was a member of the "Blood" gang as a kid but advised young kids against doing the same. Cardi said she believed Emani planned to prejudice the jury by bringing up the topics to 'divert attention from' her 'frivolous claims.'
In her motion, Cardi argued that if the topics were discussed during the jury it would cause her harm.
Her lawyer said, 'There is a serious danger that the jury will believe, based largely on hearsay evidence, that because [Cardi] has been alleged to have acted in a certain manner at a different time and place involving different people, she committed the acts alleged by [Emani], or that the jury will conclude that [Cardi] is a 'bad person' and seek to improperly punish her on that basis.'
A judge has yet to rule. In her filing, Cardi said the lawsuit is over an alleged 60-90 second encounter on a single occasion. She said she was pregnant at the time and had not publicly disclosed her pregnancy to the world.
Her lawyer provided new details of the incident. Cardi's lawyer wrote, '[Cardi] was visiting her obstetrician's office in a medical building where [Emani] was employed as a security guard. In the hallway outside [Cardi's] obstetrician's office, [Emani] started filming [Cardi] and speaking to someone on the phone about her. [Cardi] asked her to put her phone away because [Cardi's] pregnancy had not been made public yet."
The attorney added, "The incident escalated into a verbal argument. [Cardi] denies touching [Emani], but [Emani] alleges that during the brief verbal altercation, [Cardi] yelled at her, spit on her, and [Emani] was scratched by [Cardi's] fingernail, which is strenuously disputed.'
The rapper pointed out Emani did not see a medical professional for the scratch until four and a half years after the incident. Cardi also claimed the 'scar' on Emani's face is not visible.
For her part, Emani claimed the incident not only caused her physical injury, but said she also deals with emotional and psychological damage.
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Los Angeles Times
3 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
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Which is why the arrest of David Huerta, president of SEIU-USWW and SEIU California, by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday is going to have a major impact on the coming months as deportations continue. 'They have woke us up,' Tia Orr told me Saturday morning. She's the executive director of the 700,000-strong Service Employees International Union California, of which Huerta is a part, and the first African American and Latina to lead the organization. 'And I think they've woke people up across the nation, certainly in California, and people are ready to get to action,' she added. 'I haven't seen that in a long time. I don't know that I've seen something like that before, and so yes, it is going to result in action that I believe is going to be historical.' While unions have voiced their disapproval of mass deportations since the MAGA threat first manifested, their might has not gone full force against them, taking instead a bit of a wait-and-see approach. Well, folks, we've seen. We've seen the unidentified masked men rounding up immigrants across the country and shipping them into life sentences at torturous foreign prisons; we've watched a 9-year-old Southern California boy separated from his father and detained for deportation; and Friday, across Los Angeles, we saw an anonymous military-style force of federal agents sweep up our neighbors, family members and friends in what seemed to be a haphazard and deliberately cruel way. And for those of you who have watched the video of Huerta's arrest, we've seen a middle-aged Latino man in a plaid button-down be roughly pushed by authorities in riot gear until he falls backward, and seems to strike his head on the curb. Huerta was, according to a television interview with Mayor Karen Bass, pepper-sprayed as well. Then he was taken to the hospital for treatment, then into custody, where he remains until a Monday arraignment. U.S. Atty. 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The union he is president of — SEIU United Service Workers West — started the Justice for Janitors campaign in 1990, a bottom-up movement that in Los Angeles was mostly powered by the immigrant Latina women who cleaned commercial office space for wages as low as $7 an hour. After weeks of protests, police attacked those Latina workers in June of that year in what became known as the 'Battle of Century City.' Two dozen workers were injured but the union did not back down. Eventually, it won the contracts it was seeking, and equally as important, it won public support. Huerta joined USWW a few years after that incident, growing the Justice for Janitors campaign. The union was and has always been one powered by immigrant workers who saw that collective power was their best power, and Huerta has led decades of building that truth into a practical force. He is, says Orr, an organizer who knows how to bring people together. 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Chicago Tribune
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Review: ‘Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues' at American Blues is a familiar kind of odd-couple story
Charles Smith and Chuck Smith, two venerable artists with a long and auspicious history in Chicago theater, don't just have similar names. They've been friends and collaborators for close to 40 years. Anyone who knows them knows not to call Charles 'Chuck,' or Chuck 'Charles,' on pain of gentle correction. Their latest, and let's surely hope not their final, teaming up is for an American Blues Theater show called 'Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues,' a play that goes back almost four decades, having first been developed at American Blues in 1987. As far as I am aware, though, the first full production of the final version did not take place until 2016, when the show, a piece about a pseudo-paternal friendship between an aging and crusty white vaudevillian and an African American teenager, was first seen in Ohio, where Charles Smith long has taught. The staging at the new space developed by American Blues is the show's Chicago premiere. I've seen most of Charles Smith's typically detailed plays over the years, many of which have been excellent, and his body of work includes a longstanding interest in the history of vaudevillian performance. But in this case, to be frank, this feels a bit more like the kind of odd-couple play that was more in vogue some years ago. We start out by watching the octogenarian Pompey (Dennis Cockrum, of recent 'Shameless' fame) struggling to remember his lines sufficiently well to keep up his wordplay act with Ollie (James Sherman, another distinguished name). Then the show movies a few years later, to the point where Pompey's domestic well-being has become an issue for his daughter Marsha (Dawn Bach), who can see all the empty cans of food strewn around. Marsha has a foster son, Jet (Justin Banks), and most of 'Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues' is about the developing relationship between Pompey and this kid, one that you quickly intuit will be beneficial to them both. This certainly is a structure you've likely seen before, although it's performed with integrity, charm and authenticity here. At times, it feels like you are watching an old-school sitcom with both laugh lines and what they used to call 'treacle cutters,' meaning poignant lines. Ollie doesn't disappear as the 90-minute show progresses; he pops up occasionally, haunting Pompey's memory. At the show I attended, the piece needed a bit more pizzazz and, frankly, speed. Simply put, I think everyone focuses a bit too much on what Pompey cannot do anymore, over what he can, which is needed to drive the dramatic action. Somehow, the show never quite transcends its devices; it's just too familiar a scenario and you see what's coming down the pike before it actually arrives. Smith has penned much better plays. Several of them. Still, the show does indeed deal with salient issues of aging, caregiving, and the importance of both listening to oldsters and passing on your truths to the next generation. And it comes with a baked-in optimism about America, at least in one 1990s living room. Review: 'Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues' (2.5 stars) When: Through June 29 Where: American Blues Theater, 5627 N. Lincoln Ave. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes Tickets: $49.50 at 773-654-3103 and
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