liable

Sept. 2 (UPI) — Cardi B will not have to pay $24 million in damages after a Los Angeles County jury determined Tuesday that the rapper did not assault a security guard.

The jury’s verdict, reported by multiple outlets, is the end of a saga that began in 2018 when Emani Ellis, the former security guard, claimed she was left with enduring physical and emotional scars after an altercation with the rapper while she was visiting her obstetrician’s office in Beverly Hills.

Ellis sued the rapper, whose legal name is Belcalis Almanzar, claiming she hit her and scratched her face, leaving her with a scar that required plastic surgery, reported local ABC affiliate KABC. Almanzar said she confronted Ellis for filming her entering the office, saying she was trying to conceal that she was pregnant at the time, the station reported.

“I will say it on my deathbed,” Almanzar told reporters after the jury’s verdict. “I did not touch that woman. I did not touch that girl. I didn’t lay my hands on that girl,”

The trial was widely followed on social media, with observers generating memes from key moments that included Almanzar’s use of profanity, colorful testimony and the array of different wigs she wore.

Ellis told jurors she blurted out the rapper’s name after spotting her while making her rounds but never recorded her, reported Rolling Stone.

“She was extremely upset,” Ellis testified. “She put her finger in my face.”

A doctor’s secretary testified that she witnessed Ellis cornering Almanzar, but couldn’t account for the first 40 seconds of the altercation, reported KNBC-TV. Almanzar’s lawyers argued that Ellis was not badly injured because she did not go to the hospital or file a police report, and instead went home and took a nap, the station reported.

After the trial, Almanzar told reporters that she had to miss her kids’ first day of school and had to get up at 5:30 a.m. to prepare for court after working late on her new album Am I the Drama? She said all the wigs shore wore left her forehead “raw, raw, raw.”

Jimmie Allen, the Grammy-nominated singer known for “Best Shot” and “Warrior,” is liable for sexually assaulting a woman in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2022 and filming it, a federal judge decided this week.

Judge Aleta A. Trauger on Monday filed an order in Tennessee federal court granting a motion for sanctions and judgment against the 40-year-old country musician, according to court documents reviewed by The Times. Allen’s accuser — identified in court documents as “Jane Doe 2” — filed her motion against the singer and his co-defendants in May, but they failed to respond in a timely manner, the order said.

“The court therefore interprets this motion to be unopposed,” Trauger said, adding later in her order, “defendants throughout have failed to comply with case management discovery deadlines and even failed to comply with specific Orders of this court.”

The order adds that Allen and the co-defendants — his bodyguard and Aadyn’s Dad Touring Inc. — also failed to pay the plaintiff $5,950 in nonrefundable legal fees, as ordered in March. A legal representative for the defendants did not immediately respond on Wednesday to The Times’ request for comment.

Elizabeth Fegan, an attorney for the plaintiff, told The Times on Wednesday that her legal team is “pleased with the Court’s decision to grant judgment for Plaintiff in light of Jimmie Allen’s refusal to participate in the litigation process.”

“We look forward to proving up Plaintiff’s damages caused by Allen’s predatory acts,” Fegan added.

Allen faced multiple sexual assault lawsuits in the summer of 2023, which took a toll on his career and professional opportunities. In May 2023, a woman who said she was Allen’s former manager accused him of sexual battery, assault, false imprisonment, sex trafficking and emotional distress. The woman — identified in court documents as “Jane Doe” — dropped her complaint against Allen in March 2024 after reaching a settlement with the singer, and eventually dismissed the case with prejudice in October 2024.

Jane Doe 2 sued Allen in June 2023, requesting a jury trial and an unspecified amount in damages. She alleged in her complaint that Allen sexually assaulted her in his hotel room in Las Vegas in July 2022. She also accused the singer of filming the alleged assault without her consent, causing her to “suffer extreme emotional distress, including anxiety and depression.”

Allen responded to the two lawsuits with a countersuit of his own in July 2023. At the time, he denied the allegations and accused one woman of defaming him, and the other woman of illegally taking his cellphone after consenting to being recorded.

Amid the final weeks of litigation in Jane Doe 2’s suit, Allen promoted new music and live concerts on social media. Earlier this month, he also addressed the sexual assault allegations on the “Playlisted Podcast,” hosted by Austin Burke.

“I always tell people, ‘No matter where you go in life, the more successful you become … be careful because you have a target on your back,’” he said in an episode published Aug. 10. “Anytime you hear the word ‘lawsuit,’ know there’s money involved.”

He added later in the episode: “As the world moves forward, I just wish people are smarter. I hope people aren’t ‘sheeple’ anymore. That people actually use their brain in every decision, in everything they read.”