<\/p>\n
Six months after a jury unanimously sided with Cardi B and rejected a security guard\u2019s assault claim<\/a>, a judge ruled Thursday that the rapper can recover nearly $20,000 in trial costs.<\/p>\n 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 \u201ca sham.\u201d But the judge who oversaw the trial wrote a tentative ruling ahead of a hearing Thursday morning, calling the costs not only timely, but \u201cnecessary\u201d to the defense Cardi mounted.<\/p>\n \u201cMy client doesn\u2019t want me to submit, but we\u2019re going to just let it be,\u201d Ellis\u2019 lawyer Ron A. Rosen Janfaza, said after appearing by video for the morning hearing. The court then adopted the judge\u2019s tentative ruling, finding the $19,690 tab for things like deposition costs, court reporter fees, and photocopies was \u201creasonable\u201d and must be paid to Cardi.<\/p>\n Ellis and Janfaza first fought the costs in a November court filing that claimed Cardi, born Belcalis Alm\u00e1nzar, \u201cproceeded in bad faith and should not be rewarded.\u201d In response, lawyers for Alm\u00e1nzar said they followed the rules. They called Ellis\u2019 claims of bad faith and a missed deadline \u201cmeritless if not patently frivolous.\u201d The judge agreed.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> Ellis\u2019 request for a new trial in December. In January, he again sided with Cardi and fined Janfaza $1,500<\/a> for asking the \u201cBodak Yellow\u201d rapper about alleged \u201cgang affiliation\u201d on the witness stand.<\/p>\n 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<\/a> to Ellis\u2019s claim that Cardi scratched her face during a 2018 confrontation outside a Beverly Hills medical office.<\/p>\n Janfaza tried to sidestep the sanctions, arguing he was sleep-deprived. But the judge called the question a \u201cknowing and intentional\u201d violation. He ordered Janfaza to report the sanction to the State Bar within 30 days and pay the fine or face collection efforts.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Cardi testified there was no physical contact, describing only a verbal confrontation. Two defense witnesses, including the doctor and a receptionist, supported her account<\/a>, saying Ellis appeared to be the aggressor.<\/p>\n After the verdict, Alm\u00e1nzar released special \u201cCourtroom Edition\u201d CD covers for her sophomore album, Am I the Drama?<\/em>, which showcased her viral moments<\/a> and hairstyles during the trial. The civil court victory wasn\u2019t her first. She previously scored\u00a0a $4 million jury verdict<\/a>\u00a0against celebrity gossip vlogger Latasha Kebe, professionally known as Tasha K.<\/p>\n A New York judge also sided with Alm\u00e1nzar and\u00a0dismissed a libel lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0that named her as a defendant alongside her sister, Hennessy. Alm\u00e1nzar further\u00a0won at a California-based federal trial<\/a>\u00a0where she was accused of\u00a0using a portion of a man\u2019s back tattoo<\/a>\u00a0on the cover of her early mixtape\u00a0Gangsta Bitch Music Vol. 1<\/em>.<\/p>\n This article originally appeared on Rolling Stone.<\/strong><\/p>\n More from VIBE.com<\/strong><\/p>\n Sign up for Vibe’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Six months after a jury unanimously sided with Cardi B and rejected a security guard\u2019s 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2346967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[305552,455351,361676,455349,455350,337807,455352],"class_list":["post-2346966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-cardi-b","tag-civil-trial","tag-emani-ellis","tag-lawyer-ron-a-rosen-janfaza","tag-nancy-dillon","tag-security-guard","tag-thursday-morning"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Cardi-B-Wins-Right-To-Recover-Money-From-Security-Guard.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2346966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2346966"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2346966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2346968,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2346966\/revisions\/2346968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2346967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2346966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2346966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2346966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}