S3 Ep335: Cardi B’s Viral Court Testimony

Cardi B testified in a $24 million civil lawsuit filed by former security guard Emani Ellis, who alleges that Cardi assaulted her in 2018. Cardi denied all physical contact, and attributed her reaction to feeling cornered while pregnant. Her animated testimony has quickly gone viral online. Try our coffee!! - www. CriminalCoffeeCo.comBecome a Patreon member -- > ｿ https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeeklyShop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> ｿ https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shopYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcastWebsite: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.comInstagram: @CrimeWeeklyPodTwitter: @CrimeWeeklyPodFacebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:13Derrick Levasseur?

  Hey everyone, welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derrick Levasseur.

• 0:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  And I'm Stephanie Harlow.

• 0:18Derrick Levasseur?

  And first off, thank you to everyone who watched or listened to the Brad Bradley episode. Starting to see some audio comments trickle in. So far, so good. We hope you guys got a lot out of it. Overall, we didn't have like a closing statement with that interview because we felt like it was pretty self explanatory. We didn't plan on interviewing Brad. We closed out our episode. We had kind of put a bow on it. Brad was additional information because we had came to our own conclusions and always with every case we covered, I know I say it all the time, but there's no incentive for us to lean one way or the other. You've seen it with other cases where popular opinion may be one thing and we end up going in a different direction and we

• 1:00Derrick Levasseur?

  get more hate for it than anything. But that's because, and this is what I love about Stephanie and where we're definitely always on the same page. We call it how we see it, even if it's not the majority opinion, right? And that's what I do think differentiates us from a lot of podcasts because sometimes without saying names, they like to see where the consensus is online and then they go that similar angle. So for us, having Brad on wasn't to debate him, wasn't to discredit anything that he believed. It was to say, hey, here's what we believe. Here's what Brad and his family believes, and he offers a different perspective than we can ever provide you guys. And we want you to have the full picture so you can make an informed decision or

• 1:43Derrick Levasseur?

  conclusion on how you feel about the case. And I really do think that Brad's information and his perspective and everything he provided did add another dimension to it. And I will say for me personally, it didn't completely change my mind. He doesn't really entertain the idea that Amy could be in the water. And you know, I push back on that a little bit. I still think it's possible. There's nothing To discredit that theory or say it's not possible and the absence of evidence is not evidence. So we can agree to disagree on certain things. That's why I thought the conversation was so great. What about you, Stephanie? Anything you wanted to add to that before we get into something that's a little lighter?

• 2:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  No, I'm glad we did. I am glad we did. And if we can help him in some way, or the Bradleys in general in some way, I would obviously want to that. And I think everybody listening, whether they agree with us, whether they agree with Brad, would want the same for Amy. So

• 2:32Derrick Levasseur?

  Of course, we all want the same thing. We want to know what happened to her. I will say one minor follow up before we get into the episode. I did promise Brad that I was going to reach out to James Renner. I did. And without going into too many details, he was receptive and we are now communicating and I believe he's going to be at CrimeCon. So I'm going to try to get as much information as I can and we'll see where it takes us. For me personally, yeah, I'd love to interview Yellow, but for me, what I'd really like to kind of what angle I'd like to go is to find this woman, Jass, and see if she actually exists, right? Because if she does, and we can find her, she could answer a lot of questions for us. So that's going to be my goal. I don't know how successful I'll be. We'll see where it goes. And if we have a major update, we'll let you know. The only other

• 3:17Derrick Levasseur?

  thing I have is Stephanie seeing it for the first time in person. She obviously saw the designs, but we are actually recording these episodes early because we're going to be at CrimeCon when they're going to be coming out. So this is the new merchandise that's going to be at CrimeCon. So we have the new Criminal Coffee t-shirt, which if you're on audio, I apologize. And with the new Criminal Coffee hat, this is not available on the website yet. We're actually going to be launching it at CrimeCon, but when we get back, it will be available for everybody who's on audio and you can't see it. It's a baby blue shirt. It's got like a cartoon style hand with a handcuff attached to a coffee mug. It's really freaking cool.

• 3:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  That's baby blue?

• 3:56Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, like a little baby blue. I will say, I was telling Stephanie, I was out in the rain, so it's a little darker. But um, yeah, modeling it off for you. Pretty cool.

• 4:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  We're also going to have a special Denver

• 4:07Derrick Levasseur?

  It's so sick.

• 4:08Stephanie Harlowe?

  Edition, right?

• 4:08Derrick Levasseur?

  The CrimeCon Denver shirt is so sick.

• 4:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  We had one for Nashville last year. So cool.

• 4:14Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, that'll be available just at CrimeCon. We're going to have that every year. We had Nashville last year and we're going to have Denver this year. Might be my favorite shirt we've ever done.

• 4:22Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 4:23Derrick Levasseur?

  Shout out to Ashley for designing it.

• 4:24Stephanie Harlowe?

  I haven't seen it yet, so I'm going to be surprised.

• 4:26Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, you haven't seen it in person, but remember I sent you the design?

• 4:28Stephanie Harlowe?

  Not the Denver one.

• 4:29Derrick Levasseur?

  Oh, maybe I didn't.

• 4:30Stephanie Harlowe?

  You didn't. I thought you wanted to surprise me and now I know that you just didn't think of me.

• 4:35Derrick Levasseur?

  You're gonna, you're gonna love it.

• 4:37Stephanie Harlowe?

  Is there a cannabis leaf in it?

• 4:39Derrick Levasseur?

  There is not a cannabis leaf, but there's some other cool stuff.

• 4:41Stephanie Harlowe?

  It's Denver, man.

• 4:42Derrick Levasseur?

  I know. I probably should have added a cannabis leaf in there like a little, little like Easter egg someone could find. Maybe there is a weed plant in there somewhere.

• 4:49Stephanie Harlowe?

  Hmm.

• 4:50Derrick Levasseur?

  I don't know. But overall, I just wanted to put that out there. Again, this is the merch. It'll be available in a, you know, a couple of weeks when we get back. But, uh, everyone, thank you for the support. We're still waiting for permission to give you guys a major update in the criminal coffee sphere as far as, uh, the case that we were working. We're right there. There's one more person who has to sign off before we can speak about it publicly. I've been harassing people, literally, uh, to, to give us permission to do it. And I've basically told them that we're announcing it by Crime Con with or without their permission. So find a way to get it done. But that update's coming soon and I can promise you it's a huge one. Probably our biggest yet on criminal coffee.

• 5:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  Let's talk about Cardi B.

• 5:34Derrick Levasseur?

  Okay, okay. That's so, why are we, first off, tell them why we're covering Cardi B this week. I think I kinda gave a little bit of a heads up, but.

• 5:40Stephanie Harlowe?

  So we sat down to do Crime Weekly News and we were like, you know, this is gonna be difficult because we usually do like current topical stuff and because we're filming ahead, that's gonna be a little bit more difficult. But all I can think of for the last several days is Cardi B.

• 5:53Derrick Levasseur?

  You were telling me. I hadn't seen it.

• 5:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  Uh, well, her trial, which has become the most entertaining trial I've ever seen. And I think it's a really, I think it's a really good message what's happening. I think it's important to talk about because here's the deal. In 2018, Cardi B goes to an OBGYN. She's pregnant at that point, about 12 weeks pregnant. And she's getting checked and they had shut down the building because obviously Cardi B, if you don't know, rapper, huge celebrity, big time. We all know who Cardi B is, right? I think, I hope.

• 6:24Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, I mean, even I know who she is.

• 6:26Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay, good. So if Derek knows, then.

• 6:28Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, that's, that's saying something.

• 6:30Stephanie Harlowe?

  Cardi B goes into this building and she says she's walking towards the elevator and she sees the security guard, the female security guard, uh, Imani Ellis. And she sees Imani Ellis on her phone and Imani says, oh, oh damn, it's Cardi B. And then Cardi B sees her holding her phone and recording her. Imani's recording Cardi B. But that wasn't enough, right? This, the security guard, Imani, has to now follow Cardi B. And, and finally, Cardi B turns around and she's like, what are you doing? Leave me alone, stop following me, stop filming me. And then they get into a verbal argument where this female security guard, Imani Ellis, she's like, uh, this is my building, you need to leave, I can do whatever I want, this, this and that. They're fighting.

• 7:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  Eventually, the doctor's receptionist comes out, she kinda gets in between these two women. And then the doctor comes out and we're gonna hear testimony from both the receptionist and the doctor during this trial. And then several years later, Imani Ellis sued Cardi B for $24 million, claiming that she scratched her face during this altercation. Now, even if that was true, which I'm gonna be straightforward with you, I don't believe that that is true. I don't believe she scratched her face at all. And the doctor never saw injuries on Imani Ellis's face. Imani Ellis lost her job as a security guard after that for her unprofessional behavior. The receptionist who came out and got between them never saw scratches on Imani's face.

• 7:57Stephanie Harlowe?

  In fact, the receptionist says that Imani, who was in front of her, she believes she scratched her, the receptionist. And, uh, and then, and Imani Ellis also has this lawyer who's just absolutely terrible. So that's basically what the court case is about. And Cardi B gets up on the stand and I think she's telling everybody, the jury, the judge, the lawyers, with her behavior, with her way of answering questions, I don't take this seriously. I don't take this seriously because it's a money grab. I don't take this seriously because what this woman is saying never happened. And I think she's just trying to get money out of me. Which even if Cardi B did scratch her face, asking for $24 million is absolutely absurd.

• 8:39Derrick Levasseur?

  Yep. How do you even come up with that number, 24 million?

• 8:42Stephanie Harlowe?

  Oh, apparently she had to get plastic surgery that cost like $17,000, like ludicrous. This is ludicrous. And I think I saw, I forget what, um, news channel it was.

• 8:53Derrick Levasseur?

  Surprises, no security footage.

• 8:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  I don't know.

• 8:55Derrick Levasseur?

  It never is when you need it.

• 8:56Stephanie Harlowe?

  I forgot what news channel it was today, but the woman anchor came on and she was like, this is clearly why Cardi B took this to trial because she could have paid this woman off, you know, thrown her a couple million, been like, hey, let's let this go away. But but Cardi B's like, this is absolutely a joke. And I even saw on Cardi B's own TikTok, she was like, people are asking me, why are you acting like this? And it's like, because this is a charade. This is a charade. I'm not going to take this seriously. It's absolutely ludicrous and it's very clear what it is. And Cardi B's got the jury laughing. She's even got the judge stepping in and defending her against the plaintiff's lawyer who's trying to catch her. I was saying, oh, she perjured herself or she did this. And we went and the judge is like, no, she didn't.

• 9:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  What are you talking about? So it's awesome because you know, there are people out there like that who are just gonna, you know, if you're a public figure, if you're somebody that they think has money, they're gonna go after you, make claims against you and try to see if you'll settle or if they can get a, you know, if they can get money from you.

• 9:56Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 9:56Stephanie Harlowe?

  And Cardi B's like, no, not today. And I love this because I've listened to Cardi B's music here and there, but now I'm a fan of her personally because she's very authentic, right? She is who she says she is. She is, you know, this, I think she's from New York City. She's kind of like, you know, straightforward, non apologetic, just this is who I am. And I really respect that because she's not sitting up on that stand pretending to be like prim and proper and sweet. She's being 100% authentically herself and it's really working for her. So I wanted to play a clip of a few of my favorite highlights from the trial that a

• 10:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  TikToker called Barty Swap put together. You know, there were so many great highlights and moments from this trial. I highly suggest you all go and watch it a full. I think that there is only three or four days of testimony. But um, yeah, it's hilarious. So let's play those clips. Derek can watch for the first time and then we'll take a break and come back and discuss.

• 10:59Speaker 02

  Did you call her fat?

• 11:01Speaker 03

  No, I was calling her a bitch.

• 11:04Speaker 02

  You said she's bigger than you, is that correct?

• 11:06Speaker 03

  Absolutely.

• 11:07Speaker 02

  How do you know that?

• 11:12Speaker 03

  I mean, look.

• 11:14Speaker 03

  Very concerned.

• 11:16Speaker 02

  And why were you concerned?

• 11:17Speaker 03

  Because I'm pregnant and this girl's about to fucking beat my ass. Hello?

• 11:24Speaker 02

  Hello. I will say in your own words what you said.

• 11:27Speaker 03

  I said, bitch, get the fuck out my face. Why are you in my face? Why are you recording me? Ain't you supposed to be security?

• 11:33Speaker 02

  And she's physically bigger, she's taller.

• 11:37Speaker 03

  I mean, you have her medical records, right?

• 11:40Speaker 02

  So she's overweight, right? In your opinion?

• 11:44Speaker 03

  She's my height. But she is like...

• 11:51Speaker 02

  What? Hey?

• 11:54Speaker 03

  Security heavy.

• 11:55Speaker 02

  What does that mean?

• 11:56Speaker 03

  Like, she just looks a little...

• 12:00Speaker 03

  Like she could protect a building. She just looks more...

• 12:06Speaker 03

  Developed than me.

• 12:07Derrick Levasseur?

  I will say this. She looks great. She looks way better than I ever did at court. Testifying. I wish I looked like that.

• 12:13Stephanie Harlowe?

  So that's another thing, right? Because On the first day of court, she had like a Black, like pixie cut haircut, and then the next day she had, I think, like blonde Waves, and then she had this wig. And the lawyer, Imani Ellis's lawyer, was like, "Yesterday you had this hair, and now you have this hair. What's your real hair?" And she's like, "They're all wigs." Like, hello? And then she says to him, "Hello," and he goes, "Hello," right back to her. And, uh, yeah, so he's talking about her appearance. He's clearly trying to get her riled up. I think...

• 12:45Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, 100%, because it doesn't even, like, Her saying anything about her appearance, obviously, we don't condone Making fun of someone's physical appearance.

• 12:52Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, of course, but how is it relevant? That's not illegal.

• 12:55Derrick Levasseur?

  It's not. It's not relevant. He's just trying to assassinate her character.

• 12:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  He's trying to make her seem like this angry person who can't keep her temper, and I want to... Preface this once again by saying, we're not body shaming, we don't support body shaming, but it's one of these things where it's like, hey, if you don't want trouble, don't go looking for it. Don't follow someone through a building filming them when you're supposed to be the security guard of that building, upholding yourself to a certain standard.

• 13:21Derrick Levasseur?

  Absolutely.

• 13:22Stephanie Harlowe?

  Then get in that person's face and expect them to be sweet as pie to you simply because they're a public figure and they have more to lose than you do.

• 13:29Derrick Levasseur?

  And maybe you said this, I could have missed it, but this person, there was like, it was in front of a doctor's office, correct?

• 13:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  It was in the building of the doctor's office.

• 13:35Derrick Levasseur?

  Doctor's office. And Cardi B, was she seeing that doctor?

• 13:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  She was there to see the doctor.

• 13:40Derrick Levasseur?

  So there's gotta be some type of HIPAA thing to that as well, like, like she's visiting the doctor for whatever medical thing. Obviously, I think it's because she was pregnant, maybe it was something else.

• 13:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  It was because she was pregnant. She said she was getting her kitty checked.

• 13:51Derrick Levasseur?

  But your security is recording a patient? That's a problem.

• 13:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, she lost her job, but Monty Ellis lost her job.

• 13:57Derrick Levasseur?

  I am not surprised.

• 13:58Stephanie Harlowe?

  But that is, it's not even like, oh, well, you know, there's people, of course, of course, there's people out there who just hate everyone and they're like, well, Cardi B is a public figure and she shouldn't expect privacy in public. And it's like, no, you don't expect privacy in public. But if you're a public figure, if you're in an OBGYN's office, you haven't announced that you're pregnant, that's your news to tell and share when you feel like you're ready to do that, whether it's with your fans or your family members even, that you shouldn't be like stalked and recorded and harassed in any place. And especially not at a doctor's office by somebody who's there to be security of that building.

• 14:34Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, I mean, I will say, not, not in this case, but there are public figures, celebrities who feel like, you know, they have control over everything. And if you're out in public, unfortunately, that is the negative that comes with being famous where if you're out in a, a, a public place, people have the right to record you and there's not much you can do about it. And I'm not saying it's right, but it is what it is and it comes with the other perks that you get being famous.

• 14:57Stephanie Harlowe?

  Comes with the territory, yeah.

• 14:58Derrick Levasseur?

  And there are certain celebrities who you see on different paparazzi websites and stuff and they're, they're expecting like, everyone to just like, cover their eyes as they walk by. And I look at those people and I just kind of roll my own eyes being like, dude, or you chose, you chose this life. Like, take the good with the bad, it could be a Lot worse. Now, if it comes out, if some way they're able to prove that Cardi B assaulted this woman, she should be entitled to something. I don't think they're going to be able to prove that because if they could, Cardi B's team wouldn't have let her go to trial. Like you said, they would have settled outside of court. So yeah, I mean, I agree with what's going on here. Cardi B is making light of this. She knows it's going to get clipped. She knows it's going to be a thing.

• 15:38Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, she's like, this is ludicrous. Like you have to pull me away from my family, from my work to come and do this charade of a trial. I'm going to show you exactly how seriously I'm taking it.

• 15:46Derrick Levasseur?

  No, exactly. It makes total sense. And I am in no way, shape or form, comparing myself to Cardi B or any celebrity for that matter. I'm not even on the list. But when I won Big Brother, when I got back, I had a group of people, when I went back to being a police officer, trying to incite me to put my hands on them. And, and it was like, people would like, physically try to get in my face while somebody else was recording because it was a small police department and everybody in that city knew that I had just won a little bit of money. I actually had to go get an insurance policy separate from the police department's insurance policy to cover myself because they were trying to

• 16:27Derrick Levasseur?

  elicit a specific response where if they catch me at a bad angle putting my hands on them, they could sue me civilly and get some money out of me. So again, not anything compared to what these real celebrities face every day. But as you said at the top of the episode, unfortunately, when you have money and people know it, they will try to get that out of you, even if it's not warranted.

• 16:49Stephanie Harlowe?

  So here's my question from a law standpoint, because I've been watching the trial and I've kind of been wondering, there's been a lot of questions like, well, did you call her a bitch? Well, did you call her fat? Well, did you call her this? And I'm wondering, why is this relevant? Because as far as I'm concerned, if somebody's following, like if somebody is following you around, Eric, like you said, they're trying to elicit you to put your hands on them, to put your hands on them so they can sue you. But the last time I checked, it's not illegal to turn around and say like, get, get the hell away from me, bitch. Like, it's not illegal to call people names, to, to do anything. That's not illegal. And so to, to kind of go with that line of questioning, when you're trying to prove that your client was physically assaulted, why are you talking about the verbal things?

• 17:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  That Cardi B said, other than to try and make her look like this bad person and you're trying to almost get the jury to be like, oh, I can't believe she called her security big. You know, like she could defend a building and that's mean. So we're going to find you guilty just because of that. That's what I think they're trying to do.

• 17:47Derrick Levasseur?

  What I think they're trying to do with is a tactic to show that Cardi B has a temper and is impulsive because the narrative they're putting forward is that Cardi B turned around or whatever and, and whacked their client, right? They hit this Cardi B hit her, their client. So if they can prove in front of everyone that if poked the right way, Cardi B can lose her temper and, and burst out and become hostile, then it's a lot less harder to believe that if in this moment with their client, maybe Cardi B displayed similar actions and emotions and put her hands on her, knowing that there wasn't a group of people around to monitor what she was doing. So I think they're just trying to show a different side

• 18:32Derrick Levasseur?

  of Cardi B to say, hey, she's not this funny.

• 18:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  They're trying to ruffle her, like ruffle her and get her to act out on the stand.

• 18:38Derrick Levasseur?

  And then if she does, if she gets up there and he says something and, and she lashes out at him, he's going to go, see?

• 18:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  But she didn't.

• 18:45Derrick Levasseur?

  She didn't take the bait. She didn't take the bait, but you can tell he's trying to instigate her.

• 18:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. And she's being honest. She's like, yeah, I called her a bitch.

• 18:52Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. She's like, hello. He's like, hello.

• 18:53Stephanie Harlowe?

  Hello. And he's like, hello.

• 18:54Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. He's very passive aggressive about it.

• 18:56Stephanie Harlowe?

  She's like, I'm pregnant and this woman is trying to like beat my ass. Hello. And he's like, hello.

• 19:04Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. In a perfect world for that lawyer, what he would like to see is her maybe like pound the desk and yell at him and swear at him. And he can go, Mrs. Cardi B, is this the same type of behavior you displayed?

• 19:16Stephanie Harlowe?

  Another tactic he used, at one point he was like, oh, what did you say to her? And she repeated it. And he's like, okay, now turn around and say it to her now as she like sits in the courtroom.

• 19:24Derrick Levasseur?

  He's trying to provoke her.

• 19:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. She looked and she's like, you want me to say it to her now? And he's like, yeah. She's like, I don't need to. I already did. It's just done, done. It was a beautiful masterclass.

• 19:33Derrick Levasseur?

  Cardi B's from the streets, right? Like she grew up having to defend herself, protect herself from the little I know about her. She, she had a tough upbringing and she was She was a dancer for a while. She didn't have everything handed to her. So she is not someone who's afraid to stick up for herself.

• 19:47Stephanie Harlowe?

  Is she a perfect angel?

• 19:49Derrick Levasseur?

  No.

• 19:49Stephanie Harlowe?

  Has she done everything right in life? Of course not.

• 19:52Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 19:52Stephanie Harlowe?

  Was she right in this scenario?

• 19:54Derrick Levasseur?

  Sounds like it.

• 19:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  I 100% believe so. And even the receptionist came out and said that Amani Ellis, because the receptionist testified and said, Amani Ellis was like waving her hands, like, you know, going crazy. And I was trying to get in between them. And the doctor came out and the lawyer said, well, did you see a mark on Amani Ellis's face? And he's like, no. And he's like, well, how did you know? Were you looking at her face? And the doctor said, yes, I was looking at her face. I looked at her face very seriously and close up and gravely and told her this behavior that you just did is unacceptable. So yes, I looked at her face.

• 20:24Derrick Levasseur?

  And he's a doctor. So he might have noticed something if there was an injury to her face. I think he's probably pretty perceptive.

• 20:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  And then they were talking about, oh, what kind of nails did Cardi B have that day? And it's like, I promise you, it doesn't matter. As somebody who's had acrylic nails in the past, they are so dull. They're like waxy. You could not scratch somebody to the point of needing plastic surgery with acrylic nails if you tried. Like, you can't even scratch an itch on your own skin sometimes. So it's just absolutely ludicrous. It's clearly a money grab. She went way too big, $24 million. Her lawyer looked stupid. Her lawyer's making her look stupid. Amani Ellis, even like, never mind. He, he kind of exposed that Amani Ellis went to a doctor for some VD issues.

• 21:08Stephanie Harlowe?

  And I'm not sure if he was supposed to do that, but the lawyer, Amani's lawyer, seems to be the one who's kind of getting like upset and agitated and elevated. Where Cardi's staying completely chill. But yeah, oh, one more question though. Let's say in this scenario, Amani Ellis is doing what she's doing. Let's say she attacks Cardi physically first. Can Cardi now legally physically attack back in self-defense to protect herself? If it could be proven with security footage or somebody else filming that Amani Ellis like grabbed her hair and started like hitting her? If Cardi hits her back, can Amani Ellis still sue her in a civil court for like damages, I guess?

• 21:47Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, I'm not an attorney, but it would, it's a case by case basis. For example, If you find yourself in a corner where someone's attacking you, you have the right to defend yourself. Now, if it's more of a mutual disagreement where you're both in each other's face, both of you have the ability to retreat or deescalate the situation. And one person strikes one and then the other one strikes back and then they're both striking each other. I would say that's disorderly conduct. That's more of a fistfight. But no, if you're intentionally trying to remove yourself from the situation and the aggressor is following you, instigating you, getting into your personal space and then putting their hands on you, you have the right to defend yourself. That could still be argued at court. We even see-

• 22:28Stephanie Harlowe?

  In a civil trial, she probably could still sue her for that.

• 22:31Derrick Levasseur?

  That's right. So there's gonna be, oh, this is a civil trial, I would think.

• 22:34Stephanie Harlowe?

  This is a civil trial. I mean criminally, in a criminal trial, there's no criminal case, even if Cardi B had hit her back because it would be in self-defense, but even in a civil trial-

• 22:43Derrick Levasseur?

  They'd both be charged.

• 22:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, but Cardi could have sued Imani for assault. Imani could have sued Cardi for assault. The problem is, Imani probably doesn't have close to as much money as Cardi has.

• 22:55Derrick Levasseur?

  Right.

• 22:55Stephanie Harlowe?

  So the theory that I have is that she intentionally followed her, intentionally tried to get under her skin, like you said, hoping to elicit a reaction where Cardi would lash out and hit her, which she could then get on camera and then sue her. But that didn't happen, so she had to fabricate her wounds and then try to push that off on Cardi B, hoping it would fly somehow, or that Cardi would pay her off.

• 23:17Derrick Levasseur?

  If I had to guess, what actually happened was Cardi's at her doctor's appointment. She's pregnant, probably not feeling great, feeling a little exposed because she's a big celebrity and she's around a lot of people. And so as she's coming in, she sees this security guard, someone who works for the company, filming her. And I'm sure, if I'm being fair here, Cardi said, "What are you doing?" Not in those words.

• 23:40Stephanie Harlowe?

  Not until she started following her.

• 23:42Derrick Levasseur?

  Well, following along with her, whatever, you know, whatever the case may be, Cardi B probably said- What are you doing? And I don't think it was probably as overt as Cardi B is saying. I'm sure it was somewhere in between. I don't think she was probably like walking with the hand, you know, the camera two inches from her face.

• 23:57Stephanie Harlowe?

  No, she said she had it on her chest like this.

• 23:59Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, she was.

• 24:00Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, she's trying to be like discreet.

• 24:02Derrick Levasseur?

  And I'm sure Cardi B, like we've seen on some videos, probably said, what the F are you doing? And like called her out embarrassed.

• 24:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  Aren't you security? You're not just a normal person.

• 24:11Derrick Levasseur?

  Correct. I'm not, I'm not saying it's right, but embarrassed her. And now at this point, the security guard's going from being a fan to feeling disrespected. And so she gets aggravated and now it goes from, hey, I want to film you to show my friends to now I either want to fight you or get some money out of you. And so to look at both sides of it, maybe Cardi B being a celebrity could have just said, oh, this person's filming me. That's unprofessional. I'm going to tell someone at the front desk that shouldn't have happened and maybe not handled it herself. Hindsight's always 2020. Two wrongs don't make a right. And the fact that the security guard's now trying to get 24 million dollars out of her. It is, it's comical.

• 24:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  See, I see it a different way. It's like, why is the person who's considered a public figure? Why do they always have to be the one to take the high road? At what point does the average person have to take accountability for the fact that what you're doing is weird? You're weird. You're following someone around, you're recording them. They've asked you to stop. You say you're not going to stop because you don't have to because they're in public. It's disrespectful. And when did the person telling the disrespectful person that they're being disrespectful become more disrespectful than the disrespect itself?

• 25:19Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, I don't even know what you just said there.

• 25:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  You don't?

• 25:21Derrick Levasseur?

  No, I didn't follow.

• 25:22Stephanie Harlowe?

  Basically, like if you're being a bitch, why is me telling you that you're being a bitch worse than you actually being a bitch?

• 25:27Derrick Levasseur?

  It's not. And I mean.

• 25:28Stephanie Harlowe?

  Okay, that's what I mean.

• 25:29Derrick Levasseur?

  I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna spend 20 more minutes on the right and wrong. Overall, two wrongs don't make a right. And so what I'm saying is it's not Cardi B's responsibility to be the bigger person. But you would hope in her position. She would be because again, this could have been avoided.

• 25:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  I'm sure she has to be every day and many.

• 25:48Derrick Levasseur?

  A hundred percent.

• 25:49Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, probably like enough.

• 25:50Derrick Levasseur?

  This is the, this is the, the blessing and the curse of being a super celebrity. And we see a lot of times online, there's those videos where they're at post offices and things like that where it's a public place. And you'll have these auditors go in there and they have their cameras and they're recording everyone coming and going and a lot of the customers get pissed off. And these auditors will say, listen, this camera's in here right now. You're always on camera. It's my right constitutional right where I can record in here and then the cops come and there's nothing really they can do about it because they are allowed to do it.

• 26:21Stephanie Harlowe?

  Wait, what are the auditors doing?

• 26:23Derrick Levasseur?

  They're basically testing their, their, their constitutional rights to record in a public space.

• 26:27Stephanie Harlowe?

  They're just doing it to, to do it?

• 26:30Derrick Levasseur?

  It's to basically, they call it a pressure test. In, in some instances, these people are trying to elicit a response from law enforcement.

• 26:36Stephanie Harlowe?

  Heard of this before.

• 26:37Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, because law enforcement will show up and if the, if the police officer is not familiar with the constitution, they may, you know, arrest them or ask them to leave. And legally, they're not allowed to. They have a right to record, even though it's uncomfortable for the customers that are there.

• 26:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  So they're just recording to make people uncomfortable and prove that they can record. There's no actual per- this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of in my life.

• 26:59Derrick Levasseur?

  It's a, go look online, uh, first amendment auditors.

• 27:02Stephanie Harlowe?

  This is dumb. People are bored and have way too much time on their hands.

• 27:05Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, so tha- that happens, but overall, it's like, I wish we all would just, you know, do better and.

• 27:10Stephanie Harlowe?

  Just be respectful, like treat others as you would like to be treated. It's very simple.

• 27:14Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, I think the, the security guard at first probably didn't mean anything by it. It was obviously unprofessional, shouldn't have been done. Cardi B called her out for it and it went from bad to worse. And now you have some TikToks.

• 27:26Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, cause people aren't used to being called out. People aren't used to being called out. People are used to being able to get away with whatever because everyone's afraid of being sued or being recorded and put on TikTok. But it's like enough.

• 27:38Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. Well, that's all I got for Cardi B. That, we're 30 minutes in on this one.

• 27:42Stephanie Harlowe?

  Cardi B is awesome.

• 27:43Derrick Levasseur?

  The TikTok was funny.

• 27:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  Girl.

• 27:45Derrick Levasseur?

  We did something a little lighter this week. We're currently, as this is coming out on YouTube. I'm on a plane to California. Steffi's packing up, getting ready to go to CrimeCon. For everybody that will be there Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we look forward to seeing you. It's gonna be a great time. We're banking our episodes before we go, so anybody who's not attending, you're not gonna miss a beat. We're gonna have our Crime Weekly News and our Crime Weekly Episodes. Everything will be out on time as expected.

• 28:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  Follow us on socials for CrimeCon updates and cool things that are happening there.

• 28:17Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, behind the scenes stuff and we'll probably go live or do something while we're there as well. So, we'll see you later this week with the first part of our new series, but until then, everyone stay safe out there and we'll see you soon.

• 28:28Stephanie Harlowe?

  Bye.