Cardi B’s winning streak in court continues.
The Bronx rapper and her sister, reality star Hennessy Carolina, this week beat a defamation case brought against them by three Suffolk County beachgoers who got into a confrontation with Carolina back in September 2020.
The three plaintiffs sued for defamation as well as assault and battery, claiming that the video Cardi shared online of their altercation accused them of being “racist.” They also alleged that Cardi and her sister edited the clips “to remove portions thereof, and thereby hold plaintiffs in a false light, so as to tend to expose and in fact expose each plaintiff to public contempt, ridicule and disgrace and harm.”
Rolling Stonereports a New York trial judge dismissed the case this week, calling the lawsuit “baseless.”
“[Plaintiffs] have failed to allege any special harm or defamation per se,” Judge William Condon wrote in his decision. “They cannot specifically identify who the defamatory statements were made to. Further, neither Cardi B nor Michelle Diaz made any defamatory statements or publish(ed) any video to the Internet concerning the incident. The words uttered to plaintiffs do not arise to defamatory language as they were merely general insults.”
The news arrives just two months after Cardi defeated Tasha K, real name Latasha Kebe, in a defamation trial back in January. The court determined that Tasha K must pay Cardi $1.25 million in “general” damages and $1.5 million in punitive damages, as well as another $1.3 million in legal fees. Tasha K was found liable for defamation, invasion of privacy through portrayal in a false light, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
