Cardi B and two co-defendants pleaded not guilty to felony and misdemeanor charges Tuesday, related to two fights that broke out on different days in the same Queens strip club in August of last year.
The rapper, who is 26 and hails from the Bronx, was indicted on 12 total counts Friday in New York state court along with two others — Tawana “RemyRojaLaPerla” Jackson-Morel, 36, and Jeffrey “AstonMartinChuck” Bush, 34, both of Brooklyn. If convicted, the defendants face up to 4 years in prison, according to a statement released Tuesday by the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
The three are charged with varying degrees of attempted assault, harassment, criminal solicitation, conspiracy and reckless endangerment.
“The defendants in this case are accused of two premeditated attacks on two women working at a club in Queens last summer. The victims allegedly had glass bottles hurled at them, alcoholic drinks thrown in their faces and one woman’s head was slammed into the bar. This kind of violence won’t be tolerated in our community. The defendants will be held accountable for their alleged actions,” said Acting Queens District Attorney John M. Ryan.
Cardi B’s lawyer, Jeff Kern, did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s requests for comment. An attorney for Jackson-Morel and Bush declined to comment.
TMZ previously reported that the two bartenders said Cardi B had a long-standing feud with one of them because the rapper believed the bartender had slept with Cardi B’s husband, rapper Offset.
“I ain’t going to jail, I got a daughter,” Cardi B said at her concert Saturday at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, according to Reuters.
According to the District Attorney, the indictment says that on evening of August 15, 2018, Bush and an “unapprehended female” placed an order at Angels Gentlemen’s Club and Restaurant with a 21-year-old female bartender, who was in the process of serving them when the unapprehended female “allegedly grabbed the victim by her hair, slammed her head into the bar and began punching her repeatedly.”
At that time, three more unapprehended females “allegedly joined in and also struck the victim repeatedly,” prosecutors said.
The indictment, which refers to Cardi B by her real name, Belcalis Almanzar, also says that Bush is “alleged to have video recorded the attack and used his body to attempt to block anyone from intervening in the attack on the bartender.”
Prior to their arrival at the club, “defendants Almanzar and Jackson-Morel chatted on a social media platform and allegedly coordinated the day, time and location the attack would take place, as well as whom they were targeting. Jackson-Morel and Almanzar allegedly discussed money being exchanged for carrying out the alleged assault,” the District Attorney’s statement said.
The indictment describes a separate attack carried out at the same strip club on August 29 — this time on the 23-year-old sister of the first victim. “At approximately 3:30 a.m., defendant Jackson-Morel allegedly threw a cocktail into the 23-year-old woman’s face and defendants Bush and Almanzar, as well as several unapprehended others, also threw drinks, glass bottles and various objects at the bartender. The glass bottles shattered on the floor of the club, as a result the victim sustained lacerations to her legs, bruising to her feet and the alcohol thrown in her face irritated her eyes,” the statement said. Prosecutors said Cardi B and Jackson-Morel again coordinated the attack on social media.
Jackson-Morel and Bush are set to return to court on September 9. Cardi B’s next court date has yet to be scheduled.
