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Cardi B Is Charged With Misdemeanor Assault in Strip Club Fight

NEW YORK — Cardi B, the 25-year-old Bronx rapper, turned herself in at a police station house Monday and was charged with assault in connection with a fight at a New York City strip club.

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Cardi B Surrenders to Police in Strip Club Fight
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Ali Winston
and
John Surico, New York Times

NEW YORK — Cardi B, the 25-year-old Bronx rapper, turned herself in at a police station house Monday and was charged with assault in connection with a fight at a New York City strip club.

Cardi B, born Belcalis Almanzar, received a summons for one count of assault and two counts of reckless endangerment, all misdemeanors. She must appear in court Oct. 29 to answer the charges.

Just before noon, she left the station house in Flushing, Queens, escorted by security guards, waved at fans who had gathered outside, and made her way through a throng of photographers and camera operators to a car. She did not respond to questions from reporters.

Her lawyer, Jeff Kern, told The Associated Press that he was “aware of no evidence” that Cardi B “caused anybody any harm.” She has no prior arrests in New York, police said.

The attack stemmed from a long-simmering feud between Cardi B and two sisters who tend bar at the Queens strip club. Cardi B reportedly accused one of the women of having an affair with her husband, Offset, of the rap trio Migos.

Cardi B showed up at the Angels Strip Club on Aug. 15 and confronted the sisters. Though Cardi B did not get involved, several members of her entourage attacked the bartenders with bottles and chairs, causing serious injury, police said.

Joseph Tacopina, a lawyer representing the bartenders, said Cardi B had talked on social media about ordering the assault. “Apparently, she thinks her celebrity status puts her above the law, since she has bragged to multiple people and on social media that she orchestrated these vicious attacks,” he said in an email. “But reality is setting in.”

Cardi B is one of the hottest artists in the pop and hip-hop genres, having had a string of hit singles like “Bodak Yellow (Money Moves),” which topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart a year ago. She is featured on Maroon 5’s “Girls Like You,” which is No. 1 on the chart, and enjoyed success this year with a remix of “Finesse,” with Bruno Mars. Her debut studio album “Invasion of Privacy,” which came out in April, was heralded by critics. “She is more versatile than most rappers or pop stars of any stripe,” Jon Caramanica wrote in The New York Times.

But she has also received media attention for various altercations. During a Fashion Week event last month, she got into a physical altercation with Nicki Minaj, 35, a female rapper from Queens. Cardi B reportedly hurled a stiletto at Minaj, who was seen in video footage leaving the venue with a knot over her eye.

In May, two of Cardi B’s bodyguards reportedly assaulted a man who sought her autograph outside a Manhattan hotel after the Met Gala.

Cardi B was one of several performers at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park on Saturday, which was interrupted when the crowd panicked after hearing sounds that resembled gunshots. It was her first performance since giving birth to a daughter, Kulture, in July.

Some fans who gathered outside the station house said the assault charges had not hurt her reputation. India Leary, 18, a tourist from Australia who called herself a big fan of Cardi B, said the charges from the fight at a strip club were “blown up,” and she was glad to see the rapper leave the scene “with a big smile on her face.”

“I love her,” she said. “I really look up to her.”

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