Appeal over $3.8 million Cardi B defamation ruling rejected

completemusicupdate.com:

The Eleventh Circuit Appeals Court in the US has knocked back an attempt by YouTuber Latasha Kebe to appeal the $3.8 million ruling made against her in a defamation legal battle with Cardi B.The judges say that Kebe failed to follow the correct procedure in challenging that ruling and also failed to clarify her specific issues regarding decisions in the district court over what evidence could be shared with the jury during the original court hearing.Cardi B – real name Belcalis Almanzar – sued Kebe over various claims that the latter made about the former in her YouTube videos.

That included, legal papers said, that Almanzar “was a prostitute … was a user of cocaine … had and still has herpes … had and still has HPV … engaged in a debasing act with a beer bottle and … committed infidelity”.Almanzar denied all the allegations that Kebe had made, and told the court that false rumours spread by the YouTuber had had a negative impact on her mental health, resulting in the rapper becoming depressed and suicidal.Kebe, meanwhile, basically admitted in court that she didn’t fact-check any of the allegations made about Almanzar on her YouTube channel, even when the rapper was actively denying those claims.A jury found Kebe liable for defamation in January last year, awarding the rapper nearly $4 million in damages.Kebe then began appeal proceedings in the Eleventh Circuit appeals court, arguing that it was never proven in court that she acted with actual malice when making her videos about Almanzar and that the exclusion of evidence about the rapper’s character in court resulted in a “very lopsided” hearing.In their response, the appeal judges said yesterday: “There are two issues here.