Cardi B is expected to take to the witness stand in the upcoming trial over claims she used a man’s distinctive tattoo on the cover of her debut mixtape.
Kevin Brophy, Jr. filed a lawsuit in 2017 claiming the rap star misappropriated his likeness by using his unique back tattoo on the man pictured with his head between Cardi’s legs on the cover of her 2016 mixtape, Gangsta B**ch Music Vol. 1.
He claimed he suffered “distress and humiliation” seeing his body art used in such a sexual context without his consent.
Both parties tried to settle the case out of court, but neither could reach an agreement, and accordingly, the trial will begin on 3 August.
During a hearing in Santa Ana, California on Monday, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney confirmed that the Bodak Yellow star is expected to testify in person.
“It’s showtime,” Carney said, reports Rolling Stone. “I don’t think this case is a complex case, but I think it’s a very interesting case, and it’s one I think the jurors would enjoy.”
During the hearing, Brophy’s lawyer asked Judge Carney to edit the statement that will be given to the jury pool at the start of the selection process. The tweaked line reads, “Plaintiff alleges that he did not and would not consent to defendants’ use of his likeness, and that he is being portrayed in an offensive manner depicting sexual activity with Cardi B.”
Cardi’s lawyer Alan Dowling called on the judge to make changes to another line within the statement, and the edited sentence now reads, “(Brophy) is not the man depicted in the image, that the image does not portray actual sexual activity (and) that defendants’ use of his tattoo design did not show plaintiff in a false light or would be highly offensive to a reasonable person in plaintiff’s position.”
This will be the rapper’s second trial this year. In January, she won her defamation trial against YouTuber Tasha K over false claims made in her videos and was awarded around $4 million ($3 million) in damages and legal fees.
