They’ve bought no proper to sing the blues!
A lawyer for rapper Afroman successfully known as the Ohio cops who sued him for defamation infants Wednesday — saying it’s a part of their jobs to take warmth and criticism.
“We see public officers on a regular basis which are made enjoyable of,” David Osborne, an legal professional for the “As a result of I Bought Excessive” singer, stated in a closing assertion Wednesday. “They’re going to be held to increased requirements, their work goes to be criticized, that’s simply what occurs while you’re a public official.
“It’s a social commentary on the truth that they didn’t do issues accurately,” he stated of the officers — who fruitlessly raided the hip hop star’s rural Ohio residence in 2022, and have been later mocked in his music video “Lemon Poundcake.
He described the 51-year-old hip hop star, whose actual identify is Joseph Foreman, as a comedic “entertainer” whose tunes are protected by free speech.
“He’s like a comic. He exaggerates for the sake of leisure,” Osborne stated.
Seven Adams County Deputy Sheriffs cops sued Foreman in March 2023 over the satirical music video, which options actual footage of them through the raid as they busted down his door. Within the footage, one officer is seen along with his gun drawn within the kitchen, eyeing his “mama’s lemon poundcake.”
The officers claimed the rapper defamed them, invaded their constitutional privateness and subjected them to intentional infliction of emotional misery, in response to the lawsuit.
An legal professional for the cops, in the meantime, demanded a complete of $3.9 million in damages — divided among the many seven officers concerned.
“[Foreman] perpetuated lies deliberately repeatedly over 3.5 years on the web about these seven courageous deputy sheriffs,” lawyer Robert Klingler stated in closing remarks Wednesday. “[He] knew that what he posted on the web have been lies.”
“He says he’s not going to cease…inform him via your verdict that he must cease,” Klingler added.
Foreman made the satirical music video in 2022 with footage from his residence surveillance cameras — which he hoped would increase cash for damages stemming from the raid, which by no means resulted in any costs.
“The Adams County Sheriff kicked down my door / Then I heard the glass break/ They discovered no kidnapping victims/ Just a few lemon pound cake,” he raps within the viral tune, which is about to the tune of “Below the Board Stroll” by The Drifters.
After making the video, he continued placing up posts with names of the officers concerned and photographs of the raid, the lawsuit states.
A number of of Foreman’s social media posts allegedly falsely claimed that a few of the cops “stole my cash” and have been “criminals disguised as regulation enforcement,” in response to the swimsuit.
It additionally falsely declares that the officers are “white supremacists,” that Officer Brian Newman “used to do onerous medicine” earlier than “snitching” on his pals, and that Officer Lisa Phillips is “biologically male,” in response to the lawsuit.
Throughout the raid, brokers had been appearing on a warrant asserting possible trigger for narcotics being saved and kidnappings going down on the property.
No proof of prison exercise, nevertheless, was discovered on the property.
“All of that is their fault,” Foreman testified in court docket Tuesday, in response to WCPO.
“In the event that they hadn’t wrongly raided my home, there could be no lawsuit, I might not know their names, they wouldn’t be on my residence surveillance system, and there could be no songs … my cash would nonetheless be intact.”
Phillips, who has repeatedly been the goal of Foreman’s posts, broke down in tears on the stand when the “Lemon Poundcake” video was performed Monday.
Foreman responded by posting vulgar movies eviscerating Philips on Instagram Tuesday — simply hours after she testified in opposition to him in court docket.
“The place was these tears when she was standing in my yard with a loaded AR-15 able to Swiss cheese me?” the rapper wrote. “She’s the predator.”
