Not sure how this one isn’t getting more attention.
I can already hear the comments: “Why are you writing about this? I thought you were a country music site.” Well it’s because I can’t stop watching this absolutely wild trial between rapper Afroman and the police officers who sued him for defamation.
Afroman, whose real name is Joseph Edgar Foreman, is obviously best known for his massive hit “Because I Got High” back in 2000, as well as his classic “Crazy Rap” (more commonly referred to as “Colt 45”).
Back in August 2022, the rapper’s house was raided by deputies with the Adams County Sheriff’s Department in his home state of Ohio, based on an anonymous tip accusing Afroman of kidnapping and drug trafficking. Nothing ended up being found during the raid, and no charges were ultimately filed against the rapper.
But shortly after having his home raided, Afroman took to social media to share photos of the damage to his home and criticize officers for the raid. He claimed that police caused over $20,000 in damages to his home while also disabling his security cameras, and also accused deputies of stealing $400 after confiscating over $5,000 but failing to return the full amount after he was cleared.
He also used his security footage of the raid in a series of subsequent music videos, including a song called “Will You Help Me Repair My Door” and one called “Lemon Pound Cake” that called out officers:
“The Adams County Sheriff kicked down my door
Then I heard the glass break
They found no kidnapping victims
Just some lemon pound cake”
Well after he released the music video, officers involved in the raid filed a lawsuit against Afroman, claiming that using the security footage violated their privacy and defamed them, causing “humiliation, ridicule, mental distress, embarrassment, and loss of reputation.”
The lawsuit hasn’t stopped Afroman from speaking out against the deputies and their actions, and a court granted him some early wins in the case by dismissing claims that he invaded their privacy by posting video of the raid. But the defamation claims were allowed to go forward, and this week the case finally went to trial in Adams County.
And it’s been absolutely insane.
On Monday, Afroman’s music videos mocking the officers were played in court, while one broke down in tears:
@imnotalawyerbut Officer Lisa Phillips began crying on the stand as her attorney played multiple videos of Afroman mocking her. Phillips is suing Afroman for defamation and Invasion of privacy after he made several music videos and social media posts questioning her gender, orientation and more. The posts came after Phillips was apart of the team who raided Afroman house on suspicion of kidnapping and drug trafficking back in August of 2022. During the raid officers seized Afroman money, disconnected his video camera, broke his gate and his door
Yet another officer was forced to explain which lines from the songs caused him trauma, including lyrics about his receding hairline and calling him a “dipshit.”
And another testified that his fellow officers from other departments began referring to him as “Deputy Lemon Pound Cake.”
@meghannmcuniff The sheriff’s deputy nicknamed Lemon Pound Cake through rapper Afroman’s music video about a police raid at his home testified in a defamation trial this week in Ohio that he was particularly upset when he traveled to a jurisdiction near Pennsylvania and deputies there knew him as Lemon Pound Cake. “You know, just, it’s everywhere. You can’t — I mean, you can go anywhere. And if people recognize you, they start that stuff, whether they’re being sarcastic or what,” Shawn Cooley testified. Cooley, who retired from the Adams County Sheriff’s Office this year, is one of several law enfoemcent official issuing Afroman, legal name Joseph Edgar Foreman, for defamation and false light over his repeated lampooning of them since they seized cash and marijuana from his home in August 2022. Afroman has called one deputy a pedophile (you can watch testimony about that here @Meghann Cuniff), and he’s said he slept with a sergeant’s wife. (You can watch testimony about that here @Meghann Cuniff). He’s also called them thieves after a search warrant document said $4,400 was seized from his home but police returned only $4,000. An investigator determined a deputy miscounted and recorded $390 that didn’t exist. He coudn’t account for the other $10. You can watch Cooley testify about no longer feeling safe here @Meghann Cuniff. #law #court #legal
(In Afroman’s video for “Lemon Pound Cake,” it shows the officer stopping beside the pound cake on the counter during the search).
I’m sorry, but that’s hilarious.
The most explosive moments, though, came when Afroman himself took the stand, decked out in one of his signature American flag suits and sunglasses.
During his testimony, the rapper continued blasting the deputies for raiding his house and said none of this would have happened without the mistake from officers:
“My whole thing is they never should have raided me in the first place. …
If they never would have showed up, there would be no songs about them. I wouldn’t know who they are. Their faces would not be on my video cameras. None of this, we wouldn’t be in this room right now if they hadn’t have raided my house and didn’t press no charges, didn’t even know what they was doing.
This whole thing is their fault and they’re suing me for their mistake.”
And he defended his music videos as freedom of speech while saying that the music videos were simply his way of turning his bad time into a good time:
“I got freedom of speech, after they run around my house with guns and kick down my door, I got the right to kick a can in my backyard, use my freedom of speech, turn my bad times into a good time. Yes, I do.
And I think I’m a sport for dealing with stuff, because I don’t go to their house, kick down their doors, flip them off on their surveillance cameras, then try to play the victim and sue them.”
He was also asked why he brought media and his attorney with him to retrieve his property from the sheriff’s office after being cleared, and Afroman said that he didn’t want to get “beat up or Epstein’d.”
The outspoken rapper also made it clear that he has no intention of backing down, despite the lawsuit. When asked whether there was anything that would change his mind and make him stop speaking out about it, Afroman delivered a straightforward response:
“No.”
@meghannmcuniff The lawyer suing rapper Afroman for allegedly defaming Ohio sheriff’s officials who raided his property finished questioning him today by asking him if there’s “anything that could change your mind about what you’re doing to these deputies?” “Is there anything that can change my mind about the fact that they shouldn’t have been at my house in the first place? Is there anything that can change my mind about how my money shouldn’t have been touched in the first place? No,” Afroman, legal name Joseph Edgar Foreman, told plaintiffs’ attorney Robert A. Klinger. “That’s all the questions I have. Thank you,” Klinger said.”You’re welcome,” Afroman said. Afroman’s lawyer is expected to call him as a witness in his case in chief this week at the Adams County Courthouse in West Union, Ohio. Trial began Monday in the lawsuit, which alleges Afroman defamed and put sheriff’s deputies in a false light by repeatedly lampooning them after they searched his property in 2022. Afroman was never charged with a crime, and he ridiculed the raid in social media posts and in the music video to his hit song “Lemon Pound Cake.” He’s suggested one deputy is a pedophile and said he had sex with another’s wife. He testified today that the sheriff’s officials “never should have came to my house in the first place.” “Fact, if they hadn’t came to my house, they wouldn’t have put themselves on the video camera and in my music career. All of this is their fact. All of this is their fault, and they have … the audacity to sue me,” he said. “So what they did, searching your house, gave you the right to do everything you —” Klinger said as Afroman cut him off. “Under the circumstance that I got freedom of speech after they run around my house with guns and kick down my door. I got the right to kick a can in my backyard, use my freedom of speech, turn my bad times into a good time. Yes, I do, and I think I’m a sport for doing so, because I don’t go to their house, kick down their doors, flip them off on their surveillance cameras, then try to play the victim and sue them,” Afroman said. You can watch more of Afroman’s testimony here @Meghann Cuniff, here @Meghann Cuniff and here @Meghann Cuniff. #law #rap #police
And true to his word, even during the trial Afroman hasn’t backed down: He’s continued posting clips of the trial to his Instagram while calling out the officers for their behavior.
“Where was these tears when she was standing in my yard with a loaded AR 15 ready to Swiss cheese me? Where was these tears when she was disconnecting the camera system that was an expensive pain in the ass to install?”
What a scene. It’s been a must-watch, maybe the most entertaining trial since Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard, although it seems like most people don’t even know this one is going on.
Gotta say, I’m rooting for Afroman on this one.
