A win for free speech.
Afroman was found not liable for defamation today after a 3-day trial in a lawsuit brought by seven officers from the Adams County Sheriff’s Department in Ohio.
If you haven’t been following the case…well, you missed out, because it was entertaining as hell. But I’ll give you a quick recap:
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”
He also shared a particularly vulgar song (who am I kidding, they’re all pretty vulgar) just last week about one of the female officers called “Licc’em Low Lisa,” and I’ll let you use your imagination to guess what that one’s about.
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.
It turned into quite the spectacle that ended up taking over social media the past couple days, after videos began going viral of some of the more absurd moments of the trial. At one point Afroman’s music videos mocking the officers were even played in court, while the aforementioned Lisa 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 a pound cake on the counter during the search).
I’m sorry, but that’s hilarious.
Afroman himself even took the stand, decked out in one of his signature American flag suits and sunglasses, and defended the music videos as free speech while blaming the deputies for raiding his home in the first place:
“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.”
Well the jury got the case today, and after over 6 hours of deliberations returned a verdict clearing Afroman of any liability. And afterwards the rapper hailed the victory as a win for free speech:
“I didn’t win, America won. America still has freedom of speech. It’s still for the people, by the people. America won.”
Honestly, it seems like this was an ill-advised case brought by some officers who got their feelings hurt. They’re public officials subject to criticism and even mockery for their actions, and at the end of the day all they managed to do was bring way more attention to the case, the songs, and Afroman’s criticism of them. I had never heard the songs before, had never even heard about the case, but now me and millions of others have listened and heard his complaints with their actions.
Maybe we need to rename the Streisand effect the “Afroman effect” after this one, because talk about backfiring…
