Oh I can’t wait to hear the song about this.
By now everybody’s probably heard about the trial between Afroman and members of the sheriff’s department in Adams County, Ohio, who sued the “Because I Got High” rapper for defamation after his home was raided in 2022.
In case you missed it, here’s a quick rundown.
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 (other than a small amount of weed of course), 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 once 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) during the trial 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 videos, 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. (If you want to see more of those, you can read our prior coverage here). But in the end, the jury ended up finding in favor of Afroman on all counts and completely dismissing the claims brought by the officers.
Total victory for Afroman, right?
Well, not quite. Because after the verdict, the judge issued his written final order in the case – and ordered Afroman to pay half of the court costs, despite the fact that a jury found entirely in his favor.
According to the order from Judge Jonathan P. Hein:
“Based upon the relative merits of the case and the justiciability of the claims, costs are divided one half to the Plaintiffs and one-half to Defendant Foreman.”
Wait, what? He has to pay because he was sued and won?
If you’re not familiar with the legal system, court costs are things like filing fees, the cost of serving parties with pleadings, administrative costs…basically exactly what it sounds like: Expenses that the court incurred in administering the lawsuit.
Generally, a losing party is ordered to pay the entirety of the court costs. And in settlements, there’s often an agreement for one side to pay court costs or for them to be evenly split between the parties. But in this case, apparently the judge decided to order that the WINNER pay half of the court costs – which according to the Adams County Clerk of Courts, totaled $587.
It’s certainly a strange decision, one that makes you question whether the judge thought the officers had a better case than the jury did.
Ultimately though, it’s a far cry from the millions of dollars that the officers were asking for. And I have a feeling we’ll be getting a song about the judge soon that will raise much more than Afroman’s $293 share of the court costs.
