Photo: Paul Archuleta/FilmMagic
If you were online on St. Patrick’s Day, then you probably saw Afroman testifying about being a good sport and went, “Huh?” Seven members of an Ohio sheriff’s office are suing “Because I Got High” rapper Afroman (born Joseph Edgar Foreman) for defamation. Here’s everything you need to know now that a jury has cleared him of all charges.
Seven members of the Adams County sheriff’s department are suing Foreman for defamation. According to the L.A. Times, their suit claims he used their likenesses without permission and spread lies about them. The alleged defamation took place after they raided Afroman’s home in 2022, and Afroman made multiple songs and music videos about the incident. Afroman used personal security-camera footage of the raid extensively in these videos. He also sold merch relating to the raid, which resulted in zero charges being filed.
Local news station WKRC had the amounts each cop was seeking in damages. Lisa Philips sought $1.5 million. Both Brian Newland and Randy Walters sought $1 mil. And Shawn Grooms, Shawn Cooley, Justin Cooley and Mike Estep wanted $400,000 divided amongst them.
Quite a few. “Lemon Pound Cake” was the lead single of the album of the same name in 2023. To the tune of “Under the Boardwalk,” Afroman sings about an officer who was captured on-camera eyeing the cake on his kitchen counter. “Will You Help Repair My Door” is about the damages incurred by the raid, as is “Why You Disconnecting My Video Camera.” In the lead-up to the trial, Afroman released additional songs singling out specific officers. “Licc’em Low Lisa” dropped on YouTube just five days ago. “They played the whole video in court yesterday and it was super awkward,” one Reddit court watcher noted. “Randy Walter Is a Son of a Bitch” personally questions the character of officer Randy Walters and jokes that Foreman had sex with his wife, which came up in testimony.
Adams County issued a warrant to search Foreman’s house pursuant to drug-trafficking and kidnapping charges, which were never brought. During the raid, they broke Afroman’s gate and door and caused other damage to his property. All this was caught on Foreman’s security cameras. He also alleges $400 went missing after the raid.
Regarding the specific defamation he claims to have suffered, Randy Walters could not say for certain that Afroman did not have sex with his wife, saying, “I’ve been with that woman since middle school. I would hope she wouldn’t. But you know what? Once somebody puts it out there for their fun and entertainment, it’s out there, and it’s a problem.” Nor could he testify that his mother was not a bitch. “She’s been dead for years,” he said on cross-examination.
“I am sorry about your mother on that, but you would agree, though, that when someone calls someone a son of a bitch, it’s not necessarily a statement of fact?” Afroman’s lawyer replied. “It’s more a statement of opinion or description of a person?”
Foreman maintains that all the blame lies at the feet of Adams County. “The whole raid was a mistake. All of this is their fault,” he said on Tuesday. “If they hadn’t wrongly raided my house, there would be no lawsuit, I would not know their names, they wouldn’t be on my home surveillance system, and there would be no songs, nothing.”
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
♬ original sound – Meghann Cuniff
“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,” Foreman added, “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.”
Lawyer and TikToker Reb Masel emphasized that the case is but one in a long list of lawsuits over parody, freedom of speech, and the rights of public figures and servants compared to those of private citizens. “There is nothing the First Amendment protects more zealously than criticism of matters of public concern,” Masel said. “When you are a public servant, when you are acting in your official capacity as a police officer, that is a matter of public concern. You open yourself up to criticism, including parody.” Essentially, comedy is indeed legal.
Afroman. But in a greater sense, it was a victory for free speech and comedy. According to Bloomberg, a jury cleared Foreman of defamation.
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