On Wednesday, Afroman won a widely watched defamation lawsuit that seven cops filed after the rapper made music videos mocking them for conducting a 2022 raid of his home that resulted in no charges and no marijuana found.
Videos for songs like "Lemon Pound Cake," "Why You Disconnecting My Video Camera," and "Will You Help Me Repair My Door" used real footage from the raid, pulling from security camera footage and videos shot by Afroman's wife. Cops from the Adams County Sheriff's Office alleged they were humiliated and received death threats after the videos went viral.
Accusing Afroman of defamation, cops individually sought damages as high as $1.5 million. But Afroman's lawyer, David Osborne, argued this was a clear-cut First Amendment case. At trial, Afroman testified that cops had no one to blame for the reputational damage but themselves, arguing that "if they hadn’t wrongly raided my house, there would be no lawsuit," The New York Times reported.
"They broke into my house, put themselves onto my video cameras, and into my music career," Afroman testified, according to Ohio-based Local 12, a news outlet sharing footage from the trial. "With my freedom of speech, I had the right to talk about events going on in my life."
Tears streamed down Afroman's face when the jury sided with him on all claims after deliberating for just a few hours, Local 12's footage showed.
"I'm just happy," Afroman said. At trial, he argued that he'd been a "sport" in turning the raid into entertainment—simply striving to cover costs of damage from the raid. He said he was appalled by the cops' attack on his free speech, arguing, "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."
An attorney for officers suing, Bob Klinger, could not immediately be reached for comment. But at the trial, he tried and failed to argue that through the music videos and social media posts, Afroman "perpetuated lies intentionally, repeatedly, over three and a half years on the Internet about these seven brave deputy sheriffs," a Cincinnati-based ABC affiliate reported.
In the end, as Afroman argued in a memo supporting his motion for the winning verdict, jurors listened to the songs and agreed that Afroman was merely sharing opinions about all the police who raided his home, rather than defaming cops.
The bottom line, Osborne had argued, is that cops are public officials who should be used to their work being criticized. Further, it seemed ridiculous that cops would expect that anyone would take the rapper's social commentary as truth, Osborne said at trial. Not only is the rapper most famous for writing a completely unserious song called "Because I Got High," but Afroman also wore a loud American flag-patterned suit to trial with matching shades to punctuate his flippant nature.
"Look at that suit," Osborne said. "Does this look like a man who thinks that everybody's going to assume that everything he's saying is fact?"
Still wearing the suit, immediately following the verdict, Afroman celebrated the win outside the courthouse, as seen in a video he posted to Instagram.
"We did it America," the rapper said. "God bless America, land that I love!!! Freedom of speech!!!!!!!!!!!"
Afroman photo with Trump resurfaces criticism
On social media, clips from the trial were widely shared, with many rooting for Afroman and excited by his win.
However, some critics took the moment to point out that Afroman had used the popularity of hits like "Lemon Pound Cake" to support Donald Trump. A photo of Afroman wearing that same American flag suit and shaking hands with Trump in 2024 began recirculating online, which some claimed served as a "milkshake duck" rapidly tanking his online popularity on the back of his win.
Back in 2024, Afroman told AllHipHop that he met Trump while the rapper's own presidential campaign was in "full effect," denying that he was a Trump supporter. Instead, he claimed that his only interest in meeting with Trump was to discuss marijuana reform and "ending police immunity."
The pair also commiserated about "witch hunts" and "laughed about" them both "getting raided," Afroman said in an Instagram post attempting to clarify what was happening in the photo.
However, in the same post, Afroman seemed excited that Trump liked his song "Hunter Got High," which is a version of "Because I Got High" mocking Hunter Biden. And critics resurfacing the photo noted that the rapper told Newsweek that he hoped to perform the Hunter Biden song at Trump rallies as part of a comeback bid.
"I might really be back," Afroman said. "This one might take me to the stratosphere. I might be singing it at some Trump rallies."
Cops admitted nicknames weren't defamatory
Afroman has not addressed the Trump criticism since his victory yesterday. He has continued trolling cops on his Instagram, though. His most recent post, as of this writing, shared a clip of one of the cop's wives testifying that their divorce was not due to Afroman's music videos, as the officer had alleged.
In music videos, Afroman had dubbed that officer, Shawn Grooms, "the hunchback of Notre Dame," which was among the tamer insults the rapper threw out. On the other end of the extreme was an officer named Brian Newland, whom Afroman referred to as a "pedophile" and "child molester." And cops seemed to agree that Lisa Phillips, the only female officer involved, was treated worst when Afroman described her with innuendo insinuating she was a lesbian.
Klinger argued that Grooms' reputational hit, as well as that of three other officers, warranted $400,000 in damages, Newland's $1 million, and Phillips' $1.5 million.
Most of the cops were offended by the nicknames that Afroman assigned them. But none of them could prove that anything Afroman said was false or caused them economic harm.
In Afroman's memo, he counted the most surprising times when cops failed to prove his exaggerated statements weren't true. For example, one officer, Randy Walters, was offended that Afroman said he slept with his wife, but curiously did not testify that this was false. Instead, Walters only testified that "he would hope that his wife would not have extramarital affairs," Afroman's memo said.
"The use of his word, hope, is nebulous and renders the statement by the Defendant such that the truth cannot be proven," the memo said. "If that cannot be proven, then it is an opinion."
Amusing many social media onlookers, at the trial, Walters—whom Afroman called "Gomer Pyle" after the slow-to-pick-up-on-things Andy Griffith Show character—also testified that there was no way to prove he wasn't a "son of a bitch." His mother had been dead "for years," Walters testified.
Similarly, Newland testified that while "nasty," he believed that Afroman's insults were based on the rapper's opinions. And in Phillips' case, Afroman's comments were deemed impolite but not defamatory. Additionally, Shawn Cooley, the subject of Afroman's hit "Lemon Pound Cake," testified that no reasonable person would think that "Officer Pound Cake" was a "major misrepresentation" of his character, Afroman's memo said.
"In Ohio, allegedly defamatory statements that constitute opinion enjoy an absolute privilege and may not give rise to a cause of action for defamation," Afroman successfully argued.
For anyone looking for clips from the trial, you can practically watch the whole thing on independent journalist Meghann Cuniff's Instagram. Clips include testimony from Afroman and each officer, as well as lawyers arguing what Judge Jonathan Hein called "an emotional case."
Among those clips is one of Afroman's lawyer, Osborne, reminding jurors that Afroman "exaggerates for the sake of entertainment. That’s who he is. I’m not going to say it’s tasteful to everyone, but some people do find it entertaining."
“A reasonable person knows that people can post opinions, social commentary, and hurtful things all over the Internet, and it is just to be expected. That’s why we are supposed to use our own filter, use our common sense, use our experiences in life,” Osborne said.
Ars updated this story on Thursday to remove a line that confused a reference to jury instructions in Afroman's memo with legal analysis.
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