Jury sides with Afroman in police defamation lawsuit: Inside the trial that gripped America
A flash-in-the-pan trial in a rural Ohio county pitted the "Because I Got High" rapper against seven sheriff's officials who sued him for defamation after they raided his home.
A jury in Adams County, Ohio, on Wednesday rejected defamation and invasion of privacy claims brought against rapper and singer Afroman by sheriff’s officials he’s lampooned since they raided his home in 2022.
The jury of 10 deliberated about six hours before delivering a full defense verdict for the 51-year-old, legal name Joseph Edgar Foreman, after a 2 1/2 day trial that spotlighted the video to his song “Lemon Pound Cake,” which included video footage from the raid of an armed deputy eyeing a lemon pound cake on Afroman’s kitchen counter.
Afroman sang in “Lemon Pound Cake” that the cake “made the sheriff want to put down his gun and cut him a slice.”
“He’s an Adams County sheriff. He’s hungry, and he’s big as hell. He was sniffing for weed, then he smelled another smell,” he sang.
Afroman, whose 2000 smash hit “Because I Got High” solidified his place in music culture history, nicknamed the deputy “Officer Pound Cake.”
He also said he had sex with a sergeant’s wife, and he repeatedly called another deputy a pedophile in obscene terms. He also made misogynistic and profane videos about the only female deputy involved in the search, and he repeatedly called all of them thieves after a search warrant recorded $4,400 seized but the sheriff’s office returned only $390.
An investigator with another sheriff’s office concluded the deputy counting the money overcounted $390 that didn’t exist; the investigator testified he couldn’t account for $10 missing from another evidence bag.
Defense lawyer David S. Osborne told jurors in his closing argument that Afroman is a comedian who “exaggerates for the sake of entertainment.” He referenced his client’s flamboyantly patriotic red, white and blue American flag suit.
“Look at that suit. Does this look like a man who thinks that everybody’s going to assume that everything he’s saying is fact?” Osborne said.
Osborne argued Afroman’s comments about the deputies are clearly exaggerated, but he offered another defense for calling the deputies thieves.
“Truth is a defense,” he said.
“That’s why we talked about theft. That’s why we showed all that,” Osborne said. “Because I wanted you to see how the money was handled. There’s a lot of confusion around it, and for that reason.”
Plaintiffs’ lawyer Robert A. Klingler told jurors he believes “a power higher than us that brought you here today to do this job.”
“You are the chosen people to do it. Nobody else is going to do it. There’s not going to be another trial. There’s not going to be a second chance,” said Klingler, who has a civil litigation practice.
Klingler requested $3.9 million and told the jury that his clients will be harmed further if the verdict favors Afroman or doesn’t award a large amount of money.
“A verdict for the plaintiffs will make up in some way for what they’ve been through. A verdict for the plaintiffs will say that we don’t condone, we don’t approve. You can’t get away with what Mr. Foreman has done. Not in this community. Not in this country. That’s not freedom of speech where we live,” Klingler said.
But if a defense verdict or “a verdict with a small amount of money attached to it ... the world is told what he did is okay.”
Klingler said the sheriff’s officials who sued would be “subject to even more ridicule.”
“‘You took him on and you lost. ... See? What he did was fine.’ I don’t have to tell you, you know, that’s not the message we want to send. It’s not the message you want to send,” Klingler told the jury.
Afroman’s only defense witness was the ex-wife of one of the plaintiff deputies, who testified her former husband and his colleagues didn’t take the song literally.
“Were they laughing and joking about it?” Osborne asked.
“Oh yeah, absolutely,” Rhonda Grooms testified Wednesday morning.
Judge Jonathan P. Hein published the verdict Wednesday evening about 6:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time at the Adams County Courthouse in West Union.
“In all circumstances, the jury finds in favor of the defendant. No plaintiff verdict prevailed. So the matter will be concluded with defense verdicts,” said Hein, a mediator and retired judge from Darke County, Ohio, who was appointed to the case.
Afroman exited the courthouse with his wife, Angie Foreman, and raised his arms to cheers from supporters.
“We did it!” he yelled.
He told reporter Jay Shakur of ABC affiliate WCPO-TV news in Cincinnati, “I didn’t win. America won. America still has freedom of speech. It’s still for the people, by the people.”
“I’m glad, you know, things went my way. But if they would have took it off from me, I was happy about all the love I was getting from everybody after them people kicked my door in,”Afroman tearfully told Shakur, motioning to the crowd of supporters. “When life gives you lemons, you make lemon pound cake.”
A man wearing an American flag bandana who described himself as a supporter of free speech distributed lemon pound cake outside the courthouse while the jury deliberated.
“For me, this isn’t really about Afroman. It’s about free speech. When someone like Afroman stands up for my free speech by using his talents — his musical talents — to fight the corrupt system, we’ve got to come out and support him,” he told Shakur.
Afroman testified he “wasn’t happy” about the search and continues to post about the deputies “because the sheriffs never supposed to have raided my house in the first place.”
“All of this is their fault. If they hadn’t have 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. My money would still be intact, nothing. So all of this is their fault,” he testified during a 30-minute witness stand appearance on Tuesday.
He said he wanted to use money he makes from his videos and postings to pay the door deputies destroyed “under the circumstance that they shouldn’t have even been there in the first place.”
Klingler ended his exam by asking Afroman, “Is there 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 answered.
“That’s all the questions I have. Thank you,” Klingler said.
“You’re welcome,” Afroman said.
A kidnapping investigation, then a lawsuit
A judge in August 2022 authorized the Adams County Sheriff’s Office to search Afroman’s property on Russellville Road in rural Adams County, about 50 miles east of Cincinnati. The crimes investigated were drug trafficking and kidnapping, but the deputies and sergeants who searched the property seized only marijuana and cash.
Afroman was not charged with a crime, but five deputies and two sergeants sued him in March 2023 alleging defamation, false light and likeness misappropriation.
Judge Hein dismissed the likeness misappropriation claim, which stemmed from Afroman using photos of the officials and surveillance footage of the raid in his videos, but Klingler moved forward with trial on the remaining claims. Ohio courts allow proceedings to be broadcast at the discretion of the judge, and WCPO-TV’s recordings were widely shared on the Internet. (My TikTok and Instagram posts went mega viral and actor Don Cheadle liked one of my Instagram clips of Afroman’s testimony.)
The attention has been so widespread that Adams County Sheriff’s Office officials in Colorado posted a video distinguishing themselves from Ohio’s Adams County in what a sergeant called “a geography lesson.” The video included images of dozens of angry messages people sent the office about Afroman’s lawsuit.
Deputies testify about ongoing harm
Klingler, a licensed attorney in Ohio since 1985, approached most exams by having the deputies confirm they didn’t steal money from Afroman, then questioning them about the harm they feel they’ve suffered from his ridiculing them.
Shawn Cooley, a longtime deputy who retired this year, testified they previously “very seldom” encountered problems when responding to calls at bars but “then he starts calling us thieves on the Internet, starts selling merchandise with our photo on it.”
“So now, when you go into a bar that for a call, you’ve got people in there screaming, ‘Are you gonna steal all of our money?’,” Cooley testified on Monday.
“I had one guy come out of a bedroom after me calling me a thief and wanting to know why I stole Afroman’s money,” he said.
“Based on what you’ve explained and what you’ve been through, do you think some of these people who called you thieves really thought you were?” Klingler asked.
“Absolutely. Absolutely,” Cooley answered.
“Did you receive any phone calls about this?” Klingler asked.
“I would answer the phone at the sheriff’s department because they were overwhelmed. I remember one day there was over 300 calls threatening us, calling us thieves, so we would have to go over and help dispatch because they were overwhelmed. There’s only two dispatchers,” Cooley answered.
Cooley testified his wife and children “couldn’t even go to Walmart. You couldn’t go into a gas station.”
“Around here, my youngest daughter would hear the dogs bark at night and come in my room wake me up, terrified that somebody was there to kill us. Because even though they were young, they’re still on Facebook. They still see this stuff, and it was just one after another,” Cooley said.
Cooley testified he was particularly upset an investigation took him to another sheriff’s office “all the way up to eastern Ohio on the Pennsylvania border, and when I walked into the deputies’ room up there to talk to them, they all knew me. All knew that I’ve been called a thief, Lemon Pound Cake.”
Osborne told Cooley to begin cross-exam, “I’d like to pick right up with this visit to the Pennsylvania border. You said they knew you as Lemon Pound Cake?”
“Yeah. That was what they referred to me as,” Cooley answered.
“They asked you for your autograph, correct?” Osborne asked.
“One of them did, yes,” Cooley answered. Cooley also said he “received hundreds of pound cakes at work.”
“And the context of that name comes from a music video that Mr. Foreman created, correct?” Osborne asked.
“I don’t know where he got it at. You’d have to ask him that question,” Cooley answered.
Osborne played Afroman’s “Lemon Pound Cake” video in the courtroom.
Afterward, he asked Cooley, “You would admit that you with the glasses walking by the lemon pound cake on the counter?”
“Yes,” Cooley answered.
“And that is security footage from the search of Mr. Foreman’s residence?”
“I assume yes,” Cooley answered.
Klingler’s exam of Deputy Lisa Phillips involved playing Afroman’s profane videos about her while she cried on the witness stand.
The videos included sexual innuendo and an apparent artificial intelligence remake of her deposition in which Afroman hugs and comforts her as she weeps. Phillips broke down crying during the exam, and the remainder of her testimony was not recorded.
The deputy repeatedly called a pedophile by Afroman testified he quit his “dream job” at the sheriff’s office because of that and because Afroman called him a thief.
“I dedicated a lot of time over 10 years to Adams County,” Brian Newland testified on Monday.
“You know, whether it was a calling at 1 o’clock in the morning or working 14 hours ... I loved working at the sheriff’s office, but it just got to be so much,” Newland continued.
He said he felt as though people were looking at him when he’d go to Walmart or stop by his children’s games. He wanted to “just spare their embarrassment.”
Newland is the deputy who an investigator concluded overcounted Afroman’s money by $390. He mentioned the internal investigation when testifying about the turmoil he felt at his job.
Klingler pointed out that Afroman posted about Newland being a pedophile using a photo of Newland with a boy he met through a the Shop with a Cop holiday event that pairs law enforcement officers with children of low socioeconomic status.
“What effect did it have on you when you saw these posts that you’re a pedophile?” Klingler asked.
“I was angry, sad, depressed, upset,” Newland answered.
“Why were you sad or upset? ... Isn’t it just somebody exaggerating or making jokes?” Klingler asked.
“No. I didn’t find it funny at all. I work in law enforcement, have kids, have friends, family. I was involved in the schools, and then I’m being blessed all over social media for the entire United States to see that I’m a pedophile,” Newland answered.
“Do your kids friends come to your house and hang out?” Klingler asked.
“They don’t anymore,” Newland answered.
“Did they used to?” Klingler asked.
“They used to have huge slumber parties, especially on the birthdays. They’d have 10 or 11 kids over. And essentially, once this started, it stopped. I don’t recall the last time my daughters have had a friend over, if they’ve had one, ever since then,” Newland answered.
According to multiple news reports, including Hearst affiliate WLWT-TV in Cincinnati, Newland’s brother William Newland was fired from the Peeples Police Department in Ohio in 2021 after he was accused of providing obscene material to juveniles.
Newland told Klingler he doesn’t recall what his brother was charged with but knows it was a misdemeanor.
“Did you have anything to do with that crime?” Klingler asked.
“No, I did not,” Newland answered.
“Have you ever been accused or convicted of pedophilia?” Klingler asked.
“No,” Newland answered.
In cross, Osborne asked Newland if his brother’s crime “involved minor children.”
“I really don’t know anything about the investigation,” Newland answered.
“You don’t know anything about your brother’s crime?” Osborne asked.
“He was charged with just what I’ve seen on jail tracker in the past,” Newland answered.
“So you’re not close to your brother?” Osborne asked.
“I’m not,” Newland answered.
“Are you close to your family?” Osborne asked.
“Yeah, most of my family,” Newland answered.
“Then why not your brother, who’s in law enforcement?” Osborne asked.
“Well, we were both young at the same time, separate parts of the world. We kind of got close again. And then once this, you know, his issues happen, we kind of just drifted apart again,” Newland answered.
Osborne pressed Newland about his testimony that no one called him pedophile before Afroman did.
Newland said the reaction to his brother’s criminal case “was just on a smaller scale.”
“I was asked about it, and then that was it. It wasn’t shared, and I wasn’t put in music videos and everything else because of that reason,” Newland answered.
“But your brother’s criminal charge and everything was in the front page of the local newspaper, correct?” Osborne asked.
“Yep,” Newland answered.
“So everybody in Adams County knew that your brother was charged?” Osborne asked.
“Correct,” Newland answered.
“And so did people treat you differently at that time?” Osborne asked.
“No,” Newland answered.
“Not at all?” Osborne asked.
“No,” Newland answered.
Osborne questioned Sgt. Michael Estep about his wife’s felony theft conviction for stealing from her employer.
“You never had anybody asking about being a thief when your wife was charged with theft?” Osborne asked.
“No,” Estep answered.
Judge Hein interrupted Osborne and said in front of the jury, “Tell me why you would do that to the jury.”
“I’m asking a question that builds on his reputation. He says he has never been called a thief before, yet he keeps saying that everybody treats him differently,” Osborne said.
Osborne said Estep is “opening up the door so that I can ask the question about what’s affecting his reputation.”
Judge Hein told jurors to consider the testimony about Estep’s wife’s theft conviction "so you can see how it does or does not affect him alone.”
“Just don’t get caught up that your spouse’s character is your character, because it’s not,” the judge said.
“So restating the question, Mr. Estep: Your wife did steal from her employer, correct?” Osborne asked.
Estep paused for several seconds before he answered, “Yes.”
“And it was a felony sum of money, correct?” Osborne asked.
“Yes,” Estep answered.
“Which is over $1,000?” Osborne asked.
“Yes,” Estep answered.
“And you were part of the search of Mr. Foreman’s residence, correct?” Osborne asked.
“Yes,” Estep answered.
“Did you ever have any contact with the money?” Osborne asked.
“I noticed money in a coat pocket, and I pointed it out to Detective Newland,” Estep answered.
Estep told Osborne “not that I recall” when he asked if he made a deragory remark about Afroman during the raid, so Osborne showed him footage from the raid in which he said Afroman was a “sex addict.”
“I couldn’t clarify if I heard addict,” Estep said.
Osborne asked an assistant to get Estep “the hearings aids,” then replayed the footage.
“Were you able to hear it that time? Would you agree that you called Mr. Foreman a sex addict?” Osborne asked.
“Yeah,” Estep answered.
“You would agree that this is a public record?” Osborne asked.
“Yes,” Estep answered.
Sgt. Randy Walters’ claims centered on Afroman saying he had sex with Walters’ wife.
He testified on Tuesday that his daughter is “getting hazed and harassed because somebody thinks it’s funny.”
“My wife for 28 years, she didn’t have an affair with Mr. Foreman. She didn’t make my daughter with Mr. Foreman. But now my family has to be harmed because of straight up, 100 percent lies,” Walters testified. “Where in the world is it okay to make something up for fun that’s damaging to others when you know for sure it’s an absolute lie? That’s a problem.”
He said Afroman’s statements are “just fuel to the rage” if deputies try to arrest already “mouthy” people. Adams County is a rural county so deputies “do your paperwork in your car.”
“Well, try to find someplace safe to sit when you’re literally getting death threats because of lies. You’re absolutely in fear for your safety to begin with as a police officer, but now intensify that because somebody is lying about a situation,” Walters testified.
He contrasted Afroman’s treatment of his family to his treatment of Afroman’s family during the search.
“The respect for my family, including my law enforcement family, wasn’t nothing like the respect I gave to his children the night of the raid. I stopped what I was doing when his wife, who I know and have been friendly with for years, as far as being associates, said, ‘Hey … somebody pulled in and they’re scared,’” Walters said.
“I stopped what I did, what I was doing, and went and checked on his kids to make sure they were safe, because that’s a priority to me. But the same respect that was given to his family, he had no regard to mine or me,” he continued.
Walters said his children “came home yesterday because of new posts.”
“It’s affected all of our reputations from a baseless lie till now. We are not thieves. We didn’t steal his money. I never touched his money,” Walters said. “I spoke to him on the phone when he was concerned that he was going to be arrested that night, and apparently, in some way on the phone, he didn’t like my attitude towards not fixing his door. I’m sorry if you felt that I disrespected you.”
In cross, Osborne asked about Afroman’s nicknames for Walters.
“Does anyone believe you’re Beetle Bailey?” Osborne asked.
“Probably not,” Walters answered.
“And when he called you a son of a bitch, that would be an opinion?” Osborne asked.
“I’d say that would be an opinion,” Walters answered.
“Because there’s no way we can prove whether you’re a son of a bitch or not?” Osborne asked.
“Nah, she’s been dead for years,” Walters answered.
“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. It’s more a statement of opinion or description of a person?” Osborne asked.
“Sure,” Walters answered.
“Same thing with being called. I think it’s Gomer Pyle?” Osborne asked.
“Yes,” Walters answered.
“No one would think you’re Gomer Pyle from the movie?” Osborne asked.
“Obviously, that’s a character in a movie,” Walters answered.
“Yeah. But you’re not that person?” Osborne asked.
“No,” Walters answered.
Walters said Afroman’s vulgar statements about having sex with his wife “caused tremendous pain in my life.”
“So does it paint you in a false light?” Osborne asked.
“Yes, that my wife is cheating on me with Mr. Foreman,” Walters answered.
“But we all know that’s not true, correct?” Osborne asked.
“I don’t know,” Walters answered.
“But you don't know if your wife’s cheating on you or not?” Osborne asked.
“You want to go there?” Walters responded.
“No, I just want to ask that question because you said we don’t know,” Osborne asked.
“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,” Walters answered.
Osborne asked Walters if the statement can be verified as true or false, and Walters answered “ask your client,” so Osborne asked Judge Hein to direct Walter to answer the question.
“That you don’t like his answer doesn't mean he didn't answer," Hein said.
Osborne protested but Hein said, “That was his answer. You didn’t like how it came out, but it was his answer. I can’t make him say something else. You can ask him another question.”
Osborne asked if Walters is “claiming that Mr. Foreman saying he had sex with your wife is a private fact about your life?”
“My family is a private part of my life. Him having an affair with my wife would definitely be a private part of my life if that was occurring,” Walters answered.
“And that has affected your reputation?” Osborne asked.
“Yes,” Walters answered.
Judge Hein told jurors that Afroman likely would testify again as his own witness after left the stand on Tuesday, but the only person who ended up testifying for the defense was Grooms’ ex-wife.
After asking about the deputies laughing about “Lemon Pound Cake,” Osborne asked if Afroman’s posts about her ex-husband or the sheriff’s office “affected your life any at all?”
“No,” Rhonda Grooms answered.
Osborne asked if Afroman’s comments had “not a damn thing to do with your relationship between you and Sean and why it came to an end?”
“No, it did not,” Grooms answered.
A teacher, Grooms said when her students said they saw her husband in a video, “I would say, ‘Yeah, that was him,’ and turn around and walk away. I didn’t elaborate on any of thatt … because I didn’t think it was the students business.”
Osborne also questioned Grooms about Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s song “Wet A** P****” to drive to reiterate his point that song lyrics shouldn’t be taken literally.
“Do you believe it’s a literal interpretation?” Osborne asked.
“No,” Grooms answered.
“Would you agree it’s derogatory towards women?” Osborne asked.
“No,” Grooms answered.
“Even though it says nasty things about them?” Osborne asked.
“Yeah, no, I mean, it’s the artist’s opinion,” Grooms answered.
Osborne mentioned the song again in his closing, referring to “Carly B” and “Megan Three Stallion.”
“I’m not the audience for that song, and I know that I know nothing in that song, nothing they’re talking about, is true,” Osborne said. He seemed to miss that he was essentially saying he doesn’t believe a woman can be sexually excited.
“Nobody looks at Lil Wayne’s song “Pussy Monster” and says there’s a monster in that song,” Osborne said. “Everybody knows it’s exaggeration for entertainment. Is he commenting on something? Sure, but it’s not fact.”
He told jurors to consider “what rap is, because music does not exist in a vacuum.”
“Music evolves over time. Take a look at jazz. It’s evolved at one time. It was distinct in a certain subculture, and it has now expanded. Rap is the same. Rap started out as a means for people to express social commentary opinions through entertainment. Look at the song by NWA … ‘Fuck The Police.’ I think I said that right,” Osborne said.
Osborne said he went to a comedy show by former Hillsboro, Ohio, Mayor Drew Hastings and some of Hasting’s jokes “like those of Eddie Murphy and Richard Pryor, some of them are not tasteful, but they’re still jokes.”
“They’re not facts, and we know that that’s what a reasonable person listening to that would understand, and that’s the point,” Osborne said.
He emphasized that the seven people suing Afroman are “are public officials.”
“They’re public officials. They’re going to be held to higher standards. Their work is going to be criticized. I mean, that’s just what happens when you’re a public official. No reasonable person would expect a police officer not to be criticized,” Osborne said.
In rebuttal, Klingler emphasized that “WAP” and other songs Osborne mentioned don’t refer to specific people.
“It’s not the same thing,” he said.
Klingler said in his closing that jurors should award Phillips $1.5 million for “what she’s been through for three and a half years and may be going through for who knows.”
Newland deserves “$1 million for what he's been through with his family, the loss of his dream job here in Adams County,” Klingler said.
Walters also deserves $1 million “for what he's been through with the allegations and vile videos about his wife.”
He said Estep and the other three plaintiffs — Shawn Grooms, Cooley and Cooley’s son Justin Cooley, “I’m asking you for a total for all four of them of $400,000, divided among them however you see fit based on their testimony.”
“In this case, there’s no doctor bills, there’s no damaged property. There’s damage to reputation. There’s pain and suffering. There’s public humiliation. There’s everything you saw and heard from these detectives from the witness stand,” Klingler said.
“And the only thing you can do as a jury to decide this case is to render a verdict of money that somehow stands in, somehow represents the harm that these deputy sheriffs have been put through over three and a half years,” Klingler continued. “That’s all you can do. You can’t issue an order that says ‘stop.’ You can’t issue an order that says, you know, ‘say you’re sorry.’ All you can do is issue a verdict for an amount that fairly stands in represents what they’ve been through, what they’ve lost.”
Klingler ended his argument by telling jurors he’s “done what I can” and his clients have “done what they can.”
“They’ve suffered through the publicity. They could have stopped this case at any time, if they would have kowtowed to the pressure public humiliation that Mr. Foreman continued to put them through. But they didn’t. They bravely stood behind their case and their right not to be drug through the mud with lies in the media. They’ve done all they can, and now I am giving their case and this decision to you. It’s out of my hands,” Klingler said.
Klingler has not commented publicly on the verdict.
I discussed the trial on Live Now From Fox
I enjoy appearing on Live Now From Fox because the hosts usually let me go on and on, which gives me plenty of room for important details.
I told host Shawna Khalafi that we should “keep in mind that this is much to the dismay and despair, maybe even, of the sheriff's deputies whose lawyer actually told the jury that he thought they were sent by a higher power.”
“I’m just imagining the sheriff’s deputies sitting there thinking hearing their lawyer talk about how horrible it’s going to be when they lose and then they lose,” I said.
I also noted “that the actual evidence in this was really scarce.”
“We heard testimony about the sheriff's office getting 300 phone calls in a day threatening them, and all these voicemails and all these threats and but we didn't see a lot of actual hard copies of anything,” I said.
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