Ohio
Afroman sued by Ohio deputies over music videos showing raid of his home, says ‘I got freedom of speech’
A defiant rapper testified on Tuesday that he exercised free speech when he released music videos featuring images of Ohio deputies raiding his home, saying any suffering they claim in a lawsuit is due to “their mistake.”
Several Adams County sheriff’s deputies are suing Afroman, claiming they were needlessly harmed by music videos, most notably “Lemon Pound Cake,” which included security camera footage taken in 2022 when they served a search warrant looking for drugs at the performer’s home.
None were found and charges were never filed against the “Because I Got High” rapper, who was born Joseph Foreman.
Afroman took the witness stand wearing an American flag-patterned suit and said his actions are protected under the First Amendment.
“I got freedom of speech,” he told jurors. “After they run around my house with guns, kicked 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,” he said.
The rapper said any hardships suffered by the deputies should be pinned on law enforcement.
“(This is all of) their fault for coming in my house in the first place,” the 51-year-old artist testified.
“So if they hadn’t come in my house, their children wouldn’t be saying nothing. None of this would be going on if they had did their research and did things right. So all of this is their fault, and now they want to sue me for their mistake.”
Asked if there’s anything that could “change your mind” about his creative actions, an indignant Afroman put it all back on law enforcement.
“Is there anything that can change my mind about the fact that they shouldn’t have been at my house in the first place?” Afroman rhetorically said.
“Is there anything that can change my mind about how my money shouldn’t have been touched in the first place? No.”
The title of song and video at the center of the lawsuite made light of one deputy who came through the busted door and seemed to take particular interest in a lemon loaf sitting under sitting under a cake glass in Afroman’s kitchen.
“The Adams County Sheriff kicked down my door,” according to Afroman’s song.
“Then I heard the glass break. They found no kidnapping victims. Just some lemon pound cake. Mama’s lemon pound cake. It tastes so nice. It made the sheriff wanna put down his gun. And cut him a slice.”
The “Lemon Pound Cake” video has been viewed more than 3.1 million times on YouTube.
In the song “Randy Walters is a Son of a Bitch,” the singer’s lyrics imply an extramarital affair between defendant and the wife of plaintiff Sgt. Randy Walters.
“When my daughter came home and advised me that she was getting messed with at school because apparently her mom is having sex with Afroman,” Walters told jurors.
“It’s horrible. It’s hard when your job that you’re doing which affects your family with affects you.”
The Ohio State Highway Patrol arrested online political writer D.J. Byrnes, also known as The Rooster, at the statehouse on June 1 on a misdemeanor warrant.
A patrol spokesman said Byrnes, who posts his stories to his Substack subscribers, was arrested on an outstanding warrant. He was booked into the Franklin County Jail, records show. The patrol did not provide further details.
Byrnes’ colleague, Max Littman, said he believes the arrest is related to Byrnes texting photos of cartoon character Shrek’s penis to a state senator. “If that is in fact true, that he was arrested over that, then it’s blatant targeting a political opponent and journalist,” Littman said.
The arrest warrant for telecommunications harassment came from the city of Kirtland in Lake County. The warrant alleges that Byrnes sent two photos on May 6 to “J.C.” with the intent to harass.
State Sen. Jerry Cirino, R-Kirtland, did not return messages seeking comment.
Byrnes routinely works the halls power at Columbus City Hall, Ohio State University and the Ohio Statehouse, looking for tips and ambushing officeholders for his Substack reports. He can be both charming and confrontational.
Recently, he posted a story based on one anonymous source who told him that Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy tried to get into the New York Knicks locker room after the Knicks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA playoffs.
The story, and its spread, so bothered Ramaswamy that he posted a lengthy refute on X, calling it 100% fake.
State government reporter Laura Bischoff can be reached at lbischoff@usatodayco.com and @lbischoff on X.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WSYX) — A bird rarely seen in North America was apparently spotted in Northeast Ohio of all places recently.
A lesser frigatebird was seen flying over Sippo Lake near Canton, according to several bird enthusiasts and photographers.
A photographer named Alex Eberts was kind enough to share his photos with ABC 6. You can see them at the top of this page.
Another photographer named Austin Rice posted this photo on Instagram and shared the details of what he saw on the night of May 23 in Stark County.
If you don’t know much about the lesser frigatebird, a site called eBird.com offers this description:
The smallest of the frigatebirds, but note that the female is larger than the male. Adults are easier to identify than younger birds. Adult males are almost entirely black with a red throat and white spurs emanating outwards from the body onto the wing. Adult females have a black belly and throat, a white breast and hind collar, with similar white spurs on their sides. Juvenile and immature plumages are variable and are best separated from other frigatebirds by size when comparison is possible. Mostly silent except while breeding in oceanic islands. Strongly pelagic during non-breeding season but wind-blown or fatigued birds can be found from continental coasts.
Eberts said in his own Facebook post that the May 23 sighting in Stark County was only the seventh reported sighting of the lesser frigatebird in the contiguous United States. The bird is more likely to be seen near the Indian Ocean, the Southeast Asian seas, Northern Australia to Western and Central Pacific Ocean, according to birdsoftheworld.org.
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