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Because he got raided.
Rapper Afroman clashed with Ohio law enforcement in court Tuesday, leaving one deputy in tears as the singer testified in a lawsuit filed by a sheriff’s office over his 2022 satirical music video.
The 51-year-old Afroman, whose real name is Joseph Foreman, blamed the Adams County Sheriff’s Office for the high-profile court case after they executed a search warrant at his home in August 2022.
“All of this is their fault,” Foreman, clad in a red, white and blue suit with matching sunglasses, told the court on Tuesday, according to WCPO.
“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 … my money would still be intact.”
Following the raid on Foreman’s Winchester residence, the “Because I Got High” artist created a song based on the raid by Adams County Sheriff’s, including home security footage of the raid titled “Lemon Pound Cake,” WCPO reported.
The song was titled as such because Foreman mocked one of the officials in the raid who had glanced at a lemon pound cake in the kitchen inside the home.
Four deputies, two sergeants and a detective with the sheriff’s office filed the suit alleging the music video, which has been viewed over 3 million times since December 2022, defamed them, invaded their constitutional privacy and was an intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The agents had been acting on a warrant asserting probable cause for narcotics being stored and kidnappings taking place on the property.
No evidence of criminal activity was found on the property, and no charges were filed.
During the raid, captured on multiple cameras at Foreman’s home, deputies broke down a front gate, busted down a door and caused other damage around the property.
Foreman previously said he created the “funny rap song” to make money and pay for the damages.
He continued to create a series of videos leading up to the trial that featured footage of the raid and the names of the law enforcement agents involved.
Lisa Phillips, an Adams County deputy sheriff, was called into work to help execute the warrant despite being off duty that day, she told the court, according to the outlet.
Phillips has been a target of Foreman’s satire as he released several posts, including a 13-minute music video that featured highly suggestive innuendos directed at the official.
Phillips broke out in tears as the video was played in court on Monday.
On Tuesday, another official on the raid, Sgt. Randy Walters, was questioned on the type of harassment from Foreman he had been the subject of since the raid.
During his testimony, Walters was asked if he had been called a “son of a bitch,” with the sergeant saying he was, but nothing that was published online.
On Tuesday night, hours after the trial had adjourned for the day, Foreman shared a video to his social media accounts featuring him singing, “Randy Walter’s a son of a bitch.”
English (US)