Rapper Afroman (real name Joseph Foreman) has been cleared by a jury of his peers in a defamation lawsuit filed by seven Adams County sheriff's deputies. “I didn’t win, America won,” Foreman told WCPO reporter Jay Shakur after the trial. “America still has freedom of speech, it’s still for the people, by the people.”
The Ohio jury ruled in Foreman’s favor on all 14 counts in the civil trial, which lasted just three days. The lawsuit stems from the aftermath of an Aug. 21, 2022, armed raid conducted by the Adams County Sheriff's Office on a property owned by Foreman as part of a narcotics and kidnapping investigation. No criminal evidence was found and Foreman was never charged with a crime. He would go on to make several songs criticizing the officers involved, with music videos publicizing the surveillance footage of the raid. This led officers to file a lawsuit for invasion of privacy and emotional distress.
When that lawsuit was filed in March 2023, The Guardian reported, “Each officer is seeking damages of $25,000 per four counts.” That’s a far cry from the $3.9 million in damages litigating attorney Robert A. Klinger asked the jury to award his clients in closing arguments.
“$1.5 million dollars for Lisa Phillips [...] For Brian Newland, I’m asking you to issue a verdictc for $1 million dollars,” Klinger said. “For Randy Walters, I’m asking you for a verdict of $1 million [...] For the other four plaintiffs, Sean Grooms, Shawn Cooley, Justin Cooley, and Mike Estep, I’m asking you for a total of $400,000.”
Wearing an American flag suit, Foreman’s testimony in the case repeatedly emphasized that he has creative license under the First Amendment to criticize and parody police officers, who are considered public officials and thus have a higher standard to prove malice in defamation cases than civilians.
Some of the diss tracks are playful (“Lemon Pound Cake”) and others are distasteful (“Licc’em Low Lisa”), but a jury has ruled all of them protected speech. The first song in the bunch, “Will You Help Me Repair My Door,” feels like a late night karaoke track, as if Afroman were dumbfounded by the circumstances. But the best song of the bunch is clearly “Why You Disconnecting My Video Camera,” where Afroman hops on a boom bap instrumental to inquire why the officers were afraid to execute a warrant on-film. It’s a remarkably gripping play-by-play, poking caustic fun at their property destruction and invasive searches, balanced with enough humor and shit-talk to keep things feeling upbeat. Still, the surveillance footage video has an off-putting energy, the specter of state violence just outside the frame.
Foreman was not on site at the property when the raid was conducted, though his wife later arrived at the scene. In a statement to Motherboard at the time, Afroman’s record label called the allegations in the warrant “completely fabricated and untrue.”
Motherboard also published body cam footage from the raid. Officers rifled through Foreman’s belongings, including his fridge, suit pockets, and CD collection, and confiscated thousands in cash. That money became the source of further controversy in the case when the seized funds were returned and came up $400 short. Shortly after the initial lawsuit, the ACLU filed an amicus brief in defense of Afroman.
