Prosecutors in Florida have dropped a felony charge against rapper Rick Ross in his domestic violence case. According to new court documents obtained by TMZ.com, prosecutors have filed two misdemeanor charges against the 50-year-old, one for battery and the other for battery/domestic violence.
However, they dropped a charge of felony battery because of insufficient evidence. The rapper, real name William Leonard Roberts II, was first arrested on 1 October on felony battery by strangulation and misdemeanor battery before the dropping of the felony charge. He has pleaded not guilty to the remaining charges.
According to an arrest report, Ross was accused of beating, strangling, and slamming his girlfriend at his Miami residence after he questioned her about whether she had lied to him. Ross’ lawyers Steve Sadow and Bradley Horenste have said he is being “wrongfully accused” by an ex-girlfriend.
“Mr. Roberts is innocent and has pled not guilty to the charges,” they said. “He respectfully requests that his friends, fans, and the general public not prejudge the situation and allow the judicial process to run its course.”
The arrest report details that the victim said on the morning of Aug. 28 she was woken up by Ross, who was “enraged” because she was “tagged in a photo on Instagram.” The victim said Ross “questioned her about lying to him and then proceeded to slap the victim in the face,” later accusing her of being in a relationship with a person “she was merely friends with.”
The report goes on to say that every time his girlfriend denied the accusations, Ross struck her, including in the chest several times. He “also choked the victim to the point she could not breathe by grabbing the collar of the hoodie she was wearing and twisting it,” police said.
At one point, Ross is accused of grabbing the victim by her ponytail and slamming her against the wall, before striking her in the face as she was bent over, “causing a busted lip.” He then pushed her to the floor, and turned on the shower to try to spray her with the shower head, the report states.
The victim was able to get out of the bathroom and leave the home before she went back inside, police said. After Ross left, she “gathered her belongings and left the residence.” Police said the victim “provided photographic evidence of her injuries with time stamps coinciding with the event.”
She also told police that she had contacted a friend to picked her up at Ross’ home, but that friend was “turned away.” Detectives were also made aware of possible video footage related to the incident, and Ross posted a picture on his Instagram of the friend arriving at the scene.
“Not only were our investigators able to obtain a victim statement, but they also collected photographs of the injuries, surveillance video of the alleged incident, and they were able to establish probable cause for this arrest,” Miami Beach Police spokesman Christopher Bess said at the time. “It paints a picture of a very violent attack.”
Ross turned himself in to Miami Beach police on Oct. 1, authorities said. He was arrested and charged accordingly. Police said he declined to provide a statement on the advice of his legal counsel. “Our detectives, our police department, takes any allegations of domestic violence very seriously, which is why we acted swiftly,” Bess said. “No matter the celebrity, no matter the status of the alleged offender, we will investigate allegations of this sort.”
