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Afroman testified Tuesday in a civil lawsuit brought by seven members of an Ohio sheriff\u2019s office who allege he used their likenesses without permission in music videos and on merchandise and spread lies about them after they raided his home in August 2022. <\/p>\n
The fault, the \u201cBecause I Got High\u201d rapper<\/a> maintained, was not his. On Wednesday, the jury was deliberating the case. <\/p>\n The 51-year-old, whose real name is Joseph Edgar Foreman, said on the stand Tuesday that he was in the right, according to local station WCPO Channel 9 in Cincinnati.<\/p>\n \u201cThe whole raid was a mistake. All of this is their fault,\u201d Foreman testified, taking the stand wearing sunglasses with American flag lenses and a red, white and blue suit and matching tie made of fabric recalling the American flag. \u201cIf they hadn\u2019t wrongly raided my house, there would be no lawsuit, I would not know their names, they wouldn\u2019t be on my home surveillance system, and there would be no songs, nothing.\u201d <\/p>\n Officers were acting in 2022 on a warrant showing probable cause that drugs and drug paraphernalia would be found on the property. The warrant also alleged that trafficking and kidnapping had happened there. No evidence of a crime was found, and no charges were filed. Foreman wasn\u2019t home during the raid but was able to see at least part of it via a video recorded by his ex-wife and footage captured on his home security system before law enforcement turned off those cameras. <\/p>\n It was that footage that was used in the various videos the rapper subsequently posted, including a music video for the song \u201cLemon Pound Cake,\u201d which he wrote about the raid. <\/p>\n Officers tore down his door, he said, and damaged his house, taking money, vape pens and a small amount of marijuana. There was a discrepancy about the amount of money taken and returned to the rapper, which seemed to be a point of contention linked to whether he was misrepresenting what the deputies did during the raid. <\/p>\n \u201cAfter they left, I had the right to kick the can and to do what I had to do to repair the damage they brought to my house. Yes, I did,\u201d Foreman said. \u201cI have freedom of speech. I\u2019m a rapper. I entertain.\u201d<\/p>\n His testimony came on the second day of the trial, after the deputies took the stand the first day and testified that though the raid wasn\u2019t perfect, Foreman had been spreading lies about them for years since it occurred. Deputy Lisa Phillips, whose gender identity had been called into question in Foreman\u2019s videos and social media posts, cried on the stand<\/a> as some of those videos were played for the court. <\/p>\n Footage with a song called \u201cLicc\u2019em Low Lisa\u201d showed Foreman saying he thought he would \u201ccrack some musical jokes\u201d in the wake of the raid, then going to comfort a crying actor who resembled Phillips. \u201cI didn\u2019t know they hurt you that bad. … I was just having fun with a bad situation.\u201d The same video showed the actor engaging in sexual activity with another woman. <\/p>\n In their lawsuit, WCPO said, the deputies said the posts and videos caused them \u201chumiliation, ridicule, mental distress, embarrassment and loss of reputation\u201d and made it difficult to do their law enforcement work.<\/p>\n