Afroman is now turning the tables. The Ohio rapper has filed a malicious prosecution lawsuit against former Adams County Sheriff’s Sgt. Brian Newland, one of the officers who sued him over social media posts and music videos.
The suit, filed Monday and obtained by BlkCosmo, claims Newland’s 2023 defamation case was baseless. Afroman argues the legal action forced him to accumulate substantial attorney fees and inflicted emotional distress.
Here’s the backstory. Newland and several other deputies sued Afroman in 2023 over social media posts and music videos featuring surveillance footage from a 2022 search of his home. That search never resulted in criminal charges.
Afroman made creative use of the footage, incorporating it into videos for “Lemon Pound Cake” and “Will You Help Me Repair My Door,” while keeping up a running joke about the raid on social media.
The deputies initially sought $3.9 million in combined damages, claiming the posts harmed their reputations. But earlier this year, a jury sided with Afroman, finding he had not defamed them or misrepresented them in a false light.
Now Afroman is asserting that Newland lacked any legitimate legal or factual basis to bring the suit in the first place.
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