Bobby Shmurda Sues The NYPD For Alleged False Arrest
The Brooklyn rapper has been behind bars for nearly a year and a half.
These days, Brooklyn rapper Bobby Shmurda is more famous for his legal woes than for his 2014 hit song "Hot Nigga," which peaked at number six on the Billboard Hot 100, started a new dance craze, and turned the then-19-year-old rapper into a household name overnight.
Since his December 2014 arrest for conspiracy to commit murder, reckless endangerment, and weapons possession, the 21-year-old rapper has remained behind bars, having been denied his $2 million bail seven times. But now it looks like Shmurda, who's real name is Ackquille Pollard, is tired of his predicament and plans to sue the NYPD for false arrest.
According to the New York Daily News, the rapper has enlisted the aid of civil rights lawyer Derek Sells, who in a suit filed in Brooklyn Federal Court on Friday says his client was falsely arrested in June 2014 when police conducting a warrantless search turned up drug paraphernalia and guns in the apartment where Shmurda was hanging out at the time. Sells also claims that when the NYPD "kicked in" the door of the apartment, they taunted the rapper by chanting lyrics to his "chart-topping" songs. As the Daily News points out, the sole officer named in the suit, Douglas Corso, has been named in five other federal civil rights suits since 2011.
Meanwhile, Shmurda's legal problems are far from over. Though, the gun charge that got him arrested in the first place has since been dropped, the rapper still faces separate weapons possessions charges in Manhattan and the Bronx, an ongoing ordeal that has apparently caused the 21-year-old "nervous shock and mental anguish."
The FADER has reached out to Shmurda's attorney, Derek Sells, for comment and will update when we hear back.