After the incident, Florida prosecutors dismissed a trespassing accusation against KodakBlack. “Zeze” rapper was arrested at the Golden Acres public housing development in his Pompano Beach hometown on New Year’s Day.
Broward County prosecutors made the decision to decline the case on Wednesday, Kodak’s lawyer Bradford Cohen confirmed to Rolling Stone.
Cohen said his client, born Bill Kapri, was visiting with family at Golden Acres on New Year’s Eve when he was detained while standing near his Lamborghini parked in a driveway.
The arresting officer, a Broward County sheriff’s deputy, took Kapri into custody citing a “cease and desist” letter that housing officials issued four months ago over Kapri’s personal delivery of air conditioning units to residents of the development last summer.
Cohen said Thursday it’s “basic law” that a cease and desist letter is not the same as a trespass notice, and either way, the letter was sent to Kapri’s label, not the rapper himself.
Kapri was also invited to the property in November by a resident. “a landlord can’t trespass you if you’re invited by the person paying rent,”The lawyer agreed.
Before Kapri was allowed to post bond and obtain his release, his Lamborghini had been towed with its contents listed.
“I think they made the arrest so they could search him and search his vehicle that was legally parked and try to find something that was a bigger charge than trespassing,” Cohen told Rolling Stone. “I think it was embarrassing that they ended up arresting him for trespass, and the case was never filed on because there was no probable cause to make the arrest.”
The Broward County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Kapri, 24, was just halfway through a federal sentence for falsifying paperwork that was used to purchase weapons from a Miami gunstore. When President Donald Trump redeemed the sentence in his final day in office in 2021, Kapri was almost halfway through his three-year sentence.
The pardon, supported by Gucci Mane, Lil Pump and Lil Yachty, noted Kodak’s philanthropic endeavors, including regularly handing out school supplies and food to Florida residents in need.
The multiplatinum-selling artist was sentenced to probation in April for an assault of a teenage girl at a South Carolina hotel in February 2016, when he was 18 years old.