Post by WaTcHeR on Nov 14, 2006 14:14:51 GMT -5
11.14.2006 - When hip-hop star Juvenile came to Jacksonville in 1999, it was to put on a show.
When he returned this week, he was defending himself against a lawsuit filed by a Jacksonville police officer who blamed him for her bad knee. After a week of heated testimony, a jury of six ruled for the rapper and found him not responsible for any damages. At 10 p.m. Thursday, the artist with four platinum-selling albums roamed the empty halls of the Duval County Courthouse, thrilled with the verdict.
"Yeah!" he yelled, grabbing his attorneys. "You all saved me.
"We got them, we got them, we got them," he said. "Just the fact that it's a rap artist against the police, that never happens. Rappers never win. We never win against the police or the government."
The 31-year-old Louisiana native vowed to cap the night off with a "double shot of Hennessy on the rocks." He invited his attorneys.
The case stemmed from an incident on July 23, 1999. The rapper whose real name is Terius Gray was beginning to experience success, and he and an entourage were in Jacksonville to put on a show. Before it, they stopped by the Regency Square mall to pick up a pair of tennis shoes. But their dress and language were in violation of mall policy, and a team of security guards asked them to leave.
Gray and his friends were using profanity, and the guards called for off-duty officer Melissa Huxley-Bujeda to issue a trespass warning.
Huxley-Bujeda intervened, but a scuffle started. She said her knee was injured while trying to control Gray in the melee.
He was arrested on charges of breach of the peace and resisting an officer with violence, which were eventually dropped.
In the years that followed, Gray rose to stardom and Huxley-Bujeda had four surgeries on her left knee. In the end, she had $68,635 in medical bills. She blamed it on the tussle with Gray and filed suit in July 2003.
However, in the trial before Circuit Judge Brad Stetson, Atlanta defense attorneys Michael Weinstock and Marvin Pastel came up with another explanation. They called an expert who said Huxley-Bujeda had degenerative arthritis that had been developing for years. The attorneys discovered that she had hurt her knees about 35 times as a child, through cheerleading, gymnastics and other sports.
Huxley-Bujeda declined to comment.
During the trial, testimony came from security guards, doctors, Gray's entourage and a law enforcement expert. Huxley-Bujeda described the fight, which drew a crowd of about 100 people at the mall.
Gray's friends and his brother, Cory Gray, said they were leaving the mall. They said they did not know Huxley-Bujeda was a police officer. When the rapper was being escorted by security, his brother intervened. That's when the fight started.
At one point, Huxley-Bujeda was on the ground with Gray, trying to handcuff him. He wrapped his legs around her leg, she said. Then she felt her kneecap twist to the left.
"I felt it pop over here then come back," she said. It took three guards to get Gray up. Back at the security office, she pulled up her pants leg and saw her knee was swollen.
After surgery in 2000, she was trying to get back to a patrol job with the Sheriff's Office, where she had worked since 1997. But she quickly injured her knee again during a fitness test. More surgery followed.
"Let this be a lesson to all pedestrians out there," Gray said after the verdict. "Targeting entertainers ain't the quickest way to get rich."
www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/111006/met_6146317.shtml
When he returned this week, he was defending himself against a lawsuit filed by a Jacksonville police officer who blamed him for her bad knee. After a week of heated testimony, a jury of six ruled for the rapper and found him not responsible for any damages. At 10 p.m. Thursday, the artist with four platinum-selling albums roamed the empty halls of the Duval County Courthouse, thrilled with the verdict.
"Yeah!" he yelled, grabbing his attorneys. "You all saved me.
"We got them, we got them, we got them," he said. "Just the fact that it's a rap artist against the police, that never happens. Rappers never win. We never win against the police or the government."
The 31-year-old Louisiana native vowed to cap the night off with a "double shot of Hennessy on the rocks." He invited his attorneys.
The case stemmed from an incident on July 23, 1999. The rapper whose real name is Terius Gray was beginning to experience success, and he and an entourage were in Jacksonville to put on a show. Before it, they stopped by the Regency Square mall to pick up a pair of tennis shoes. But their dress and language were in violation of mall policy, and a team of security guards asked them to leave.
Gray and his friends were using profanity, and the guards called for off-duty officer Melissa Huxley-Bujeda to issue a trespass warning.
Huxley-Bujeda intervened, but a scuffle started. She said her knee was injured while trying to control Gray in the melee.
He was arrested on charges of breach of the peace and resisting an officer with violence, which were eventually dropped.
In the years that followed, Gray rose to stardom and Huxley-Bujeda had four surgeries on her left knee. In the end, she had $68,635 in medical bills. She blamed it on the tussle with Gray and filed suit in July 2003.
However, in the trial before Circuit Judge Brad Stetson, Atlanta defense attorneys Michael Weinstock and Marvin Pastel came up with another explanation. They called an expert who said Huxley-Bujeda had degenerative arthritis that had been developing for years. The attorneys discovered that she had hurt her knees about 35 times as a child, through cheerleading, gymnastics and other sports.
Huxley-Bujeda declined to comment.
During the trial, testimony came from security guards, doctors, Gray's entourage and a law enforcement expert. Huxley-Bujeda described the fight, which drew a crowd of about 100 people at the mall.
Gray's friends and his brother, Cory Gray, said they were leaving the mall. They said they did not know Huxley-Bujeda was a police officer. When the rapper was being escorted by security, his brother intervened. That's when the fight started.
At one point, Huxley-Bujeda was on the ground with Gray, trying to handcuff him. He wrapped his legs around her leg, she said. Then she felt her kneecap twist to the left.
"I felt it pop over here then come back," she said. It took three guards to get Gray up. Back at the security office, she pulled up her pants leg and saw her knee was swollen.
After surgery in 2000, she was trying to get back to a patrol job with the Sheriff's Office, where she had worked since 1997. But she quickly injured her knee again during a fitness test. More surgery followed.
"Let this be a lesson to all pedestrians out there," Gray said after the verdict. "Targeting entertainers ain't the quickest way to get rich."
www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/111006/met_6146317.shtml