Posted on: August 8, 2024, 07:14h.
Last updated on: August 8, 2024, 07:35h.
UPDATE: A lawyer for Nelly has told TMZ on Thursday that the rapper was “targeted by an overzealous, out of line officer” after winning a jackpot at a St. Louis casino early Wednesday, and that his arrest was bogus.
According to attorney Scott Rosenblum, Nelly was told by his arresting officer that before he could collect his jackpot — presumably for a slot win — a background check needed to be run. Rosenblum said his client recognized the request as fraudulent, since he had collected multiple previous jackpots at the Hollywood Casino St. Louis without the need for a background check.
The background check was conducted anyway, turning up the 2018 bench warrant for, as we reported below, driving without insurance. According to Rosenblum, it was only because Nelly was famous that he was taken into custody instead of handed a citation for the infraction.
After Nelly was paraded through the casino, Rosenblum said, his belongings were searched without probable cause, which is when four ecstasy pills were discovered.
Though the Missouri Highway Patrol, which stations troopers from the state’s gaming division at the Hollywood Casino, claimed that Nelly was booked for felony drug possession, Rosenblum claimed his client was not charged with drug possession and that the case will lead nowhere — except possibly to an inquiry into the arresting officer’s conduct.
EARLIER: Nelly was arrested early Wednesday morning at the Hollywood Casino in Maryland Heights, Mo., a suburb of his hometown of St. Louis. According to online arrest records, the 49-year-old rapper was charged with possessing ecstasy, which is a controlled substance, and driving without insurance.
A Missouri State Highway Patrol arrest report for Cornell I. Haynes Jr., Nelly’s birth name, shows he was arrested at 4:45 a.m. for a bench warrant resulting from an outstanding traffic summons from 2018 — also for driving without insurance.
Upon searching his car, officers found four ecstasy pills. The “Hot in Herre” rapper was booked at the Maryland Heights Police Department and has since been released.
Nelly is actively touring. He most recently served as opening act for Janet Jackson’s “Together Again” tour, the US leg of which wrapped on July 30 at Arizona’s Footprint Center. His next solo concert is scheduled for Aug. 30 at the Walworth County Fairgrounds in Elkhorn, Wisc., followed by an appearance on Sept. 1 at Wet Republic in Las Vegas.
Previous Arrests
In 2001, Nelly was also arrested in St. Louis on drug-related charges, after he was reportedly found with a small amount of marijuana . He was briefly detained before being released.
In 2009, police conducting a traffic stop in Sierra Blanca, Texas found methamphetamine, marijuana, and a loaded firearm on Nelly’s tour bus. Nelly was not charged with drug possession himself but was cited for having the contraband on his bus.
In October 2017, Nelly was arrested in Auburn, Wash. and charged with second-degree rape. The allegations came from Monica Greene, a 22-year-old college student who called 911 claiming she was assaulted by Nelly on his tour bus while it was parked outside an area Walmart.
Prosecutors dropped the criminal case, citing the alleged victim’s refusal to cooperate. However, Greene sued Nelly and her civil case was settled for an undisclosed amount.
Nelly is married to R&B star Ashanti. The Grammy Award-winning artists first dated in 2003, then broke up a decade later. They spent another decade apart before reuniting in September 2023 and are now expecting their first child together.
Ashanti has not posted to her Instagram account since April, when she announced the news of her pregnancy.
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