After he tried to collect the jackpots he’d won at a suburban St. Louis casino, Rapper Nelly was searched by a casino officer supervising the jackpot payout, who ran the rapper’s name, finding a warrant from a 2018 traffic violation, prompting a search, the AP reports. The early Wednesday-morning search, which the entertainer’s lawyer, Scott Rosenblum, described as “needless, overzealous, and improper,” yielded four illegal ecstasy pills. The three-time Grammy Award winner, whose birth name is Cornell Haynes II, was briefly taken into custody by police in Maryland Heights, Missouri, then released.
Online Missouri court records show that Nelly, 49, was cited in June 2018 in Maryland Heights with operating a vehicle without proper proof of insurance. A judge issued a warrant in December 2023, and it had remained outstanding. Rosenblum said that once the officer found the outstanding warrant, he cuffed Nelly’s hands behind his back and “felt compelled” to “parade him through the casino in front of other customers.” Nelly’s attorney called what the officer found “alleged ‘ecstasy’” and said the officer did not have probable cause to justify searching him. Nelly wasn’t notified of the warrant and did not know about it, Rosenblum said. “I am 100% confident this case will go nowhere,” Rosenblum said. “And we will be asking for an inquiry into this officer’s conduct.” In similar circumstances, he said, “any other citizen would have been told to address it and allowed to go on their way.”
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