The most serious charge hanging over Rick Ross is gone, but his legal fight in Miami Beach is far from over.
Prosecutors filed paperwork Thursday dropping a felony count of battery by strangulation against the rapper, citing “insufficient evidence.”
That still leaves a misdemeanour charge of battery domestic violence on the table. Ross, 50, whose legal name is William Roberts II, has pleaded not guilty to all charges, and his attorney said Friday that his client would keep defending himself against the allegations.
The case began with a report a woman made to Miami Beach police. According to the arrest report, she had been living with Ross when he accused her of cheating on him and struck her multiple times on August 28.
She also told detectives that Ross choked her with the collar of her shirt and slammed her into a wall. She said she eventually managed to leave the home and came back later, after Ross had gone, to collect her belongings.
Ross surrendered at the Miami Beach police station on October 1, two days after the woman filed her report, officials said. He was freed on bail several hours later.
The felony count was dropped roughly a month after that arrest. For the defense, it narrows the case considerably, though the central accusation that Ross hit the woman is still moving through the courts.
This isn’t the first time Ross has faced a violence case. In 2017 he pleaded no contest to aggravated assault in Georgia after being accused of forcing a man into a guesthouse at his suburban Atlanta mansion in 2015 and beating him with a handgun.
Under a Georgia first time offender programme, the court later issued an order exonerating him of guilt on that felony count. That history has resurfaced as the Miami case moves forward.
Ross’s ties to South Florida run deep. He’s a longtime resident who broke through in 2006 with “Hustlin’,” a single certified platinum twice by the RIAA that sparked a bidding war before he signed with Def Jam, then headed by Jay-Z.
At a time when most hip hop fans looked to Atlanta and Houston as the headquarters of Southern rap, Ross helped put Miami on the map.
His debut album Port of Miami opened at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and went platinum, kicking off a run of chart toppers that included Trilla in 2008 and Deeper Than Rap in 2009.
He founded Maybach Music Group in 2008, giving a boost to the careers of Wale, Meek Mill and French Montana, and he has collected nine Grammy nominations along the way. His most recent album, Set In Stone, arrived in July.
For now, the misdemeanour charge remains open and Ross’s team says it isn’t backing down. The next move belongs to the court.
