Rick Ross walked out of a Florida courthouse joking about Dubai, Paris and a weekend bowl of rigatoni. Now the rapper has a bit more reason to keep that easy mood, because prosecutors have dropped the most serious charge in his domestic violence case.
The felony count of battery by strangulation is gone, with prosecutors citing insufficient evidence. His attorney, Steve Sadow, confirmed the state filed the paperwork to dismiss it on October 29, nearly four weeks after Ross was arrested.
That doesn’t mean he’s in the clear. Ross, whose real name is William Roberts II, still faces a misdemeanor domestic violence battery charge, and he’ll have to deal with it in court.
The 50 year old rapper has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has denied the allegations from the start. His stance hasn’t shifted at all as the case has moved along.
The case centers on an alleged incident on August 28. According to the complaint, a woman identified in legal documents only by the initials J.K. said she had been in a relationship with Ross for about a year and that the two were living together at the time.
In her account, Ross woke her up during the night, angry about an Instagram photo she had been tagged in. She claims the argument escalated into a physical confrontation and that he assaulted her.
Ross was arrested on October 1. After his release on bond, he spoke briefly to reporters outside the courthouse, calling the accusations fabricated and insisting he had done nothing wrong.
He didn’t come across like a man weighed down by a felony case either. Between denials, he talked up his upcoming travel and that rigatoni, which made for a strange contrast with the seriousness of the charges he was facing that day.
Sadow has made the timeline a big part of the defense. He points out that J.K. didn’t report the alleged incident until September 29, roughly a month after it reportedly happened, and he argues the delay raises questions about the circumstances and possible motives behind the complaint.
He has also asked fans and the public not to rush to conclusions before the court fully examines the evidence.
With the felony count now dismissed, his camp will likely point to that decision as backing for their side of the story.
The allegations themselves are still very much alive, though. Prosecutors dropping a charge for insufficient evidence is not a ruling on what happened that night, and J.K.’s account remains at the heart of a case that’s still moving through the legal system.
The next round of proceedings will decide how the remaining misdemeanor gets handled. Ross, for his part, is still saying he did nothing wrong, and the courtroom is where that claim gets tested.
