Man’s trial for blaring ‘F--k the Police’ ends after 9-minute jury deliberation, lawyer says

A Michigan man who got a misdemeanor noise ticket for blaring the song “F--k the Police” near a deputy in June fought the ticket all the way to trial — and this week, he won.

James Webb turned up the volume on the 1988 NWA rap song as he pulled up next a deputy who was already conducting a traffic stop on June 5 at a gas station in Pontiac, Michigan, McClatchy reported. The deputy gave Webb a citation for violating a city noise ordinance, writing that Webb was playing the anti-police anthem at an “extremely high volume” with other customers present, according to a copy of the ticket provided by his lawyer.

“I knew what I was doing,” Webb told WXYZ. “I went over there with all my windows down, the music was loud … I did mean for him to hear it, but as a form of protest.”

The charge against Webb carried a $500 fine and 93 days in jail, WJBK reports.

Since June, Webb has been to court six or seven times, his attorney Nicholas Somberg said in a phone interview with McClatchy. Somberg said the case switched judges twice before landing on a third judge, and said prosecutors argued in a lengthy motion that the court proceedings should be closed to the public.

“The judge shot it down totally,” Somberg said.

Somberg said the motion to close the trial came after he made a Facebook event for the trial entitled “Rap music is not a crime,” which people said they planned to attend.

On Monday, the trial finally began. Somberg argued the ticket wouldn’t have been written if Webb had played a different song. Webb didn’t testify, and the only witness at the one-day trial was the deputy, Somberg said. Deliberations were short: The jury came back with a not guilty verdict after nine minutes, Somberg said. He’s surprised it even took that long.

“I think someone went and used the bathroom or something,” Somberg said. “The jury was shaking their heads the entire time, looking at the cop like, ‘what a liar.’ ”

Somberg said the officer told the court Webb’s loud music disturbed his ability to conduct a traffic stop. Asked if he would have written the same ticket if Webb had been blaring “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” the officer said yes, according to Somberg.

“Nobody bought that,” Somberg said.

Somberg represented Webb in the case pro bono after seeing Webb’s ticket go viral on social media. But when Somberg first saw the ticket, he didn’t realize it had been written so close to home.

“I thought it was just something stupid from the internet,” Somberg said. “Nope, it was right here.”

The deputy wrote in a report that his ticket had nothing to do with the song choice, WDIV reported.

“I explained to James that I was not offended by his choice of music and or the song he chose to play while at the gas station,” the report said, according to WDIV. “I explained to James that his choice of music and the language in the music might be offensive to other patrons at the gas station.”

The person the officer had originally pulled over spoke to WJBK earlier this year, offering another take on the situation.

“The cop was talking to me, handing me my ticket, and was like ‘is he playing that for me?’” Dejuante Franklin told WJBK. ‘I was like ‘I don’t know him, you ask him that question.’ He was like ‘I’m sick of this … I’m going over there now.’”

Somberg said prosecutors should have dismissed the charge, but pushed it to trial because “they’ve got money to burn.”

McClatchy has reached out to prosecutors for comment on Tuesday.

This story was originally published December 12, 2018 at 8:57 AM.