Rapper SpotemGottem’s lawyer is suing the Dallas Police Department for lying about their client.
The attorney claims that the force has falsely identified his client as an accomplice in a local murder.
Raven Liberty, who is representing the “Most Wanted” rapper noted that the Homicide Detective Patty Belew was the person who publicly inserted her client into the crime.
Via a statement she wrote, “The libelous statements made by Det. Belew originated from her misunderstanding about a YouTube ‘rap video’ (in fact, a livestream) that Det. Belew claimed was about the death of Reginald Agnew, Jr and taunted the Dallas Police Department.”
She also stated that a “simple Google search” would have quickly set the record straight on SpotemGottem.
Belew went to the press with her bias speculations and stated while pointing to the artist’s social media as proof of her assertions, “That is very bold acting like, ‘Hey, we did this. The police don’t even know who did this and we’re going to get away with murdering this young man.’”
She was wrong about the 19-year-old and had to backtrack on her statements.
“My job is to investigate the information provided to me and eliminate anyone from considering of who could be a potential suspect (s),” she wrote. “I don’t want to ever give up investigating a case. Although I may get other cases, in the back of my mind, I’m still thinking about the other case I have not solved yet.”
Liberty’s full statement is as follows:
“Over the last five days, multiple attempts to contact the Dallas Police Department have been made in an effort to address the reckless, false statements made by Dallas Homicide Detective Patty Belew to Fox4News (KDFW) regarding the involvement of Nehemiah Harden a/k/a Spottemgottem in the death of Reginal Agnew, Jr. Finally, this morning, the Dallas Police Department made contact with my office confirming that Mr. Harden is cleared in the investigation of the murder of Reginal Agnew, Jr. The libelous statements made by Det. Belew originated from her misunderstanding about a YouTube “rap video” (in fact, a live stream) that Det. Belew claimed was about the death of Reginald Agnew, Jr and taunted the Dallas Police Department. Rather than conduct any investigation—a simple Google search would have clarified her error—Det. Belew rushed to speak to the press, openly disparaging my client and linking him to a homicide. Further, Fox4News failed to conduct any fact-checking prior to airing this malicious television interview that named Mr. Harden as a key figure in a murder investigation. To date, neither the Dallas Police Department or Fox4News have issued an apology or retracted the fraudulent and damaging story. This follows days of requests to correct this shocking recklessness as the story disparaging my client and linking him to a murder spread like wildfire. This story has now gone viral around the world with follow-on press reports in the United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, and India, in addition to millions of impressions made through social media. Given the irreparable harm to my client’s reputation, the foot-dragging in acknowledging their outright false statements, and the outright negligence by speaking authoritatively on a homicide investigation prior to conducting basic due diligence, I am in the process of filing a lawsuit.”
SpotemGottem has not said anything publicly about the case.
