Jay-Z’s Team Roc Repping Black Man Wrongfully Arrested At Wisconsin Applebee’s
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Jay-Z continues to ensure that his hip-hop billionaire status helps people in need.
Team ROC, his company’s philanthropic and social justice leg, has once again signed up to help pay for someone’s lawyer fees.
With the help of lawyer Alex Spiro, Team ROC will represent Jermelle English Jr., who was arrested in a Kenosha, Wisconsin Applebee’s after being mistaken for suspects in a nearby hit-and-run.
A Black couple and a child reportedly got into an accident and ran towards the Applebee’s. Once cops entered the restaurant, employees pointed them to English Jr., who was with his family. Video, captured by an employee, shows that English Jr. was holding a baby when cops approached him.
“He tried to go the other way, and they eventually tackled him into a wall, and the baby had his head on the wall. They had at least four cops on his back,” said restaurant manager Jennifer Harris. “At least a cop or two, each grabbing his arm. And still, one cop punching him over and over again in his face.”
Witnesses say the man was in the restaurant with his family before the case of mistaken identity.
Police later realized that English Jr. and his family had nothing to do with the car accident and later found the actual people trying to evade the police in the Applebee’s bathroom.
However, while English Jr. was proven not to be the culprit, he was still charged with disorderly conduct, resisting and obstructing an officer. Shanya Boyd, the woman he was with, got hit with the same charges and possession of marijuana. Spiro is looking to get all charges dropped.
“The reckless arrest of Jermelle English Jr. and the careless endangerment of his infant child by the Kenosha Police Department is an absolute travesty,” Team ROC’s managing director Dania Diaz said in a statement. “The Team ROC team is here to support Jermelle and his family through this traumatic experience, demand justice and hold the Kenosha police officers accountable.”
The Kenosha police have since launched an internal investigation into the incident while Spiro muddles over filing civil lawsuits.
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