The Rick Ross bond hearing Thursday morning turned when his lawyer reminded the judge his client was famous, and she made it clear that meant nothing in her courtroom.
Video:
Ross, whose legal name is William Leonard Roberts II, appeared by video in a red jail outfit hours after surrendering to Miami Beach police. He is charged with felony battery by strangulation and misdemeanor battery, both domestic violence charges, over an August 28 incident with the girlfriend he lived with at his Star Island home.
His attorney Bradley Horenstein told Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer that Ross had turned himself in. Then he told her Ross is a celebrity and asked that his release be expedited. Glazer asked him, “So, what does that mean?” Then she turned to Ross. “Hi Mr. Roberts, I have no idea who you are except as somebody here in the court who’s going to be treated fairly just like everybody else here,” she said.
Glazer said she had reviewed the arrest report and found probable cause, which means there is enough evidence for the case to move forward. She also called it a delayed report, since the woman went to police on September 29, a month after the alleged attack.
In the report, the woman told police Ross woke her up enraged because she had been tagged in a photo on Instagram. She said he slapped her, choked her until she could not breathe by twisting the collar of her hoodie, grabbed her by the ponytail and slammed her into a wall, and struck her in the face, leaving her with a busted lip. She gave detectives photos of her injuries with time stamps from that morning.
At the Rick Ross bond hearing, Glazer set bond at $4,000 on the strangulation charge and $1,000 on the battery charge, for a total of $5,000. She ordered him to stay away from the woman, including contacting her through social media. He also has to surrender his firearms and concealed weapons, cannot have a gun while the case is open, and was ordered not to commit any crimes or use illegal drugs. Ross bonded out later Thursday morning.
The social media part of that order lands differently given what Ross posted after the alleged attack. The next day, he shared security camera footage to his Instagram story of the friend who came to pick his girlfriend up, with the caption “When u see this face, you know it’s bad” and laughing and crying emojis. The story has since been deleted.
Outside court, Horenstein stuck to the defense. “All I can say is that the allegations are false. He’s innocent. Everything is going to come out,” he said, asking the public to let the process play out before rushing to judgment. Horenstein is representing Ross alongside Steve Sadow, the Atlanta attorney who led Trump’s defense in the Georgia election interference case. They filed a not guilty plea, and the Rick Ross bond conditions stay in place until his arraignment on October 22.