Judge Dismisses Fleeing Case Against Kodak Black

A Broward County judge on Tuesday, Sept. 8 dismissed the felony fleeing and eluding case against rapper Kodak Black, whose legal name is Bill Kapri, ruling that prosecutors failed to establish the essential elements of the charge stemming from a February incident in Pompano Beach, Fla. The case arose from a Feb. 27 encounter in which a Broward sheriff's deputy pulled alongside Kapri's parked pink Jeep Grand Cherokee near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. According to a probable cause affidavit, two armed men from the rapper's security team exited a minivan that arrived at the scene, and Kapri drove off as the deputy called for backup. Police located the vehicle roughly 10 minutes later with another man behind the wheel. A warrant was issued, and Kapri surrendered to authorities on May 14, pleading not guilty to fleeing and eluding and to resisting an officer without violence. In an August motion to dismiss, defense attorney Bradford Cohen argued the encounter was consensual and that no lawful stop ever occurred. The deputy never requested Kapri's license or insurance, never left his patrol vehicle, and never gave a lawful order in any meaningful way, the motion stated.