Rapper Rick Ross arrested on domestic violence charges

The rapper Rick Ross was arrested Thursday morning in Miami, Florida, on domestic violence related charges, authorities confirmed to CNN.

Ross, whose legal name is William Leonard Roberts, was booked into Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center at 6:10 a.m. Thursday morning, according to information provided by the Miami-Dade Corrections and Rehabilitation Department.

Bail was set at $5,000 for one count of battery by strangulation and one count of battery, with both being connected to domestic violence.

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Steve Sadow, an attorney for Ross, said in a statement that the rapper “is being wrongfully accused by an ex-girlfriend whose true motivations are unclear.”

“The ex did not even file a police report until a month after the claimed incident allegedly took place. Mr. Roberts is innocent and has pled not guilty to the charges,” the statement read. “He respectfully requests that his friends, fans and the general public not prejudge the situation and allow the judicial process to run its course.”

The charges come days after the 50-year-old rapper’s former girlfriend, model and content creator Jazzma Kendrick, accused him of physically assaulting her.

On September 26, Kendrick, 39, posted a photo to her Instagram stories showing her with an injured lip, writing: “I don’t know a lot of things, but I do know that a man that puts his hands on me, is a man that never loved me and never will.” In another photo posted to her Instagram stories, she wrote: “The day Rick busted my lip and the day I left.”

Kendrick did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ross is a longtime Miami resident with a mansion on Star Island in Miami Beach. He also has a palatial estate in Atlanta that he has dubbed “The Promise Land.”

The entrepreneur and artist, who is best known for hits including “Hustlin’” and for founding a record label called the Maybach Music Group, has had legal issues before.

In 2015, Ross was charged with kidnapping, aggravated assault, and aggravated battery for allegedly pistol-whipping a groundskeeper of his Atlanta estate.

He reportedly pled no contest to one felony count of aggravated assault, was sentenced to time served in jail for the one week he served and was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

Ross is scheduled for arraignment on October 22 for the Miami, Florida, case.

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