Community Corner

Judge Drops Charge Against Foxy Brown; Rapper to Sue for Malicious Prosecution

Rapper had been charged with contempt for allegedly mooning her St. Mark's Avenue neighbor last summer

A judge dismissed charges against rapper Foxy Brown this morning after the neighbor she was supposed to have mooned last summer said she no longer wished to testify.

When State Supreme Court Justice John Walsh dismissed the charges, the rapper lifted her arm in triumph to a crowd of cheering supporters in the courtroom and then hugged her attorneys.

The 32-year-old Prospect Heights resident, whose legal name is Inga Marchand, was charged with violating an order of protection by mooning neighbor Arlene Raymond during an argument last July. The trial was to begin today.

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Instead Assistant District Attorney Robert Isdith asked Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John Walsh to dismiss the charge, saying that Raymond wanted to put the incident “behind her.”

Glowing with relief outside the courthouse afterwards, Brown said she is planning to sue the city, the NYPD and the district attorney’s office for malicious prosecution.

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Brown’s attorney, Sal Strazzullo, said he would file a notice of intent today and added that Brown planned to ask for “anywhere between a million and 5 million dollars” for “damages” and “distress” caused by the case. 

“I was falsely arrested twice and slandered,” said Brown, who stood outside the State Supreme Courthouse wearing a short silver dress, black spiked heels, a pearl bracelet and sunglasses. She said the neighbor, Arlene Raymond, made up the mooning incident because she was jealous of her success.

Strazzullo said Brown did not moon Raymond, and had been planning to use as a defense the fact that she wasn’t wearing any underwear, because they would have shown panty lines in the dress she was wearing. When Raymond described the mooning, she said she was able to see Brown’s panties. 

“We were ready to fight,” said attorney Ikiesha Al Shabazz.

Brown had been issued the order of protection after pleading guilty in 2008 to “menacing” Raymond with her cell phone after the neighbor complained that the rapper was playing her car stereo too loudly.

The singer broke into the rap scene while still a teenager as a protégé of Jay-Z, releasing a debut CD, "Ill Na Na," in 1996, a platinum-selling album, "Chyna Doll," in 1999 and "Broken Silence" in 2001. But the rapper fell from stardom in recent years as she struggled with hearing loss as well as legal problems stemming from a hot temper, according to the Associated Press.

Outside the courthouse, Brown said her brush with the law is now behind her and was heading straight to the recording studio to work on her next album. 

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