KELIS won’t be bottling up her milkshake behind bars.
The R&B songbird is free and clear after a Miami judge on Thursday tossed out charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest stemming from her arrest last year for allegedly interfering with a Miami Beach police operation.
In a statement, Kelis said she was “thrilled that justice prevailed in the end,” chalked up the arrest to “racial profiling” and vows to sue the police.
The singer, born Kelis Rogers-Jones, was taken into custody in March 2007 after authorities claimed she disrupted an investigation by running toward two female undercover officers posing as prostitutes on South Beach and shouted racial epithets at them.
Kelis, who was with her rapper-husband, Nas, at the time, was booked on one count of disorderly conduct and another count of resisting arrest without violence. Nas was not charged.
After reviewing the case, Miami-Dade County Judge Antonio Arzola cleared the Milkshake purveyor after ruling the charges couldn’t be substantiated.
“The only basis for granting her a judgment acquittal is if there’s no evidence whatsoever a jury could find her guilty,” Kelis’ attorney, Ira Loewy, told E! News. “In this case…you can’t arrest someone for questioning police authority or protesting an action.
“She was engaged in a constitutionally protected right to protest this police action.”
There was no immediate comment from prosecutors or the police.
Loewy said that Kelis and Nas will file a civil suit against the Miami Beach Police Department, alleging her civil rights were violated by her unlawful arrest.
“We’ll draft a civil rights complaint and hopefully get this filed within the next few weeks or couple of months,” the lawyer said. “She was detained illegally, and her rights under the Fourth and First Amendment were violated. She was slandered by the police press releases that came out. It was totally given out to attack her reputation…and was totally false.”
For her part, Kelis said she wants to make an example out of the officers who busted her.
“Unfortunately, most victims learn to deal with this form of harassment in their daily lives because they feel that they don’t have a voice or because they’re not able to absorb the costs to legally fight it in court,” she said.
“I hope that this sheds light on the fact that wearing a uniform and carrying a badge does not allow you to act above the law.”
