Nelly was arrested in connection with suspected drug possession on Wednesday (07.08.24) - but his lawyer has claimed he was "targeted by an overzealous, out of line officer" and is "confident this case will go nowhere".
Nelly was arrested on Wednesday
The 49-year-old rapper was detained in Maryland Heights, a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, after he was cited for driving without insurance, which led to the alleged discovery of ecstasy.
He was taken into custody at 4.45am, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s arrest report.
However, the 'Hot in Herre' hitmaker's lawyer, Scott Rosenblum, told the DailyMail.com that his client "was not charged with drug possession", and confirmed he was arrested for no proof of insurance, from 2018 on a warrant issued [in] December 2023.
Rosenblum claims Nelly - whose real name is Cornell Iral Haynes Jr. - had received "no notice" about the warrant, and alleged he was "targeted by an overzealous, out of line officer".
Nelly had been spending the evening at the Hollywood Casino and Hotel, which is based in the St. Louis suburb, where he won "several jackpots".
Rosenblum has claimed the police officer who arrested his client "felt compelled to needlessly run a check for warrants" rather than "supervising the transfer of winnings", and the officer then "conducted a search without probable cause where he claimed to have found alleged ecstasy in [Nelly's] personal property".
The lawyer added in a statement: "Under similar circumstances, assuming there was an old warrant without any notice to the individual for no proof of insurance, any other citizen would have been told to address it and allowed to go on their way.
"It is also important to note that Mr. Haynes, as part of the requirements to travel internationally, is regularly asked to supply proof of no warrants. Including FBI checks. There were none.
"I am 100 per cent confident this case will go nowhere. And we will be asking for an inquiry into this officer’s conduct."
In June, it was revealed Nelly and singer-songwriter Ashanti, 43, had been married for months.
The couple rekindled their romance in 2023 after over a decade apart and in April, the pair revealed they were engaged and expecting their first child together, but it has since emerged they actually tied the knot long before they made the announcement.
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