Rapper Rick Ross is accused of forcing a man into a guesthouse at his
suburban-Atlanta mansion and beating him in the head with a handgun,
chipping his teeth and mangling his jaw so badly that he’s unable to
chew food, authorities say in court records.
Ross was taken into
custody Wednesday by a US Marshals Service fugitive task force and
sheriff’s deputies at the mansion in Fayette County, south of Atlanta.
Ross,
39 — whose real name is William Roberts — was jailed without bail on
kidnapping, aggravated assault and aggravated battery charges, said Jim
Joyner, a supervisor with the Marshals Service task force.
Ross’
bodyguard, 42-year-old Nadrian James, faces kidnapping and aggravated
battery charges stemming from the same incident, arrest warrants state.
The June 7 attack left the man with injuries that included two chipped teeth and a neck injury, authorities said.
“The
victim lost use of his jaw and is restricted to soft foods and liquid
diet only as a result of not being able to chew food,” an arrest warrant
states.
Ross and James are both accused of forcing the man into
the guesthouse, down a hallway and into a bedroom, resulting in the
kidnapping charges. Both are also accused of assaulting him.
Ross
also faces an aggravated assault charge involving a Glock handgun. He’s
accused of using the gun to strike the man in the head and body, and
also pointing the weapon at him.
“The victim was then questioned under duress and forced to answer questions at gunpoint,” one of the arrest warrants states.
The
court papers do not indicate what led to the attack, nor do they
outline the relationship between Ross, the bodyguard and the man who was
injured.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Ross and James have
attorneys who could be contacted for comment. A message left at Maybach
Music Group, Ross’ record label, was not returned on Wednesday morning.
When
officers armed with the arrest warrants showed up at the mansion, once
owned by boxer Evander Holyfield, someone inside refused to open the
gate leading to the home, authorities said.
“They refused to open the gate, so we opened the gate for them,” Joyner said.
Once
officers got past the gate, someone inside opened the front door so
they didn’t have to break it down, Joyner said. Ross and the bodyguard
were then taken into custody without incident, Joyner said.
“They didn’t put up a struggle or anything,” he said.
Ross
made an initial appearance before a magistrate judge on Wednesday
morning and the judge denied bail, Fayette County sheriff’s spokesman J.
Allen Stevens said.
It was second time in the past two weeks Ross
has been arrested in Fayette County. On June 10, Ross was booked into
the county jail on a misdemeanour charge of marijuana possession.
In
that case, Ross and a passenger were pulled over because the windows of
the Bentley in which they were riding violated tinting regulations,
Stevens, the sheriff’s spokesman, said at the time. The officer smelled
marijuana and found some inside the car, Stevens said.
Of Ross’ seven albums, five have debuted at No 1 on Billboard’s Top 200 chart and four have reached gold status.
He is particularly known for his 2010 single Aston Martin Music.
A
Florida Department of Corrections spokesman confirmed Wednesday — and
Ross has previously said — that he worked as a correctional officer at a
Miami prison in the mid-1990s.
The department supplied a record
showing Ross worked at an institution called the South Florida Reception
Centre from December 29, 1995, through June 16, 1997.
