Is Tommy Lee Sparta being used as a scapegoat for crimes in Montego Bay?
Ever since Tommy Lee Sparta was implicated in a lottery scam bust in 2014, the artiste can’t seem to evade run-ins with the law. With this dark, controversial aesthetic, the “Rich Badness” deejay has proven to be a frequent target for authorities, despite departing his hostile Flanker community and the general Montego Bay environs for greener pastures in Kingston years ago. His legal woes have seemingly wandered away with him, as police have shut down over twenty of his performances and robbed him of a spot on Reggae Sumfest’s Dancehall Night exactly five years ago.
Last week, Tommy Lee was again named as a person of interest for the third time in four years before he was detained by police under the current state of emergency (SOE) in the St. James Parish. Attorney for the “Shook” deejay, Ernest Smith, claims his client “broke down in tears” at the repeated unfair targeting and has now declared that Sparta is being used as a scapegoat for law enforcement after investigators for case-related questioning last week failed to show.
Currently, in remand at the Freeport Police Station, Tommy Lee is receiving an outpouring of support from his team and fan base who have been active on social media about the cause. “We are asking for all supporters to either change their profile pictures on IG/FB and/or post on their feed to show solidarity while Mr. Leroy Junior Russell AKA Tommy Lee Sparta’s legal team focus on his freedom,” read the latest from his Instagram account. But Sparta’s attorney Ernest Smith is now convinced of the law enforcement’s malicious motives after interviews scheduled for Friday were spitefully and evasively stonewalled.
“A senior person from CTOC (the Counter-Terrorism and Organised Crime Unit) gave me assurances that he would be questioned today,” Smith said on Friday. “I wasted one whole day, the very persons who should have done the interviews were never informed. I was there from 11 o’clock yesterday. There were no interviews, no question-and-answer, and Superintendent Vernon Ellis, who we made the arrangements with, was conveniently absent from his office. C-TOC said no arrangements have been made to interview my client. My client is being used as a scapegoat, he has lost over $100 million in revenue because there are some cops who keep locking down his shows,” the irate litigator added.
Sparta can be held for up to 90 days without being charged under the current SOE, and his lawyer believes this latest setback stems from a personal tiff with one of the officers who has been on the deejay’s criminal case since 2014. In a 2017 OnStage interview with Winford Williams, Tommy Lee Sparta talked about the effect and extent of the frequent incriminating episodes.
“Mi wah know if it go stop crime , wah it go stop if dem try kill me or send me a prison, yuh know dem way deh? Mi feel comfortable round people but when it come on to how di police dem act more while and how dem try fi put mi to the public like me a trouble maker sometimes mi seh, ah wonda if dem ah try hurt me an dem ting deh?” Sparta said.
