Tommy Lee Sparta is out of lock-up, but his attorney says the fight is not over as he plans to sue the state for the artist’s wrongful detainment.
Legal counsel for dancehall artist Tommy Lee Sparta says he will file a lawsuit against the state for keeping his client in custody with “absolutely no justification.” According to The STAR, attorney Ernest Smith is committed to taking it further after Tommy Lee, whose real name is Leroy Russell, was held at the Freeport Lock-up in St. James for over a month.
“The tribunal handed down their findings today (Monday) and I received an email at 11:59 a.m. with the details,” Smith told the publication. “The tribunal ruled that the evidence was insufficient to keep Leroy Russell detained in the interest of public safety and that he should be released immediately. That means that whether or not the SOE was disbanded, my client would have been set free,” the attorney said.
Ernest Smith, Tommy Lee Sparta’s lawyer, went on to share more details on the entertainer’s progress, including his mature response to a question about avenging his daughter’s shooting. “During one of the question-and-answer sessions, they brought up the fact that his little daughter had been shot and asked if he wasn’t going to seek vengeance. Tommy Lee told them that he has asked the Lord to protect his child and that vengeance belongs to God. I was so proud of him,” the lawyer said.
Smith strongly believes that Tommy Lee Sparta’s detainment was driven by longstanding malice and not evidence. This is reportedly the third time that the deejay has been called in for questioning in four years. His lawyer recalls one incident six years ago when he was acquitted of baseless charges against him.
“In 2014, the police from St James carried out a raid on his house in Kingston and accused him of lottery scamming,” Smith said. “He went to court and was acquitted on a no-case submission, which only highlighted the weakness of the prosecution’s case.” Smith intends to file a lawsuit for false imprisonment and loss of income. While Tommy Lee has appeared on several dancehall albums during his detainment, he has lost revenue from shows, according to his attorney.
Smith revealed that the dancehall star lost millions of dollars from shows he was booked for in Western parishes where cops forced promoters to removed him from lineup. “Promoters were threatened that they would not receive permits to host the events unless they removed his name off the poster,” the lawyer said.
Smith added that Tommy Lee Sparta was also “named persona non grata by the US Embassy because of the file that the police has created on him.”
Tommy Lee Sparta was released from police lock-up on Monday (August 17) after being held under the state of public emergency since July 7.
