UPDATE: Nelly Was Targeted for Arrest After Winning Casino Jackpots — Attorney

Posted on: August 8, 2024, 07:14h. 

Last updated on: August 9, 2024, 09:52h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas.

UPDATE: A lawyer for Nelly told TMZ on Thursday that the rapper was “targeted by an overzealous, out of line officer” after trying to cash in several jackpots he won at a St. Louis casino early Wednesday, and that his arrest was unlawful.

According to attorney Scott Rosenblum, an officer supervising the transactions told Nelly that a background check needed to be performed for him to collect. Rosenblum said his client recognized the request as bogus since he had collected multiple previous jackpots at the Hollywood Casino St. Louis without submitting to background checks.

The check was conducted anyway, turning up the 2018 bench warrant for, as we reported below, driving without insurance. According to Rosenblum, it was only because Nelly was famous that he was taken into custody instead of handed a citation for the infraction.

After Nelly was paraded through the casino, Rosenblum said, his belongings were searched without probable cause, which is when four ecstasy pills were discovered.

Though the Missouri Highway Patrol, which stations troopers from the state’s gaming division at the Hollywood Casino, claimed that Nelly was booked for felony drug possession, Rosenblum claimed his client wasn’t charged with drug possession and that the case will lead nowhere — except possibly to an inquiry into the arresting officer’s conduct.

EARLIER: Nelly was arrested early Wednesday morning at the Hollywood Casino in Maryland Heights, Mo., a suburb of his hometown of St. Louis. According to online arrest records, the 49-year-old rapper was charged with possessing ecstasy, which is a controlled substance, and driving without insurance.

Nelly, whose eyes appear red in this mug shot, was arrested Wednesday morning at the Hollywood Casino in suburban St. Louis. (Image: Maryland Heights Police Department)

A Missouri State Highway Patrol arrest report for Cornell I. Haynes Jr., Nelly’s birth name, shows he was arrested at 4:45 a.m. for a bench warrant resulting from an outstanding traffic summons from 2018 — also for driving without insurance.

Upon searching his car, officers found four ecstasy pills. The “Hot in Herre” rapper was booked at the Maryland Heights Police Department and has since been released.

The Hollywood Casino St. Louis, owned by Gaming and Leisure Properties and operated by Penn Entertainment, has 120,000 square feet of gaming space, with 2,180 slot machines and 91 table games. (Image: Hollywood Casino St. Louis)

Nelly is actively touring. He most recently served as the opening act for Janet Jackson’s “Together Again” tour, the US leg of which wrapped on July 30 at Arizona’s Footprint Center. His next solo concert is scheduled for August 30 at the Walworth County Fairgrounds in Elkhorn, Wisc., followed by an appearance on September 1 at Wet Republic in Las Vegas.

Previous Arrests

In 2001, Nelly was arrested in St. Louis on drug-related charges, after he was reportedly found with a small amount of marijuana. He was briefly detained before being released.

In 2009, police conducting a traffic stop in Sierra Blanca, Texas found methamphetamine, marijuana, and a loaded firearm on Nelly’s tour bus. Nelly wasn’t charged with drug possession himself, but was cited for having the contraband on his bus.

In October 2017, Nelly was arrested in Auburn, Wash., and charged with second-degree rape. The allegations came from Monica Greene, a 22-year-old college student who called 911 claiming she was assaulted by Nelly on his tour bus while it was parked outside an area Walmart.

Prosecutors dropped the criminal case, citing the alleged victim’s refusal to cooperate. Greene sued Nelly and her civil case was settled for an undisclosed amount.

Nelly is married to R&B star Ashanti. The Grammy Award-winning artists first dated in 2003, then broke up a decade later. They spent another decade apart before reuniting in September 2023 and are now expecting their first child together.

Ashanti hasn’t posted to her Instagram account since April, when she announced the news of her pregnancy.