Tory Lanez was handcuffed and taken into custody in a Los Angeles courtroom Tuesday after a judge found he violated protective orders in his felony assault case involving allegations he shot Megan Thee Stallion in her feet nearly two years ago.
Judge David Herriford revoked Lanez’s prior bail of $250,000 and raised it to $350,000 after hearing nearly an hour of arguments and finding that Lanez violated court orders prohibiting him from contacting or harassing Megan or discussing any discovery in the case with outside parties.
The “Say It” rapper had a bondsman with him for the morning hearing and spent about five hours in custody. Once he was processed and released, he climbed behind the wheel of a waiting Lamborghini, telling Rolling Stone he felt “amazing,” before he drove off.
Lanez, whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, has pleaded not guilty in the high profile case dating back to July 2020. He appeared in court wearing a black tuxedo jacket over a black turtleneck and was accompanied by his father and several friends.
His lawyer, Shawn Holley, argued Lanez did not provide a third-party Twitter user and YouTube personality known as DJ Akademiks with any discovery in the case before Akademiks tweeted Feb. 23 that “Tory Lanez DNA was not found on the weapon in the Meg Thee Stallion case.”
“What he said is incorrect,” Holley told the court Tuesday, referring to the now-deleted tweet that caused a social media firestorm. “What (DJ Akademiks) said is that the DNA was not found on the weapon. And in fact, the swab of the gun indicates ‘inconclusive,’ that there were four contributors.”
Holley also referred to a follow-up Feb. 23 tweet from DJ Akademiks that read, “I saw this doc myself.. it literally says it was inconclusive in finding Tory DNA on the gun or magazine.” Holley argued that also was false because “the swab of the magazine indicates Mr. Peterson was excluded.”
“If he had seen this document, he presumably would have got it right,” she argued, calling the tweets “chatter” in “a medium that is almost inherently unreliable.”
“The court cannot conclude the defendant distributed anything, however it does appear that he violated the order that prohibits him from making any statements regarding discovery,” Judge Herriford said, referring to follow-up posts from Peterson, including one that read, “Ak is telling no lies.”
Holley argued that Megan also has used her sizable social media presence to talk about the case, and some of her comments have been “damaging” to Peterson. But Deputy District Attorney Kathy Ta argued Peterson’s purported endorsement of the DJ Akademiks DNA tweets was “his way of getting ahead and manipulating the narrative.” She said Megan has “been getting death threats” and has been “harassed constantly” due to Peterson’s “course of conduct.”
Judge Herriford remanded Peterson to sheriff’s custody with the higher bond after saying prosecutors’ request to lock the musician up with no bail was “extreme.” The judge added a new “crystal clear” condition of release, stating that Peterson “cannot mention the complaining witness in this case in any social media.”
“The DA requested no bail or, in the alternative, $5 million bail, and the court rejected those arguments and increased bail to $350,000. And that bail is being posted now,” Holley said after the hearing.
“I’m here because this is my son. I’m the first person outside anyone present that day to hear about this. I believe in him. I believe in his innocence,” Peterson’s dad, Sonstar Peterson, tells Rolling Stone.
The high-profile case is now speeding toward a tentative Sept. 14 trial after a prior judge decided at a preliminary hearing in December that prosecutors had enough evidence to warrant calling a jury.
At the December hearing, an LAPD detective testified that Peterson allegedly fired a semiautomatic 9mm handgun at the…
Read More: Tory Lanez Violated Orders in Megan Thee Stallion Assault Case: Judge