South Florida rapper Kodak Black was trying to hide oxycodone, not cocaine, prosecutors say, when he stuffed white powder in his mouth after police found him asleep at the wheel in Plantation last month.
The Broward State Attorney’s Office filed information Monday charging Black, whose legal name is Bill Kapri, with one count of possession of oxycodone and one count of tampering with or fabricating physical evidence, a month after the traffic stop that the rapper’s attorney says violated his constitutional rights.
His attorney, Bradford Cohen, is arguing that the rapper has a valid prescription for the drug. He told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that he plans to present evidence to that effect on Wednesday.
State Attorney’s Office spokesperson Paula McMahon told the Sun Sentinel that prosecutors spoke with one of the defense attorneys Tuesday morning and “will review any documentation the defense wants to send over.”
Black was originally arrested on charges of cocaine possession on Dec. 7 after a Plantation police officer found him asleep at the wheel, his Bentley SUV blocking the road, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The State Attorney’s Office never formally filed cocaine charges.
When the officer approached the car, he smelled “a strong odor of burnt cannabis” and alcohol, according to the affidavit. He spoke with Black, now awake, and then returned to his patrol car. When he and a backup officer returned to Black’s car, he noticed that Black’s mouth was full of white powder.
The powder field-tested positive for cocaine, according to the affidavit, and officers arrested Black. Searching him, they found a plastic baggie with a small amount of a white substance in Black’s left pocket. The powder from the ground and in the bag weighed 4.1 grams.
As officers placed Black in handcuffs, he uttered that it was “Percocet,” the officer wrote in the affidavit, a common term used for oxycodone.
In a post on Instagram Tuesday morning, Cohen, accused the officer of lying and misrepresenting his observations.
“Unbelievable and it will not be tolerated,” Cohen wrote, describing it as an “abuse of power.” In a motion to suppress, he argued that the officer should not have initiated the traffic stop because Black was not actually blocking traffic at the time or intending to block traffic.
The officer “was relying solely on speculation and the mere possibility of future traffic obstruction,” the motion states.
Black has a history of legal troubles related to drug use. He was arrested on July 16, 2022, on charges of trafficking in oxycodone and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. He is required to take drug tests as part of his pre-trial release program.
Spokespeople for the Plantation Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
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