3 Men Acquitted on Charges of Kidnapping Rap Producer

A jury acquitted three men Wednesday who had spent nine months in jail awaiting trial on charges of kidnapping a rap music producer and demanding $10,000.

William Robert Frazier, Bernard Hendricks and Ladell Edward Rowles were acquitted of all charges. The defense alleged, in part, that the money was a legal debt owed by the producer, Daman Thomas.

Jurors interviewed by prosecutors said they did not believe the victim’s version of events, Deputy Public Defender Dror Toister said.

The three men were accused of demanding money at gunpoint from Thomas at his Encino home Dec. 19. When Thomas said he didn’t have the cash, the group allegedly held Thomas’ girlfriend and an employee hostage while he was taken to his bank to withdraw $10,000.

After taking him home and leaving with the money, the men said they would return.

When the three men showed up at his home again Jan. 9, Thomas saw them on his security monitor and called police, who arrested the men. They were unarmed.

“If my client came to extort money at gunpoint, why did he not have a gun when he returned on Jan. 9?” said Toister, who represented Frazier. “The jurors basically felt that there was no physical corroboration of the so-called victim’s testimony.”

Toister said his client and Hendricks had pitched a security deal to Thomas, who was apparently being threatened by a bodyguard who he had hired to collect a $190,000 debt from Death Row Records but had not paid for the job.

Toister said his client was collecting the $10,000 monthly security fee he was due for services.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Ken Loveman declined comment.