Rick Ross turned himself in to Miami Beach police early Thursday morning and was charged with felony battery by strangulation and misdemeanor battery tied to domestic violence. He was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center at 6:10 a.m. and later posted a $6,000 bond to get out.
The bond was split into $5,000 on the felony count and $1,000 on the misdemeanor charge, putting a price on allegations that now move from the police booking desk to the courtroom. Ross is due for arraignment on October 22, the next formal step in a case that has already put his name back at the center of a domestic violence complaint.
What set the arrest in motion was a complaint from a woman who told police the alleged assault happened on August 28, after Ross woke her up over a photo she had been tagged in on social media. She said he slapped her in the face, accused her of seeing other men, struck her in the chest several times, choked her until she could not breathe, yanked her ponytail and pushed her against a wall. Police said she showed photos of her injuries.
That account runs straight into the statement from Ross's lawyers, Steve Sadow and Bradley Horenstein, who said he is innocent and has pled not guilty. The charge sheet, though, is serious enough on its own: felony battery by strangulation alongside a misdemeanor battery count related to domestic violence. The arrest affidavit has not been released, so the public record is still limited to the complaint, the charges and the bond.
For Ross, the case arrives with older baggage attached. He pleaded no contest to assault charges in Georgia in 2017 stemming from a 2015 arrest involving an attack on a groundskeeper at his Fayette County estate. Separate from the arrest, Jazzma Kendrick posted Instagram Stories on Saturday alleging abuse by Rick Ross and shared a photo of her injured lip with the caption, 'The day Rick busted my lip and the day I left.' In those posts, she wrote, 'He saw a punching bag' and warned, 'If a man hits you one time, he will do it again.'
The next date that matters is October 22. By then, the public will know whether the case stays locked inside the filing language of the charges or starts to turn on evidence that has not yet been made public.
