A$AP Rocky’s trial: Quirky judge, lawyers nearly fighting, compliments for mom

LOS ANGELES (AP):

The trial of rapper A$AP Rocky is progressing according to standard legal procedure, but there have been no lack of unusual moments, from visits from Rihanna to a tough-but-quirky judge and lawyers nearly coming to blows.

Testimony is expected to last another week before jurors will decide Rocky’s fate on two counts of assault with a semi-automatic firearm.

Here are some of the out-of-the-ordinary moments.

Waiting For Rihanna

From the moment it became clear that the case was going to trial, nearly everyone involved was asking the same thing: What about Rihanna?

Even Judge Mark Arnold asked it at a hearing: “Will the mother of his children be there?”

Her name came up constantly during jury selection, yet when the singing superstar finally did show up on Wednesday she was easy to miss.

Reporters walked past her inside the courtroom without noticing she was already sitting between Rocky’s mother and sister. She had been brought in through restricted entrances.

She appeared again on Thursday, and by Friday, she slipped inthrough a public entrance about 30 minutes into the testimony. Later that day she entered the courtroom together with Rocky for the first time.

Attorneys in the Octagon

Court observers knew that when Deputy District Attorney John Lewin joined the prosecution shortly before trial, he and Rocky’s equally bullish attorney, Joe Tacopina, were sure to butt heads. They weren’t wrong.

Their shouting matches began quickly, and without judge or jury present, the two had to be separated by a fellow lawyer when they went nose to nose in a fierce face-off.

“Mr Tacopina started literally screaming at me in the courtroom. He basically appeared to challenge me to a fight,” Lewin told the judge later.

Tacopina responded. “No one screamed. You weren’t there, Your Honour. Mr Lewin comes up with his little scolding, bullying attitude.”

Arnold forbade the two from talking to each other, except on the record.

Days later s fiercer fight broke out in front of the judge. Lewin shouted that the defence’s assertion that Rocky was carrying a prop gun was “garbage”.

“Oh?! Oh?!” Tacopina yelled. “We’ll see what the jury says at the end!”

“You don’t know me! But you will learn!” Tacopina yelled.

The judge walked out, saying, “That’s it, we’re off the record.”

the quirks of the key witness

The testimony of A$AP Relli, Rocky’s accuser, was dark and difficult but brought a couple of oddly light moments.

At one point, Deputy District Attorney Paul Przelomiec asked him how far away Rocky was at a certain moment.

“About three or four skips,” Relli said.

“I’ve never heard about anyone estimating with skips,” Przelomiec said.

“Wait, what does a skip mean?” the judge asked.

“You don’t know what I mean?” Relli asked.

They determined for the record that it was about seven to eight feet.

A$AP’s mother and sister at trial

Rocky’s mother, Renee Black, and his sister, Erika Mayers, garnered their own share of attention.

On day one Arnold asked Rocky who the women in his section were.

“That’s my mother and my sister,” Rocky said.

“What were you, seven when you had him?” the judge asked. She said she was 26.

“You are very beautiful,” the judge told her. “That’s on the record.”