"That's what I'm talking about - dismissed!" he
called out in a Manhattan courtroom after a judge did just that to the
misdemeanor case, which had prompted some choice words about police from the
"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" actor.
"Like I said from the gate, I never broke the
law," Ice-T said as he left court with his wife, Coco, a model.
Ice-T, 52, was arrested after a traffic stop of his 2009
Cadillac on Manhattan's West Side on July 20; he and his wife were on the road
after taking their bulldog, Spartacus, to a vet for knee surgery. Police said
they pulled the entertainer over for not wearing a seatbelt - which he contests
- and a routine check showed his license was suspended.
He said he had a valid New Jersey driver's license and
took to Twitter to call the officer who arrested him a "punk," and a
few considerably less polite things, for "arresting the Notorious Ice T
for no seatbelt."
The actor has played Detective Fin Tutuola on "Law
and amp; Order: SVU" since 2000, but he hasn't always identified with
police: His 1992 song "Cop Killer" drew protests from police groups,
among others. He said the song was an attempt to shed light on police brutality
but ultimately agreed to remove the track from his album "Body
Count." Prosecutors said Tuesday that New York Department of Motor
Vehicles records wrongly reflected that his license was suspended because of a
lack of insurance, when his car is in fact insured and registered in New
Jersey.
Ice-T, born Tracy Marrow, registered and insured his
three cars in New Jersey after moving there from New York in 2008 and turned in
his New York license plates, said his lawyer, Eric Franz. He said the actor's
business managers sent that information to the New York DMV shortly after his
move.
But it was "not reflected in the Department of Motor
Vehicles' computerized records," Manhattan Assistant District Attorney
Jessica Barron told a judge.
DMV representatives didn't immediately return a telephone
call.
Ice-T said he had no clue his license had been marked as
suspended.
"That's why I was so angry," he said. "It
basically turned out to be a clerical error." He took to Twitter again to
let fans know the case was dismissed and thumb his nose at "all the haters
that wished against me."
