Dr. Dre Wins Lawsuits

Dr. Dre's lawsuits against the cities of Detroit and Auburn Hills have been settled, the rapper's attorney said Wednesday. Dr. Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, filed the lawsuits in July 2000, accusing the cities and their officials of censorship by threatening to arrest him and organizers if he aired a sexually explicit video at a concert that month.
The settlements include written apologies from Mayor Dennis Archer and the City of Auburn Hills, and First Amendment training for police officers in each city, Dre attorney Herschel Fink said.

A spokesman for the Detroit mayor expressed the mayor's satisfaction with the settlements, reiterating that the city did not admit guilt in the matter and that the settlement figure was far less than the millions originally sought by Dr. Dre. It appears to be somewhat of a win-win situation, considering that Dr. Dre was justified in his claims of unlawful censorship against the cities and that the citing police officers were to receive specific training focused on handling similar issues in the future.

The explicit material in question was a 7-minute video that was to air during Dr. Dre's performance at the Joe Louis arena in 2000. Police were made aware of the sexual content contained in the video, including exposed breasts, and barred the video from airing at the show. Although a similar attempt to censor the "Up in Smoke" show was made at Auburn Hills on the following night, a court injunction prevented the police from stopping the airing of the video. Instead, police issued a citation against the hosting arena immediately following the show.