Game Busted for Playing Cop

Mon., Nov. 20, 2006 1:21 PM PST by Josh Grossberg

Forget Doctor's Advocate. The Game needs a legal advocate now.

The hip-hopster was arrested in the Big Apple Thursday night and charged with impersonating a police officer, his attorney confirmed to E! Online Monday.

The Game, aka Jayceon Taylor, was busted following an appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman. Accompanied by two pals, the Game hailed a livery cab and told the driver he was an undercover cop and ordered him to run red lights.

According to authorities, the Grammy-nominated rap star flashed a badge and demanded that the driver speed through traffic. After 13 blocks, the real New York's Finest managed to pull over the taxi. They took the Game into custody. He was issued a desk appearance ticket for impersonating a police officer and released later that night.

Taylor's lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, blasted the allegations as "ridiculous" and argued that it was actually the cops who were harassing his client.

"It's common knowledge, at least in the hip-hop community, that there's a hip-hop task force. Game's had the same six, eight, ten, twelve people following him since he got to New York," Lichtman tells E! Online. "They basically escorted him to the Letterman taping, and they were there when they got out. They were literally up his ass from when he was here."

The attorney said the tails became so ubiquitous that members of the 26-year-old emcee's entourage often gave out cigars to the undercovers keeping an eye on him. Lichtman also claimed that the arresting officers never found a police badge on the Game and called the situation a "misunderstanding" with a driver who barely spoke English and began freaking out and driving erratically.

"They say that he flashed a badge, yet, where's the badge? They didn't find one and the poor guy has to sit in a holding cell while his Letterman appearance is playing on TV," said Lichtman. "The whole thing's a complete joke to harass the guy. His case is going to be 100 percent dismissed, or it's going to be very punishing trial for the D.A.'s office."

A spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney's Office could not be reached for comment.

The NYPD has publicly admitted to setting up a special surveillance task force to investigate potential criminal activity by rappers, citing such high profile cases as the unsolved murders of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. in the mid-'90s; the unsolved killing of Run-D.M.C. beatmaster Jam Master Jay in 2002; and the indictment and 2005 acquittal of rap boss and Murder Inc. founder Irv "Gotti" and his brother Christopher for money laundering.

New York authorities have theorized that the Compton-based Game's well publicized feud with former G-Unit cohort 50 Cent sparked a shooting outside Manhattan hip-hop radio station Hot 97 that left one man injured.

Lichtman told E! Online his client had nothing to do with the incident.

The Game, whose latest album, Doctor's Advocate, hit stores last week, is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 12.