The Game, the Grammy Award-nominated rapper, was arrested in Manhattan last week after he told a livery cab driver that he was a police officer in a hurry and ordered him to run red lights, the police said yesterday.
The police said Mr. Taylor told the driver he was an officer, flashed a badge and ordered the driver to speed through red lights because he needed to get somewhere quickly. The driver did as he was told, until he was pulled over by the police at West 43rd Street and Avenue of the Americas, the authorities said. After the driver told the police why he had run the lights, Mr. Taylor was arrested and given a desk appearance ticket, which means he was released on his own recognizance but must appear before a judge within 30 days, the police said.
The driver was not charged. Mr. Taylor’s lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, disputed the police version of events and said his client was innocent. “This whole case is so ludicrous,” Mr. Lichtman said in an interview yesterday. “I’m stunned that they would actually make a case out of it.”
Mr. Lichtman said that Mr. Taylor, who is from California, had been followed by police officers throughout his stay in New York. On Thursday evening, after Mr. Taylor, his tour manager and another man had gotten into the cab, the driver saw he was being followed and began driving erratically, he said. “He starts freaking out and drives like a maniac,” Mr. Lichtman said of the driver.
Mr. Lichtman said his client did not try to pass himself off as an officer and does not have any police-type badge. He said he found it hard to believe anyone would believe Mr. Taylor, who has tattoos on his face, is a police officer. “This case is either going to be dismissed completely or this will be an embarrassing loss for the N.Y.P.D. at trial,” he said.
The police stood behind their version of the incident. “He was arrested for the stated behavior, which included impersonating a police officer,” said the police department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne.
New York police believe that a feud between Mr. Taylor and his onetime rap ally, 50 Cent, led to shootings one night in February 2005 outside the Manhattan studio of Hot 97, a hip-hop radio station, and a Midtown office building. One man was injured.
Mr. Taylor’s new album, “Doctor’s Advocate,” was released on Tuesday. As his David Letterman performance was being broadcast on television, Mr. Taylor was sitting in a holding cell, Mr. Lichtman said
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