LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: A detective who was integral to Canadian rapper Tory Lanez's trial has been "relieved of duty" according to the prosecutors just days before Lanez's trial on felony assault charges was set to begin. Lanez has been blamed for shooting rapper Megan Thee Stallion in Hollywood in July 2020 by former Los Angeles Police Detective Ryan Stogner who testified during pre-trial proceedings. However, Stogner may not be allowed to testify as he is no longer a part of the LAPD following domestic violence allegations against him.
Lanez, whose birth name is Daystar Peterson, is facing up to 22 years in prison after pleading not guilty to two felony assault charges, assault with a semiautomatic firearm, personal use of a firearm, and carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle brought on by the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office in October 2020. Lanez was also hit with a new charge of discharging a firearm with gross negligence relating to the conflict on Tuesday, December 6.
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The trial which is expected to last from 5 days to a week is set to begin on December 12 in Los Angeles at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center. Police responded to a conflict on the night of a party at Kylie Jenner's house in Los Angeles in which individuals arguing led to gunfire. According to the reports of TMZ, Megan, whose birth name is Megan Pete, initially told the police her feet were bleeding because she'd stepped on glass. But a couple of days later Lanez had been arrested on charges of carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle.
On July 15, 2020, Megan claimed that she had encountered a "traumatic" incident in which someone shot her "with the intention to physically harm" her. But at that time she did not reveal the details of the incident. Megan then claimed online that Lanez was the one that shot her in the foot in August 2020. After commenters accused her of lying, she posted graphic now-deleted photos of her injuries. "I didn't want the police to shoot me because there's a gun in the car", she said in an Instagram live video in August. "You think I'm about to tell the police that we, us black people, that we've got a gun in the car?" she added.
Lanez allegedly shouted "Dance, bitch!" while firing the gun at Megan according to Stogner's pre-trial testimony in December 2021. "[Megan] observed Mr. Peterson holding a firearm and then she observed him start to shoot," Stogner testified, according to Rolling Stone. "Megan immediately felt pain in her feet, observed blood, fell to the ground and then crawled to an adjacent driveway of a residence ... She described her injuries as bleeding profusely."
The Variety reported that Shawn Holley, an attorney for Lanez, accused Megan's perception of being impaired by drinking at the party and says one of the other individuals in the car could have shot her. "You never asked Megan how much she had to drink that day, did you?" Holley asked Stogner at the December 2021 hearing. The court was made aware that Stogner was no longer a part of the LAPD on Wednesday, December 7. The LAPD detective had faced domestic violence allegations that he was not prosecuted for. Jury selection came to a close on Thursday after three and a half days of the process.
Lanez's attorney, George Mgdesyan, argued that Stogner is "critical" to the case, according to a Wednesday pool report from jury selection. "Detective Stogner is one, if not the most important witness for the defense," Mgdesyan said, according to the report. "This is a detective who I will argue has botched the investigation ... He only chose to do certain things that were incriminating to my client." According to the Wednesday pool report, prosecutors said that they did not intend on calling on Stogner to testify, but Mgdesyan still intends to call him as a witness.
It is not clear if Stogner will be able to testify, and it's likely the court may carry out a hearing without the jury to establish whether getting fired will impact his testimony, per a Thursday pool report.
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