ND Sheriff invites 500 people with outstanding warrants to fake Ozzy concert, Osbourne wants apology

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Ozzy angered by ND sheriff's sting

11/04/2007 1:04 AM, AP

Ozzy Osbourne wants an apology from the Cass County sheriff for staging a sting operation in the rocker's name without his permission.

Osbourne claims his reputation was tarnished when Sheriff Paul Laney invited 500 people with outstanding warrants to a phony party at a Fargo nightclub before the rocker's concert with Rob Zombie at a nearby arena. More than 30 showed up and were arrested.

"Instead of holding a press conference to pat himself on the back, Sheriff Laney should be apologizing to me for using my name in connection with these arrests," Osbourne said in a statement. "It is insulting to me and to my audience and it shows how lazy this particular sheriff is when it comes to doing his job," Osbourne said.

Laney said Friday that it's his job to arrest people with outstanding warrants. "We meant no disrespect toward Mr. Osbourne or his show," Laney said. "What we did was a very creative law enforcement technique to lure individuals who had active criminal warrants to come to us."

http://music.yahoo.com/read/news/12176616

[Deja Q]

1. Reputation as what, overrated sleazey devil worshipper jockey?

:hide:

[Droopy]

2. Ozzy's not a devil worshipper

His new music might be overrated, but he is one of the founding fathers of heavy metal so I'll cut him some slack. Sleazey? Yeah, but that's sort of a pre-requisite if you want to be a rock star. :)

[pokerfan]

10. Ozzy's great

I saw him in 1976 at a triple header:

Black Sabbath opened.
"Tad" Nugent was next. (yeah, I know)
Aerosmith was the finale.

I couldn't hear for a month.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

16. but i am sure ozzy gets laid.

and there atleast lies one difference.

[carly denise pt deux]

3. this doesnt surprise me.....up in the northern tier they can get away with this stuff

the people don't know any better, it's a different world in the northern plains

[krispos42]

9. Now now now...

I saw the police in I believe California do something similar with major-league sports tickets. Baseball or basketball, I forget which. They sent letters and two tickets to a wanted criminal's relative along with a letter about how that person had won them as part of a radio station promotion or some such story.

The family gets the tickets to the criminal one way or another, and a couple of weeks later the wanted crooks are being tossed into the back of a police cruiser after being grabbed between the turnstyle and the concession stands.

They did it with a couple of dozen pairs and nabbed quite a few of them.

[blockhead]

11. piss off.

why the fuck do you always slam us "northern tier" people?

[carly denise pt deux]

15. first off............

don't tell me to piss off...and don't curse at me...I am not "slamming" northern tier people, I am just making the observation that this arrest tactic has probably not been attempted in the state, so people would not be the wiser, and probably the sheriff didn't realize that he could be making Ozzy mad by associating his name with this tactic.

As for the northern tier being a different place, was I insulting ND? It is different there, less people, has it been changed by crime and violence that goes on in different parts of the country? not really too much. It's a more rural, slower paced area.I lived in ND a great deal of my life, now living in another part of the country.

Sorry if I offended...

[LanternWaste]

21. Same thing in TX, too.

Same thing in TX, too. However, rather than a used-up rock star as the bait, the local cops used "sweepstakes notifications" and an empty store-front.

But we're in the south-- it's a different world and we don't know any better (or something like that...)

[petronius]

4. If the sheriff made it seem Osbourne would be at the party or was supporting it in any way,

he does owe him an apology, and probably a "thank you" that an apology is all Osbourne is asking for. However, there's nothing wrong with the trick itself, as long as he's really going after serious criminal warrants and not everyone with a traffic ticket - he should just stick with the 'free boat' version.

[WindRavenX]

5. what bullshit

That sheriff sounds like a real asshole.

[regnaD kciN]

6. Ozzy should be pissed...

...after all, it might scare away that huge bloc of his audience with outstanding warrants. :evilgrin:

[Fire Walk With Me]

7. This is nothing.

Thousands of Donny Osmond fans were sent to jail in a similar sting. You don't tend to hear about it because he doesn't want to draw attention to it.

[jmowreader]

14. They were sent to jail just for being Donny Osmond fans...

[MrScorpio]

8. Ozzy deserves an apology

If I were Osborne, I'd be talking to some lawyers right about now about suing that asshole sheriff for fraud

[WileEcoyote]

13. No case

If it comes to trial by jury the locals will side with the Sheriff.

Besides it saved the tax payers some money.

[MrCoffee]

17. no fraud was perpetrated against Ozzy

[kay1864]

18. Fraud doesn't apply here

Only if money changes hands or for commercial gain. Unless they paid for tickets to the party, they wouldn't have a case. And I doubt it--usually these are free invitations.

[liberal hypnotist]

19. Ozzy is upset because only 30 people showed up for the free concert!

It the "Dog" was running it people would have showed up, for shure!

[LanternWaste]

20. What's NOT to love about this?

Playing on the lack of taste of warrant-holders... it's funny, it's effectiv, and it insulted a has-been, prima-dona rock star. What's NOT to love about this?

:evilgrin: