The unreasonable publicity claim the jury will be asked whether the police had an expectation of privacy. Obviously they could not, since they were inside someone else’s house and therefore could not have any idea whether there was hidden video or audio recording systems.
Oh they knew the cameras were there, they even tried to turn them off. Then a little one of them reached inside of his vest while counting Afroman’s cash, which mysteriously was a few hundred short of the gig payment it represented.
Regardless, if you’re in someone else’s home, you don’t have an expectation of privacy against them. And as an officer on duty, you don’t have an expectation of privacy against the public, either.
Also, the context matters. Afroman isn’t the New York Times. He didn’t present this information as true news, allegations meant to be taken literally and seriously. While they are serious allegations, Afroman is a comedic rapper. A reasonable observer would know that some of what Afroman raps about will be exaggerated or have fictional details added in order to make a more compelling song or even just to make a bar rhyme.
Not all of the claims are against his songs, some of the claims are about posts on Instagram or other social media. These are a little more shaky.
Personally, I don’t think the cops are really that thin skinned. I think they’re simply abusing the legal system to try and cause financial harm to Afroman. Unfortunately, that all too often works.
Don’t forget, this all started because Afroman slept with one of the cops’ ex-wife.