The Game just lost in court — it just remains to be seen how big of a walloping he took.
The "Doctor's Advocate" rapper — real name: Jayceon Taylor — must pay a group of former Greensboro, North Carolina, police officers $5 million, and possibly $15 million, in a case springing from arrest footage included as bonus footage in his DVD "Stop Snitchin,' Stop Lyin'."
View the full ruling here.
The group of five former officers initially filed suit for defamation and other charges in 2006, alleging that the footage of the Game's arrest, at the Four Seasons Mall in Greensboro, was edited to make it appear that the rapper was wrongfully detained. (Taylor was charged with criminal trespass, communicating threats and disorderly conduct.)
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A court awarded each plaintiff — who claimed that the edited footage endangered themselves and their families — $1 million in compensatory damages and $2 million in punitive damages.
Taylor — who was not present at the trial — appealed on a number of grounds, but the North Carolina Court of Appeals shot down most of the arguments for appeal, save for the argument challenging the punitive damages. (While the trial court determined that Taylor had created an aggravating factor and "acted with actual personal malice and ill will toward the plaintiffs," the appeals court ruled that the finding was not proven by "clear and convincing evidence.)
Which doesn't put the Game off the hook for the $10 million in punitive damages, at least not just yet. The appeals court remanded the matter to the trial court for re-examination of the matter.
Bungalo Records, which initially released the DVD, is also named in the suit.
A representative for Taylor did not immediately respond to TheWrap's request for comment.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.