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Akon Gets the Drop on Concertgoer
06/07/2007 7:00 AM, E! Online
The teenage boy didn't look to be on fire during Akon's concert, but you'd have thought he was the way Akon flung him off the stage.
The rapper's attorney released a statement Wednesday in which he disputes that his client engaged in a criminal act when, as seen in video footage making the Internet rounds, Akon helped a guy onstage during a concert Sunday in Fishkill, New York, and then hoisted him over his shoulders and tossed him back into the crowd.
"Given the information that we have reviewed to date, it does not appear to us that Akon was involved in any criminal conduct whatsoever," read the statement from Manhattan attorney Benjamin Brafman.
"We are prepared to cooperate fully with any law enforcement agency that may be investigating this incident. We are confident that after a thorough investigation it will be apparent that no criminal prosecution of Akon is warranted."
The concert at Dutchess Stadium was staged by local FM radio station WSPK.
The Poughkeepsie Journal first reported Tuesday that Fishkill police had been looking for the startled-looking concertgoer seen in the video and were saying that Akon, the hurler, could be wanted for questioning if the boy decided to press charges.
Detective Lieutenant John Berlingieri told the Journal today that the face in the crowd was identified as a 15-year-old resident of Harriman in upstate New York, after the boy's mother contacted police. Authorities are withholding the boy's name for now and no charges have been filed as yet.
"It would be a pretty weak case if we based it just on the videotape," Berlingieri said. "You need people to come forward and be a true victim."
Heather Idema, the woman who supplied the Journal with a video of the incident, said that, from her point of view, someone in the crowd threw something at Akon and the artist appealed to the crowd to identify the troublemaker. A security guard then brought the eventual human horseshoe forward, after which Akon helped the guy onstage, only to hurl him off seconds later.
Meanwhile, the Dutchess County District Attorney's Office is standing by in an advisory capacity.
"If and when they determine that something has occurred, they will forward the case to us and we will review that," Senior District Attorney Edward McLoughlin said.
Actually, it's surprising that Akon allows video or photographic equipment of any kind into his shows these days.
The "Smack That" rapper was dropped by Verizon as a featured artist in May after a video surfaced showing him simulating sex with a girl brought onstage for a "dance contest" during an April concert in Trinidad.
The girl turned out to be only 15, not even old enough to be in the 18-and-over venue, and the incident prompted public apologies both from the girl, a pastor's daughter, and from Akon.
"I want to sincerely apologize for the embarrassment and any pain I've caused to the young woman who joined me onstage, her family and the Trinidad community for the events at my concert," he said in a statement last month.
Verizon also pulled out of sponsoring Gwen Stefani's current tour, on which Akon—her partner on the tune "Sweet Escape"—is the opening act.
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