Courtroom Magician Joe Tacopina Saved A $ AP ROCKY’S LIFE – NOW DIDY’S KNOKING ON HIS DOOR

On the Morning of April 22, 2022, Rakim Mayers, The 33-Iear-Eld Harlem Raper Better Known As A $ AP ROCKY, RETURNED TO LoS Angles from A Long Vacation W, Inuperstar Girlf. Country of Barbados. After Stepping Off The Private Jet at Lax, Mayers Was Arrested by Lapd Officers and Thrown in Jail. HE WAS Charged with Two Felony Counts of Assault for Allegedly Firing Two Shots that Grazed The Knuckles of Terrel Ephron, A Former Member of Mayers’ Hip-Hip Collective Durying A Scuffle at A West Hollywood Parking Garage The Previous November. Out on Bail, Mayers Rejeted A Plea Deal to Serve Just Six Montths in Prison, Opting Insthead to Fight The Charges in Court. Faced with A Career-Ending, Life-Shattering Maximum Sentence of 24 Years, Mayers Turned to A High-Profile Hometown Lawyer Known for SuccessFully Defending Rappers and Ent-Entratel Brown, Meek Mill and Members of the Wu-Tang Clan: The Swaggering $ 2,000-An-Hour New York Litigator Joe Tacopina.

With his scrapping courtroom style, Booming Brooklyn Baritone and Flair for Custom Suits Tailored to His Massive Build Country. His stunning victories in Defense of Such Unsavory Figures As Aruba Murder Suspect Jaran Van Der Sloot, The Sopranos Actor and Acused Cop Killer Lillo Brancato, and Ex-Nypd Officer Kenneth Moreno-Who Was Acquitted of Rape-Prompted The New York Post to call him “The Devil’s Advocate.” Tacopina Wears the Designation As A Badge of Honor. On the Wall of His 35th-Floor Midtown Manhattan Office Is a Framed 2007 Gq PROFILE SHOWING HIM MUGGING IN FRONT OF HIS MASATATI, WITH The Headline, “1-800-SAVE-MY-ASS.” Tacopina have five children, but the only photograph on his desk is of him and perhaps his most famor client, President Trump.

The a $ ap rocky casse went to trial in la on jan. 24, 2025, Presided Over by Judge Mark Arnold. Unlike most of Tacopina’s Battles, It Wound Be Filmed. Tacopina Tells Me Hee “Fough Vigorously Against Cameras… Because I SAW WHAT HAPPENED IN Other COURTROOM TRIALS THAT Are Televised – People Act LiKeics.” Yet The Proceedings-The First Highly Publicized Case Under La’s New District Attorney, Nathan Hochman-Wound Turn Out to Be a Four Were endlessly scrutinized in podcasts and on Social Media. WELL-KNOWN BEFORE, THETORNEY Wuldy Become a Bona Fide Celebrity and An Improbable TiRST Trap. One Australian Podcaster Named Miss Shorty Released A Line of Merch Dedicated to HIM-Mugs, T-Shirts, Hoodies, Leggings-Emblazoned with The Nicknames A $ AP JOE An Mr. Flexback, referring to the v-shaped silhouette hunds of thonsands of court tv Viewers would Recognize from Behind.

The Evidence Against Mayers Was Sparse, Mainly Conscing of A FEW INDISTINCT AND INCONVENENTLY ANLLLLLLLLLLLLAD SURVEILANCE VIDEOS. One Shows A Tussle, Another Shows Mayers Pulling What Looks Like A Firearm Out of His Waistband. A Nearby Nest Camera CAPTURED OF THE POP-POP Sound of Two Gunshots. Lapd Detectives Who Combled The Parking Garage ImmediaTely After The Report of the Incident Found No Sign of A Shooting, But Ephron Later Presented 9-Millimeter Shell Casings Hell. SCENE.

Mayers Said the Firearm he used was meray a prop Gun, A Starter Pistol The Raper Hadten Gotten While Shooting A Music Video with Rihanna and Had Kept on Hison Foron Security. He’d fred it to break up a fight between ephron and Another A $ AP CrewMember, He Said.

“IT’s A Reasonable Doubt Case,” Tacopina Tells Me. “Because No One Knows for Sure: Was It Real, Was It A Prop?” Since The Prosecution Largely Hinged On Ephron’s Word, Tacopina Wound Focus most of his Efforts on Demolishing his Crediiness. Hew Cast Doubt on the Gravity of His Wounds (or “Knuckle Scrapes,” as Tacopina Called Them), on his tstimony and on his motives.

Ephron Was Far from An Ideal Witness. Jurors Heard A Recording of A Phone Call in Whoich Ephron Appeared to Tell a Friend of Mayers ‘that’ that hew “Walk Away” and disappear to an island. Lawyers Wuld Ask for In A Separate Civil Defamation Laws Against Mayers and Tacopina, Filed in 2023). Ephron would Later Suggest the Audio Was Created by AI. But Tacopina Couldn’s Leave Anything to Chance. The Disaneting of the Prosecution Wuld Require Him to Ferret Out Inconscistencies and Contradctions in Ephron’s TESTIMONY IN CROSS-Examination.

This Happy to be his specialty.

“By intimidating the witness But Still Maintening Credibality with The Jury, He Has Succeeded MarveLously in the Art of Cross-Examination,“ Says andrew Napolitano, A Retire and Longist And Longt. “HE MAY BE BEST Cross-Examiner i’ve Ever Seen.”

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In the attorney’s office is a Framed photo of a $ ap rocky with tacopina. On the Raper’s Wrist is a Gold Patek Philippe Watch that Retails for $ 75,000. WHEN My EYE GOES FROM THAT TO TACOPina’s Own Timepiece, The Lawyer Smiles, Flashing Gleaming White Teeth. “This is not that,” he Says of his Green and White Richard Mille Le Mans, WHICH Sells for Nearly Half A Million Dollars.

“IT’s My One Vice in Life,” He Says of His Watch Collection. “I The One Thing I Treat MySelf To.” Thought he’s not exactly deprising HIMSELF, EITHER. He’s Also Treated HimSelf to An Ownership Stake in a Number of Italian Soccer Teams Over The Years, Including As Roma (His Father’s Factoritis Squad), Venezia FC and Since. He was Knibrated in 2019 in Venice, Largely for His Contributions to Soccer.

IT WAS A LANDMARK ACHIEVEMENT for the Son of Italian Immigrants, Born in Brownsville, Brooklyn, in 1966. Then, as now, the Neighborchoood washang. “I Just Thought I Was A Light-Skinned Black Guy Growing Up, HONEST TO GOD.”

Tacopina Played Ice Hockey at Skidmore College, Serving As the Team’s CAPTAIN AND ITS ENFORCER. He Retains the College’s Record for Most Time in the Penalty Box. Given the CHANCE TO PLAY FOR THE NEW YORK ISLANDERS ‘FARM TEAM, HE CHESE INSTEAD to PURSUE A LAW DEGREE AT UNIVERSITY OF BRIDGEPORT.

UPON GRADUATING IN 1991, HE WORKED HIS WAY TO The DA’s Office in the EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK, WHERE HE Served As a Junior ProseCutor. He Soon Switched Sides to Become a Criminal Defense Attorney, A Job He’d Wanted Ever Since He’d Read the Classic True-Crime Book Fatal Visionby joe mcginis, about a green Beret Acused of Killing His Wife and Two Daughters in 1970.

“One Page, I Was Like, ‘Wow, This Guy’s Guilty, He Killed His Family.’ Next Page: ‘He’s So Fucking Innocent, It’s Unbelievable.’ ”HE TUOUGHT,“ I WANT TO DO thisyeah, this is what i want to do. ”

The Bulk of His Clients at First Consished of NYPD COPS. In an early victory, he helped Score the accountital of one of the policemen connected to the assault and rape of Haitian Immigrant Abner Louima. WHEN FORMER NYPD Commissioner Bernie Kerik Was Acused of Corruption in 2006, Tacopina Got Him A Sweetheart Plea Deal, Admitting to Two Misdemeanors. (Kerik, Who Was Later Jailed for Tax Fraud, Sued Tacopina, Accking Him of Leacing Privileged Information to Federal Authorities. Tacopina Denied It, and The Suit Was.

One Day, Johnnie Cochran Cold-Called Him With A Job Offer. Given Cochran’s Notoriety as Lead Defense Attorney in the Oj Simpson Murder Trial, Tacopina Suspected It Was A Crank Call. But The Offer Was Real, and Cochran Became A Mentor. To this day, Tacopina uses strategies he Learned During his Apprenticeship with the Master Showman of the Courtroom.

Over Time, Thanks to His String of Rabbit-Out-of-A-Hat Triumphs in Court On Behalf of Notable Clients, Tacopina Wulda wound Cochran for the Title.

He Became Known to Fight As Hard As Anyone for His Clients, on One Occasion Almost Literaly. Accounting to the Daily News, He “Had to Be Physically Restrained from Brawling with Another Lawyer” at a 2013 arbitration hearing for his client, yankees slugger alex rodriguez, who’dnho’sce-being. In Tacopina’s Telling, The Opposing Lawyer Had Defantly Stood Up Durying A Heated Exchange, and He’d Merely Followed Suit, Refusion To Back Down. At any rage, the incident didtle to dent his reputation; if anything, it helped.

“Trump HimSelf Asked Me Who and Thought The Best Trial Lawyer in New York City Was,“ Says Napolitano, “And I SAID JOE.”

In 2023, Tacopina would Join Trump’s Legal Team in the Civil Case Broughst Against the President by Journalist E. Jean Carroll, Who Claimed that Trump Sexulaly. (The Jury Found of the Defendant Lable for Sexual abusion and defaming carrol

The Attorney Also Initially Joined Trump’s Defense in the Criminal Case Brough by the Manhattan Da in the Stormy Daniels Hush-Money Affair But Made Headlines WHERE January 2024, Without Citying A Reason.

Tacopina Still Considers the Manhattan Case – WHICH Resulted in 34 Felony Convices Against Trump – to be a “Political Witch Hunt” that “Should Never Have Been Brough.” Asked whoh he left, he allows only that “I just had to follow my more compass at the time. It was a combination A Slew of Other Things HapPening. ”

Tacopina’s Defense of Trump is no more an endorsment of maga politics than his his defense of accounting Murderers and Fraudster is an endorsment of their values. Asked How He Can Look HimSelf in the Mirror While Working with Scandalous and Potentilly Criminal Figures, Tacopina Cites A Speech He’s Given Titled, “How You Defend Thes PEOPLE PEOPLE.

“You don’t need a law Degree to Know that It is a Measure of Character and Integrity in a Lawwyer to Represent Someone Who is Despised,“ He Says. “The State Needs to Meet A Force, A Resistance – It Should Be Diflicult to Convite Someone. Not Easy to put someone in jail. Listen, Mr. Prosecutor, You Want A CONVICATION HEER HEER? And My Job Is To Make It As Hard As Possible to Get It. ”

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He Certainly Made Things Diflicult for the ProseCutor in the A $ Ap Rocky Case, La County Deputy da John Lewin. Tacopina Had Begun Working Ephron, The Accessing Witness, A Year Before The Trial in the Preliminal Hearing. Without a Jury to Oberto Him, There Was No Need for Him to Appear Sympathetic in His Exchanges with Ephron. “HE was just really angry, and I was going right back at him, Right back in his face, as effusive as he was,” Tacopina Boasts. “At the Trial, My Strategy Was Going to Be Very Different.”

With that heated first Round, Tacopina Had Primed Ephron to Be Similarly Combative Durying the Trial Itlf: “What i did Was I Let Him Do All His Antics. Calling Me ‘Bro.’ Calling me ‘tacopina , ‘Throwing A Water Bottle, Saying’ Fuck ‘in A Courtronic. The Judge Started Coming Down, and Me? I Stayed Calm As A Cucumber. Of Course, That Was My Ploy, To Let The Jury See How Bad He Is. Let’s Just Hang Hang HimSelf, with His Credability Literaly Dwindling by the Question. ”

Over The Course of Several Hours, Tacopina Methodically Broke Down Ephron’s Story and Forced Him to Acnowledge Inconscistencies in His Testimony.

Tacopina Releentless Needled Ephron with Questions About WHY HAD NOT BEEN FORTHCOMING ABOUT VISITING An La Gun Range Two Weeks Before The Shooting Suggested He Could Have Later Planted at the Scene. (Ephron Vehemently Denied Having FALSIFIED EVIDENCE.)

“You have you’re slick, and i’m onto you – you’re not gonna keep tripping me up,” A visibly frustrated ephron blurted out, causing the judge to rebuke, “Just Stop Talking Talking. The jury took it all in. Even Ephron Acknowledged He’d Been Soundly Defeated. “I’M getting screwed,” he said, shaking his head and rolling his eyes as tacopina locked on, ARMS Crossed.

“Joe does not get the Credit he deserves,” Says Attorney and Lecturer Larry Pozner, Author of Cross-Examination: Science and TechniquesThe Seminal Book on the Art of InterViewing Witnesses. “People See His Size and They Hear his Deep Voice, and They Assume That What Hat He’s Doing In Cross Is Bullying Witnesses. But What Hat Heling Is Extraordinarily Subtle, the Sub. Researched, they are thorough Out Well in Advance. ”

Every Hour on the Stand Requires 25 Hours of Presparation, Confirms Tacopina, Living Up to the Nickname Given to Him by Former Client Meek Mill: Joe Tactical.

His tactics Clearly Rattled the ProseCutor, Who appeared to lose his temper several times during the trial and repeatedly accounted tacopina

“One more thing out of him, and we air everything that’s happled in this casse!” Shouted deputy da lewin.

“Ooh, i’m so threatened by you,” said tacopina, waving his hands in the air.

“You should be, joe.”

It All Made for Great TV.

Tacopina’s Summation Was 112 Pages Long. To get it in his head the morning of, he performs his usual ritual: He isolated HIMSELF in the Courthouse

Recitation It in Front of the Jury Took Five and A Half Hours. HE MADE Sure to Lock Eyes with every Juror “and the Alternates.” By the end of it, when descriping the devastating toll a guilty verdict wold woke on mayers’ Family – including rihanna and their two young sons, whri wtching. Strugmed to comose HimSelf.

Several Jurors Welled Up As Well. That’s when he Knew he have atm. Even Jude Arnold Was Moved: “That Indicated to ME that he was speaking from the heart,” He Says.

Notes Tacopina: “It can only be Powerful if it is.

WHEN The CLERK BROUGHT The VERDICT TO THE BENCH ON FB. 18, Judge Arnold Looked at It and Asked the Jury to Confirm it. Tacopina Felt His Heart Drop. “In My Experience,” He Said Later, “You Only Have A Jury Confirm A VERDICT UPON CONVICtion.” For what seized like an eternity, Tacopina Swayed Back and Forth, Shoulder to Shoulder with Mayers, Whose Life Hung in the Balance.

Finally The Cleerk Read the Words “Not Guilty,” and the Room Exploded in Squals. Mayers spun around and seamed to fly as ha dove headfirmna rihanna’s arms. “That was maybe the most surreal moment i’ve had in the courtroom,“ Says Tacopina.

Rihanna Embred Tacopina, Burying Her Tear-Soaked Cheek Into His Chest and Smening What the Lawyer Jokingly Descripted As “The Who Fucking Fenty Palette” onto his s The Couple told Told Tacopina they would call their Next Child a $ ap joe.

“HE IS TRULY A GENIUS AND A CARING PERSON,” A $ AP ROCKY Tells The Hollywood Reporter. “He Will Always Be Family to Us. Inside the Courtroom, If I Ever Felt Nervous, I Simplaly Willd Look at Joe and Feed Off The Supreme Sense of Confidence That Has.”

***

Since the a $ ap Rocky Trial, Other Embattled Celebrices Have Come Knocking on Tacopina’s Door, Hoping for Him to Work His Magic. Among them is Talk Show HOST Wendy Williams, Who in March Hired the Attorney to Represent Her in Her Fight Against the GuardianShip Imposyd on Her Following A Series of Health Strug. Tacopina told the Press The Sity Was “A True Injustice” and that “Murderers Have More Freedom than Wendy.”

And then there’s perhaps the most disgraced Celeb of them All these Days. Diddy’s Team Has Asked Tacopina Multiple Times to Defend the Mogul Against Charges of Racketearing and Sex Trafficking, with A Trial Set to Begin in May. As tacopina told the hosts of The Breakfast Club Podcast in March, he have repeatedly turned down Down, City Bad Bad Between the Defendant and Several of Tacopina’s Friends, Like Jay-Z, an Clients.

But Diddy’s Team have presented. WHEN I MEET WITH HIM IN HIS OFFICE, TACOPINA SHOWS MEH HIS PONE WITH Yet Another Plea. Is he going to reject it again?

“I’m going to speak to him. I’m not saying yes or no. I’m just going to listen.”

This Story Appeared in the April 2 Issue of the Hollywood Reporter Magazine. Click Here to Subscribe.