More Trouble for Mad Rad: Rapper Terry Radjaw Charged For Assault on Cab Driver

Those boys from Mad Rad can't seem to stay out of trouble.

City prosecutors have filed assault and theft charges against Mad Rad rapper Gregory Smith—better known to local hipster-hop fans as Terry Radjaw—and a female acquaintance for allegedly threatening and attacking a cab driver in North Seattle on New Year's Day.

Photo via Smith's Myspace page

According to a police incident report, a cab driver picked up Smith and his girlfriend on Capitol Hill in the early morning hours of January 1st, and drove them to a home in the Ravenna neighborhood.

About two blocks from their destination, the report says, Smith and a female acquaintance, Krystina Borland, attempted to have sex in the back seat of the taxi. The driver pulled over, the report says, and Smith and his girlfriend got out of the cab and walked away without paying.

The cab driver followed Smith and demanded he pay the fare, but Smith refused, the report says. When the cab driver threatened to call police, the report says Smith pushed the cab driver down on to the hood of the taxi and wrapped his hands around his neck.

The cab driver pushed Smith off of him and, according to the report, Borland pulled out a folding knife and waived it at the cab driver "in a threatening manner"

The cab driver fled and called police.

Officers arrived and contacted Smith at his home in the 7300 block of 19th Ave NE. The report says Smith told police "he and his 'lady friend'...did indeed take a cab from Capital Hill to northeast Seattle earlier in the evening" but disputed the cab driver's claim that Smith had assaulted him. Smith admitted that he and Borland had refused to pay the cab fare, but claimed they were treated poorly and threatened by the driver.

The report indicates part of the incident was captured on the taxi's camera.

Police found Borland lying naked in Smith's bed, searched her clothing, and found a knife. When police asked Borland if she had pulled a knife on the driver, the report indicates she told officers "it was just self defense...don't I have a right to self defense?"

The report notes Smith and Borland both had "obvious intoxicants on their breath."

Police arrested Smith and Borland and booked them in to the King County Jail for assault and theft.

This is far from the first time a member of Mad Rad has had legal troubles.

Last year, Mad Rad was banned from several major clubs on Capitol Hill and downtown after group members Nathan Quiroga (Buffalo Madonna) and Ty Finnan (DJ Darwin) were involved in an altercation with bouncers at Neumos. Quiroga was later found not guilty, and prosecutors dropped their case against Quiroga after they were unable to get a witness to cooperate with the investigation. The club ban was lifted several months later.

The owner of a Amante Pizza also sued Mad Rad after the group's promotion team pasted posters to the side of the Capitol Hill restaurant.

Mad Rad's manager, Kerri Harrop, spoke with Seattlecrime.com earlier today about the incident.

According to Harrop, Smith and Borland "were making out in the back of the cab [when] the cab driver slammed on the brakes…three times, in an attempt to break up their make out session. They both went flying, the cab driver stopped the car and told them to stop."

Harrop emphatically states Smith and Borland "were not having sex" in the cab, and says Smith failed to pay the cab fare because he "did not feel received the service he should receive in a cab."

According to Harrop, Smith has told her no assault occurred and, Harrop says, "there’s no evidence to support there was an assault." Harrop declined to comment as to whether Borland pulled a knife on the cab driver.

When asked why members of Mad Rad always seem to be in trouble, Harrop told Seattlecrime.com that "They are a spirited group of young men whose energies sometimes get the best of them. Young men in their 20s sometimes get in to trouble."