Lil Nas X pleads not guilty to attacking police officers

LOS ANGELES — Lil Nas X was charged Monday with four felonies after police say he charged at them when they confronted him for walking naked down a Los Angeles street last week. The musician, whose legal name is Montero Lamar Hill, pleaded not guilty in a court appearance to three counts of battery with injury on a police officer and one count of resisting an executive officer, the district attorney's office said. The charges were far more serious than initial reports that he was being investigated for a misdemeanor, and, with convictions, the counts could collectively bring a sentence of more than 10 years in prison for the singer and rapper whose "Old Town Road" was one of the biggest hit singles in history. Police said officers found the 26-year-old walking naked on Ventura Boulevard, a major thoroughfare in the Studio City neighborhood, shortly before 6 a.m. Friday. They say he charged at the officers when confronted and was arrested. The criminal complaint filed in court Monday includes few details, but says that for each of the three officers he "did unlawfully use force and violence and inflict an injury" on a person he "reasonably should have known" was a peace officer "engaged in the performance of a duty." Police, suspecting a possible overdose, took him to a hospital where he spent several hours before being taken to jail, where he has remained since. After spending three days in jail, he was released on $75,000 bail, conditional on attending drug treatment. A message to his attorneys was not immediately answered. But one of them, Christy O'Connor, told a judge Lil Nas X has led a "remarkable" life that has included winning two Grammy awards. "Assuming the allegations here are true, this is an absolute aberration in this person's life," O'Connor said in court, according to NBC. "Nothing like this has ever happened to him." The charges were first reported by TMZ. Lil Nas X is set to return to court on Sept. 15 for his next pre-trial hearing. The rapper and singer from Atlanta is best known for 2018's country and hip-hop merging "Old Town Road," which spent a record 19 weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and won him his Grammys. Known for his genre-bending, innovating sounds and style, his first full studio album, 2021's "Montero," went to No. 2 on the Billboard album chart and was nominated for a Grammy for album of the year.