The Velvet Hammer™ Podcast

Trial lawyers can be real people, too—and this podcast proves it. The Velvet Hammer™ is back, and this time, Karen Koehler isn’t going it alone. Known for her fearless advocacy, bold storytelling, and, yes, even the occasional backwards dress moment, Karen is teaming up with Mo Hamoudi, a lawyer, poet, and storyteller whose empathy and resilience add a whole new dynamic to the show.

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The Velvet Hammer™ Podcast

Lemon Pound cake and Afroman

April 15, 2026 • Karen Koehler and Mo Hamoudi • Season 6 • Episode 14

0:00 | 22:27

Episode 14

Karen, Mo and Mike discuss the Afroman trial.

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Hosted by Karen Koehler and Mo Hamoudi, trial lawyers at Stritmatter Law, a nationally recognized plaintiff personal injury and civil rights law firm based in Washington State.

Produced by Mike Todd, Audio & Video Engineer, and Kassie Slugić, Executive Producer.

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Subscribe for bold takes, heartfelt moments, and the unfiltered reality of what it means to live and lead as a trial lawyer at Stritmatter Law.

🎧 Stay Connected with The Velvet Hammer™ Podcast

Hosted by Karen Koehler and Mo Hamoudi, trial lawyers at Stritmatter Law, a nationally recognized plaintiff personal injury and civil rights law firm based in Washington State.

Produced by Mike Todd, Audio & Video Engineer, and Kassie Slugić, Executive Producer.

Watch full episodes on YouTube
Follow us on Instagram, TikTok & Facebook
📬 Questions or topic ideas? Email us at thevelvethammerpodcast@stritmatter.com

🔥 New episodes every Wednesday
Subscribe for bold takes, heartfelt moments, and the unfiltered reality of what it means to live and lead as a trial lawyer at Stritmatter Law.

Lemon Pound Cake Sets The Scene

Karen Koehler 0:07

Let's talk about some lemonade pound cake today.

Mo Hamoudi 0:10

Lemon pound cake. A lemon pound cake. Is it lemon pound cake?

Karen Koehler 0:13

I got it I got whatever.

SPEAKER_03 0:15

Okay.

Karen Koehler 0:16

Okay. I was recently obsessed because I came across Afroman winning his trial. And I had not known about it, had not been on my radar. But Mike, you of course had paid much better attention to current affairs.

Mike Todd 0:31

Well, yeah, I mean it's music affairs, so it always kind of rolls across my social media feeds. And uh I I remember when it happened because it was all in the media where they had busted into his house, one of them had given the finger to the cameras, you know, Afro Man had released a lot of that video to the media almost immediately. So there were stills and and video of it right away. But as with so many other stories these days, it just kind of disappeared into the ether after whatever else crazy happened the next day. So I hadn't heard anything about it, hadn't really been paying attention to the media soon. And you said that you wanted to talk about this, so I went back and looked at uh the court case and the video with some of the videos that I'd had not seen.

Karen Koehler 1:26

There are some of them that were a little bit more offensive than lemon pancakes.

Mike Todd 1:30

I gotta say, they they picked the wrong they picked the wrong guy to mess with, man. Oh my gosh. He's got some tenacity.

Karen Koehler 1:38

Well, who knew about who Afro Man was before this happened?

Mike Todd 1:43

Uh I mean, I know him from that song.

Karen Koehler 1:45

Okay. But he has had a very long story career.

Mike Todd 1:48

Yeah.

Karen Koehler 1:49

They had asked him, like, on the witness stand, how many days did you tour the year before? And he's like, I don't know, I don't keep track, I don't know, 250, 250. Like he's a guy that's just always playing. He's a working musician. Yeah. Yeah. Uh not known, not known maybe in the mainstream, um, but known in his community and has a loyal following.

Mike Todd 2:10

He's got a big he's got that that hit when I got high or whatever was a was a pretty big underground hit.

Karen Koehler 2:15

So they're well, and so he uh I don't think he was at home. His family, wife and children were home.

Mike Todd 2:23

Yeah.

Karen Koehler 2:24

And they busted down the door looking for drugs and money.

Mike Todd 2:27

And kidnapping victims.

Karen Koehler 2:28

Oh, and kidnapping victims. And and what did they find?

Mike Todd 2:31

None of that.

Karen Koehler 2:32

They found nothing.

Mike Todd 2:33

They found his family.

Karen Koehler 2:34

But they they found the security cameras, and what did they do to those?

Mike Todd 2:37

They turned them off, right?

Karen Koehler 2:39

Yeah, they turned them off.

Mike Todd 2:40

After having been seen breaking in.

Karen Koehler 2:43

They did not knock, they did not knock on the door. No. They kicked the door.

Mike Todd 2:46

They knocked the door down entirely, off the hinges.

Karen Koehler 2:48

Apparently he asked them to put it back up as they were leaving, and they They didn't do it. They didn't do it. They ransacked the house. And did they apologize?

Mike Todd 2:58

No.

Karen Koehler 2:58

They just left. And uh Oh, and they took money.

Mike Todd 3:02

You forgot. Oh, the money. They took money. They took a lot of money. From one of his gigs, he had gotten paid recently, and I I can't remember specifically. But it was a lot of money. And when they returned the money to him eventually, it took forever.

Karen Koehler 3:15

Yeah.

Mike Todd 3:16

It was missing$400, according to him.

Karen Koehler 3:19

But then they say that they just miscounted it.

Mike Todd 3:21

Of course. That happened to me one time when I was uh on tour and I had to deposit some money at the bank, and the teller took the money away from me and walked away and counted it, and then came back and said that it wasn't the amount that I had given them. She got fired.

Karen Koehler 3:38

Yeah. Well, they probably had that on camera.

Mike Todd 3:41

Oh yeah.

Karen Koehler 3:42

So anyway, Afro Man, first of all, his name is Afroman. So that's like that should have been a warning sign to the police. Secondly, he's a creative. He's a musician who can write his own songs and lyrics and produce his own music. And he did. And so he he the lemonade, the lemonade pound cake, lemon pound cake was because his his mother had made it. Or grandmother.

Mike Todd 4:17

Are we sure? Like I I think it was his grandmother's recipe. Yeah, it was their recipe. Was their recipe. I'm not sure if they had actually made it.

Karen Koehler 4:23

Okay, so maybe he's just made in the family. There's a big, huge thing of the lemon pound cake there. And why is that the focus of anything?

Mike Todd 4:32

Well, because one of the sheriff's officers came through and looked down at it while he was on video. That's pretty much all it was. Is he is he glanced down at the pound cake as he was walking by? But Afro Man took advantage of that and made an entire song. Pretty much just making fun of the cops. And that's not the only one. I mean, he's made several songs.

Karen Koehler 4:53

Oh, yeah. There was some profanity.

Mike Todd 4:54

He's made a lot of songs where he's calling out multiple different sheriff's officers and and their treatment of him and his family. And uh and they don't like it.

Turning Raid Footage Into Music

Karen Koehler 5:04

Oh, they didn't like it so much that they okay, well, we'll let you talk now. What did they do?

Mo Hamoudi 5:11

Well, thanks for letting me talk. Well thanks for that history, Mike. Well, the well well, the burly cop that was looking at the lemon cake.

Karen Koehler 5:21

The burly cop.

SPEAKER_05 5:26

He walks in, you gotta see the video, and he glances at it.

Karen Koehler 5:30

But his eyes did kind of like Oh no, yeah, they just all look for something.

SPEAKER_05 5:34

And what's really funny is the music video just keeps going back to him doing this.

Karen Koehler 5:41

Yeah, the music video like stuck or plagues him looking at it.

SPEAKER_05 5:45

Doing it over and over. I was just like, oh my god, well, they sued him.

Karen Koehler 5:52

Yeah, the cops sued him.

Mo Hamoudi 5:53

The cops sued him because they say that he defamed them, invasion of privacy, because what he did was he took the videos and he mocked. Yes, he mocked all the cops. And in creating music videos. And so really what the lawsuit was about was an invasion of privacy lawsuit, but also his First Amendment rights. Okay.

Mike Todd 6:16

Well, so that's so let's let's go from the uh police side.

Mo Hamoudi 6:21

What saying that they they were defamed why why would they be defamed by the it was it was well and it wasn't really defamed, it was invasion of privacy, false light. So basically what they're saying is that we have an expectation of privacy.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

We the police?

SPEAKER_05 6:39

Yeah, when we go into your home to not be video recorded. So they were saying you can't take the video and cut it up and make fun of the rest.

Mike Todd 6:49

So they're saying because Is this because they were in a private residence that they couldn't be filmed?

SPEAKER_05 6:56

They couldn't be filmed.

Mike Todd 6:58

Do they have is is that even ridiculous. That sounds like an attorney.

Karen Koehler 7:05

The guy must have tried, the attorney must have brought a motion for summary judgment.

SPEAKER_05 7:09

I don't know what the attorney did, but the trial was the best because the lemon cake cop, the burly one, he's on the stand. And the lawyer keeps showing them the video. Showing him the video, and he's walking by the lemon cake and he's looking at it, and he's just like, and he just keeps pausing when he's looking at the cake.

Karen Koehler 7:31

Okay, but I mean, you're laughing.

SPEAKER_01 7:36

This is the I've just seen in my head that little bug-eyed look that he had frozen on the screen.

Deputies File Suit And Testify

Karen Koehler 7:43

But understand he looks devastated, like you are mocking this poor guy. You gotta be honest and tell everybody like the damages he suffered. Well, I mean, remember what happened to him at work? What kept arriving in the mail?

Mike Todd 7:59

Oh, well, I know he got a lot of pound cake.

Karen Koehler 8:01

Hundreds of them.

Mike Todd 8:02

He got a lot of limited pound cake. And you know what?

Karen Koehler 8:06

Significant members. I know that.

Mike Todd 8:08

I didn't I didn't realize how damaging that is. Was it because he was gonna gain weight?

Karen Koehler 8:15

I would imagine because no, I'm imagining because they couldn't eat it.

Mike Todd 8:19

Yeah, exactly.

Karen Koehler 8:19

And he wanted to eat it.

Mike Todd 8:21

He wanted to eat it all.

Karen Koehler 8:22

And they just kept deriving and they had to keep throwing it away. Oh my god. Because they could have been tampered with.

Mike Todd 8:26

No, I loved that one when I heard that.

SPEAKER_05 8:28

No, they send him lemon case.

Karen Koehler 8:29

Yes, that was. He was very upset about this.

Mike Todd 8:33

Yeah.

Karen Koehler 8:33

It was causing him distress.

Mike Todd 8:35

Well, he also called uh he he called some other people some stuff too.

Karen Koehler 8:40

Okay, well, let's talk about let's talk about a few of these things. Okay. Let's my next sec my second most favorite story is the defense called one witness. Only one. So trial's going on, and the defense calls a single witness because the plaintiff called Afro Man. The plaintiff here were the cops.

SPEAKER_03 9:03

Yeah.

Karen Koehler 9:04

This is a total twist around. Normally the cops are getting sued. No. For the first time, one of the first times ever, the cops are suing this guy.

SPEAKER_03 9:13

Yeah.

Karen Koehler 9:14

And so the guy, his lawyer, calls one witness in his support. Who knows who that witness was?

Mike Todd 9:23

I didn't see that. I didn't see who was without without a woman.

Karen Koehler 9:25

Oh, well, let me tell you, because you gotta go watch that testimony.

Mike Todd 9:29

Yeah, I'm gonna.

Karen Koehler 9:30

The ex-wife of one of the cops.

Mike Todd 9:33

Oh God.

Karen Koehler 9:34

And here's why.

Mo Hamoudi 9:35

Why? Here's why. Oh my goodness.

Karen Koehler 9:38

Because the guy said that this film destroyed his marriage.

Mike Todd 9:42

Ooh. Oh, that's a good that's that's a good reason to call her then.

Karen Koehler 9:47

So they called her and they said, Had you ever seen this before?

SPEAKER_03 9:50

And what did she say?

Karen Koehler 9:51

She said, No. She said, they said, Have you ever talked to your, you know, now ex-husband about this before? She said, No. And then the the lawyer went farther. He said, Have you ever heard of Cardi B or other these other rappers whose names I can't remember because Cardi B, like I'm only gonna remember that one. And yes, and what are people's reactions? Yes, and is everything that they say true? And her answer was, oh no, you don't take the words always literally. And that was their witness. First of all, it was a lie to say that he suffered any mental distress or his marriage um broke up because of this video. And secondly, even she knew that this is just a creative license. Like they're just he's literally made a uh disc video. Where does the First Amendment come into this?

Mo Hamoudi 10:47

Where does the First Amendment um I mean it's obvious it's an expression? Yeah, it's uh he can take videos in his home that he records and use them as he pleases. You you proceed at your own risk. I mean, unless there's Well, it's not even just that.

Mike Todd 11:03

Like, you know, saying that his marriage was ruined by the videos. Sorry. That doesn't matter. It's we all have the right to write whatever we want, to say whatever we want. It doesn't matter if what it if I say something bad about you, yeah, unless I'm proven to actually be trying to do that with malicious intent of some sort, you can't stop me from doing that.

Mo Hamoudi 11:33

Yeah, so there is there was an old case that really tested this was the evangelical preacher who was being mocked in uh by uh how no, there was uh there was a uh magazine publisher who who who there was a movie made about this.

SPEAKER_03 11:53

Larry Flynn.

Mo Hamoudi 11:53

Larry Flynn.

Mike Todd 11:54

Oh yeah, yeah, no, that's what I was gonna say.

Mo Hamoudi 11:56

Right, and and he was writing people really really really offensive stuff about the preacher about him doing things to his mom. Yeah, the outhouse. So incest. And so went to the went to the that was uh Billy Graham, I think. Yeah, yeah. No, no, it was the other guy.

Mike Todd 12:11

Oral Roberts? No, no, yeah. I got him getting them all.

Mo Hamoudi 12:14

It was the other guy. One of those guys. But eventually went to Supreme Court. Supreme Court's like, yeah, no, joking, mockery, you know, this is all protected speech. Like, this is historically protected speech. So that's that's sort of the protection, is that you know, like I think the case would have been different if he had recorded him and his wife in their home without their permission.

Mike Todd 12:38

Oh, yeah, no. Right? You understand?

Mo Hamoudi 12:39

So it's not the recording, it's that they walked into his house and he had a surveillance system, and he took what they did in his house. Yes, and he made a m music video out of it.

Karen Koehler 12:49

Well, this guy took the images of the people and superimposed them in other situations. He did. So he was he he and and he was crude and offensive. He called one of them a pedophile and one of the one of the female cops, or you know, he he called he didn't call her he implied that she was lesbian, right?

Mike Todd 13:08

Or something like that.

Karen Koehler 13:09

But I don't know that that's insulting. What was insulting was what she that he had her basically in a porno.

Mike Todd 13:15

Yeah, okay.

Satire Law And The First Amendment

Karen Koehler 13:15

That's why so so uh he was it, you know, but while I'm talking, one of you guys look up the lyrics for Lemon for the Lemon song because you know, let's show the the quality here of the art. Now, it the art I have to admit, it's a combination of the videos of which he had a field day with because he had all their images from going breaking into his house um like that, and then his music. But by suing him, his videos, which had had like two or three thousand views, now they're like at three or four million. The he was m his whole career just exploded.

Mike Todd 13:57

Well, now he's just selling out places too, because everyone wants to come and see him to play that song.

Karen Koehler 14:03

So when when I was seeing his in when he testified in court, he made he was wearing this red, white, and blue suit full of that was just all American flags, like probably 50 flags on that suit. And um in addition, he had a six-inch afro combed out um and was wearing sunglasses. So I talked to one of my friends that's a judge, and I said, Now, if he showed up in your courtroom, would you let him testify with those glasses on? And she was on the floor, dying of laughter, and said, Absolutely, I would let him testify. Because I'm thinking, like, wouldn't they make you take off your sunglasses? Because you could not see them, but she was dying. Because it's part of the whole persona.

SPEAKER_03 14:44

I know. Okay, I'm going to get the lyrics.

Karen Koehler 14:48

Man, you are the slowest lyric-finding person.

SPEAKER_03 14:51

No, no, no. I got it. Okay, this is.

Karen Koehler 14:53

I wish we could put the video on. Okay. But if you haven't, just look up the lemon song, the lemon pound cake song.

Mo Hamoudi 14:57

The Adams County Sheriff kicked down my door.

Karen Koehler 14:59

But you gotta do it in a rapper voice.

unknown 15:01

Okay.

Karen Koehler 15:02

I can't watch. And it's kind of rapper boogie.

Mo Hamoudi 15:06

The Adams County Sheriff kicked down my door, then I heard the glass break. They found no kidnapping victims, just some lemon pound cake. Mama's lemon pound cake, it tastes so nice. It made the sheriff want to put down his gun and cut him a slice. Lemon pound cake, he wants to put down his gawk. Lemon pound cake, trending on TikTok. Lemon pound cake, he's a family guy. Lemon pound cake, got the munchies because he got high. Lemon pound cake, pound cake.

SPEAKER_03 15:34

Okay.

Karen Koehler 15:35

All right, all right. So no, no more, but so and if you watch the video, of course, then he is the star, he being the deputy is the star of that video.

Mo Hamoudi 15:45

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Karen Koehler 15:46

It's the best.

Mo Hamoudi 15:47

I mean, this is funny. This is great.

Karen Koehler 15:49

So, what are the lessons that people have learned from this?

Mo Hamoudi 15:52

If you're a police officer and you're gonna be entering somebody's home, you're on notice that you might be recorded. So don't look at lemon pound cake in a way to sky cake.

Karen Koehler 16:03

I have a question, you know, because we all know that the one thing, the single most important factor in changing the tide in terms of police um excessive force cases has been the advent of cell phones cameras. Yeah. Okay. If a police officer breaks into your house or comes into your house, or ICE or anyone, do they have the right to turn off your surveillance cameras?

Cameras, Warrants, And Door Damage

Mo Hamoudi 16:30

Yes. Yes, but they have to have to have justification that for purposes of not letting their security protocol be disclosed, like how they execute the search, the type of things they do. I have seen them do that. And that's the that's the reasoning they give.

Mike Todd 16:48

And our position is that you just again that's a bullshit excuse so that they can do something illegal.

SPEAKER_05 16:52

But I'm just telling you that that's the reasoning they're like.

Mike Todd 16:54

That's their illegal reasoning.

Mo Hamoudi 16:57

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, technically you can't tamper with evidence, right? So like if they see it's recording, they cannot, what they cannot do is take what's being rec what's recorded and do anything with that. What they can do is turn it off and then say, hey, I turned it off because I didn't want to be recorded doing in secret stuff.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

Doing illegal shit. Doing secret stuff, secret eating the cake.

Karen Koehler 17:21

And now breaking laws. How would they even know? Because nowadays people have so many devices on the code.

Mike Todd 17:28

They can't turn off most of them. Most of that stuff goes to the cloud these days.

Karen Koehler 17:31

And it's wireless. Like I mean, doesn't even Alexa some of the versions record you?

Mo Hamoudi 17:36

And I'm I mean the the the door ring.

unknown 17:41

Yeah.

Karen Koehler 17:41

The ring camera. Well, that's exterior though.

Mo Hamoudi 17:43

Yeah, but those are capturing a lot of warrantless entries.

Karen Koehler 17:46

Yeah.

Mo Hamoudi 17:47

Officers kicking down doors, they don't see the ring cameras. They just sort of kick down the door and now they're caught.

Karen Koehler 17:51

So, second question. So the officer comes in and kicks down your door, wrecks your home.

Mike Todd 17:57

It wasn't just one, it was a whole bunch of them.

Karen Koehler 18:00

Well, officers. Do they not have to repair your door?

Mo Hamoudi 18:05

Well, no, but they have to pay for it if it is found that their conduct is if it's found that they weren't actually where they were supposed to be or what they were doing what they weren't supposed to do.

Karen Koehler 18:15

They are they the guy, they had there was nothing. There were no kidnapping victims, there was only a cash for him as gig, and there was no drugs. Yeah. So that was even if it had a warrant, it was a false, there was nothing there. Do they not have to pay for the door to be put back together?

Mo Hamoudi 18:33

That's a separate question. So once they get a warrant, then it they are allowed to use the force that's necessary to execute the warrant. So it depends on the warrant. If the warrant says you can go into the home even if no one's there, even after you knock and announce yourself, at that point the warrant gives you permission to break a door. And then if you damage the door, then if that's reasonable to open the door, sure. But if you go in and you start destroying like the television and stuff, now that's in excess of the warrant.

Karen Koehler 19:05

See, I just think that if if the warrant if you go in and you have the warrant, this is what I think that the law should be. I'm just gonna tell you.

SPEAKER_03 19:13

Okay.

Karen Koehler 19:13

If you break the guy's door and nothing there was nothing, you need to fix the guy's door.

Mo Hamoudi 19:19

So that's kind of a result-oriented approach, and the whole purpose of the warrant is that Mike, do you agree with my approach?

Mike Todd 19:25

Uh yes, I've always agreed that uh that the cops have way too much leniency and that kind of stuff. I mean, that's just it just doesn't seem right.

Mo Hamoudi 19:34

I mean, it doesn't seem right, but like, you know, that's just the rules. If they have if they have cause to come into the house, a judge has signed a warrant. Yeah.

Mike Todd 19:41

Did they really have cause though? They didn't. It was bullshit. I didn't see the warrant in this case. Uh I don't care.

Karen Koehler 19:46

You go, Mike.

Mike Todd 19:47

Whatever. It doesn't matter. I mean, the judge was wrong. He should be thrown out, too.

Karen Koehler 19:52

That's crazy.

Mike Todd 19:52

This is a whole bullshit system.

Karen Koehler 19:54

I'm surprised he didn't go after the judge.

Mike Todd 19:56

I think that's what I want to know. I need to go look now because I would have been suing everybody in that line.

Mo Hamoudi 20:01

The judge did so the okay.

Mike Todd 20:03

I don't care. It would make it would be my wife's purpose to chase those people down.

Karen Koehler 20:07

In all fairness, he does like drugs because if you look at his video. Yeah, he smokes a lot of weed, but it's legal now. Yeah, it is illegal. I don't understand why you're not.

Mo Hamoudi 20:17

I do want to explain why you can't sue the judge. Because the judge He's got immunity. He's got immunity. I know they have immunity. But for good reason. Doesn't matter though. He only signs the warrant based on the information that the cop gives him. True, so he's coming to mistake. But the but but that's the way the system works, Mike, because the cop has to swear under oath that what I what I say, judge, there's a crime. There's kidnapping, there's whatever. So really it's the cop you go after. You don't go after the judge. The judge is has to sign the warrant. If a police officer signs it and says there's evidence of a crime, he can't second guess the cop.

Mike Todd 20:49

Then those guys that signed it, that got the judge to do it, should be fired and not allowed to be cops. The judge then should also be thinking about what he did wrong. Because that's that's a mistake. That's a broken system. If you say, hey, they could just go and lie to the judge, and then the judge could do this, and they can then go break down our doors and you know disturb our pancake. Yeah, try to take our pancake. I mean, it's just that's not that's that's not the way this world should be.

Mo Hamoudi 21:18

I suspect, though I don't know, at least I know in my cases, where I've had warrants tossed because cops lied to a judge. I've had the judge realize it afterwards and second-guess subsequent warrants from the same department and scrutinize them more, but the judge won't know unless you bring the case and you challenge and you bring it to the judge's attention. Otherwise, they're not gonna know. But yes, at least in King County, they do do that. They do do that.