NYPD investigates hip-hop DJ's rants as possible hate crime

NYPD investigates hip-hop DJ's rants as possible hate crime By TOM HAYS Associated Press Writer

May 11, 2006, 8:35 PM EDT

NEW YORK -- Despite an apology, a hip-hop disc jockey was being investigated for a possible bias crime after making threatening racial and sexual remarks about a rival's wife and 4-year-old daughter, police said Thursday.

The New York Police Department's Hate Crime Task Force launched the probe after the chief of detectives reviewed a transcript of DJ Star's on-air comments about DJ Envy and his family, said police spokesman Paul Browne.

Star, whose real name is Troi Torain, apologized on Thursday through his attorney, Benjamin Brafman.

The lawyer called the remarks "unsuitable and inappropriate" and assured the rival's wife she had nothing to fear. But he also claimed his client was the victim of threats by her husband.

"The statements made by Star in response, while inappropriate, were, however, made under great duress and at a time when he was fearful for his safety and the safety of members of his staff," Brafman said in statement.

Torain worked for Clear Channel Radio's Power 105.1 FM before being fired Wednesday amid protests from elected officials. A city councilman, John Liu, said on Thursday that the disgraced DJ "now must be put behind bars for spewing these threats against a little 4-year-old girl."

In the comments, made between May 3 and Monday, Torain _ co-host of the syndicated "Star & Buc Wild Morning Show" _ offered $500 to any listener who could provide information about the rival DJ's daughter's school and used racial slurs when talking about his wife, who is part Asian.

"I will come for your kids," Torain said, according to transcribed excerpts provided by Liu's office. "I finally got the information on his slant-eyed, whore wife."

Torain called the couple's child a "little half a lo mein eater" and said he wanted to "do an R. Kelly on your seed, on your little baby girl. I would like to tinkle on her," according to the excerpts.

The comments apparently were referring to videotapes in 2002 showing a man bearing a striking resemblance to singer R. Kelly having sex with someone who appeared to be an underage girl and then urinating on her.

DJ Envy's wife, Gia Casey, has said she is parts Chinese, Jamaican and Scottish. Telephone messages left for a spokeswoman for hip-hop radio station Hot 97, where DJ Envy works, were not immediately returned Thursday evening.

Torain and his half brother, Timothy Joseph, or Buc Wild, hosted Hot 97's morning drive time show beginning in 2000 and joined Clear Channel Radio in March 2004. They began working at Power 105 in January 2005.

Their show aired in markets including Philadelphia, Miami and Richmond, Va.

Clear Channel, a unit of Clear Channel Communications Inc., said it found Torain's statements "wholly unacceptable."