Ozzy Osbourne has lashed out against Cass County Sheriff Paul D. Laney, who used his and Rob Zombie‘s names as part of a sting operation last week to catch several deadbeat dads at a nightclub in Fargo, N.D.
According to the sheriff’s office, he had sent out phony invitations a couple of weeks back, to 500 different people with outstanding warrants, most of whom were dads that had repeatedly neglected to pay child support and show up for custody hearings and the like.
As Laney himself put it during a press conference after the bust, “[These people] get very creative in how they abscond from the law. … We just got real creative in how we reeled them in.” And it did catch almost 40 people, who had no doubt expected to meet and have a drink with Ozzy Osbourne and Rob Zombie as part of an pre-concert event to tie in with a concert that was taking place last Monday in the area.
But Ozzy was none too happy when he heard that his name had been used in conjunction with the operation, telling reporters, “Instead of holding a press conference to pat himself on the back, Sheriff Laney should be apologizing to me for using my name in connection with these arrests. … It is insulting to me and to my audience and it shows how lazy this particular sheriff is when it comes to doing his job.”
Laney claims that he had no intentions of tarnishing Ozzy’s image with the sting: “We meant no disrespect toward Mr. Osbourne or his show.” He went on to explain that having mentioned Ozzy’s name in the phony invites was no different than a bar mentioning the names of two football teams when promoting a Super Bowl party. That said, those of you who live in the Fargo area, if you have any outstanding warrants, you’d better not go to any Super Bowl parties at any bars anytime soon.
(The Associated Press, WENN.com)
