Flo Rida Leaves NY Family Court With Folder Over Face
Flo Rida was taken to Family Court in the Bronx by ex Alexis Adams, mother to his son, Zohar, 6.
The rapper agreed to support the disabled boy, which could set him back nearly $500,000 a year.
The "Good Feelings" rapper covered his head with a hat, mask and folder as he darted into a waiting Mercedes van.
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A dressed-down, incognito Flo Rida agreed to a massive child support package for his disabled child during a Family Court hearing in New York City on Thursday — a combination of monthly and annual payments that could set him back a half-million dollars a year.
Under the agreement with ex Alexis Adams, the "Good Feeling" rapper will pay $14,000 a month in support and $2,212 a month in health insurance for Zohar Dillard, a six-year-old special-needs boy who was recently seriously injured in a 5-story fall.
He was also ordered to set up a $300,000 escrow account for Zohar's needs. The account must be replenished annually, each September. Topping the package is a one-time, $188,000 payment the rapper must wire to Adams immediately, to compensate her for outstanding expenses that include Zohar's school costs.
A multi-millionaire, Flo Rida, given name Tramar Dillard, was bling-free on Tuesday as he tried to escape notice in the sprawling courthouse.
He wore a bulky, olive Balenciaga parka that retails for $2,950, slim-fitting black jeans, and nondescript black sneakers.
Nearly his entire head was obscured by his pulled-up parka collar, his pulled-down black bucket hat, and a large black-cloth COVID mask.
He removed the hat only when before Shira Atzmon, the Bronx family court support magistrate who has presided over the couple's legal skirmishes for five years.
Flo Rida gave Atzmon his address for the record, and his affirmation that he would tell the truth, but otherwise did not speak publicly, including to Insider.
After court, he waited in a nearby deli for his chauffeur to bring his silver Mercedes van around, then dashed inside, holding a blue folder to his face.
Flo Rida outside court after his child support hearing. Alan Chin/Insider
Adams, who wore a trim dark pants suit and a sleek pony tail, also did not speak after the hearing.
"She's grateful to the court, and that it's over," her attorney, Dror Bikel, told Insider at the conclusion of the at-times tense, morning-long negotiations, held mostly in the hallway of the court house's windowless bottom floor.
At one point, as Flo Rida and Adams sat alone on opposite ends of a long hallway, Bikel and an attorney for the rapper, Stephen L. Drummond, shouted at each other near the door to the courtroom.
"Either we're going to go to trial, or we're reaching an agreement — I don't want to talk any more," Adams' lawyer told Flo Rida's lawyer.
"You want war? I'm ready for war," Flo Rida's lawyer shouted back.
"I'm waiting for a number from you," he added. "I was in the Marine Corps. I'm used to war."
Alexis Adams, the mother of Flo Rida's son, outside court after their child support hearing. Alan Chin/Insider
Adams alleged that she resorted to going on Medicaid after the "Low" rapper failed to pay health insurance and medical bills in the aftermath of Zohar's accidental fall. Born neurologically disabled, the boy suffered a shattered pelvis, fractures in his left foot, and internal bleeding.
Adams has alleged that the rapper failed for years to abide by a 2018 support order requiring $9,000 a month plus medical and school costs for the child, over whom she has full custody.
Since then, Adams alleged that Flo Rida remained behind in his payments, and stopped paying the medical insurance for the boy soon after his March 4 accidental fall from a fifth-floor window of their apartment in Jersey City, NJ.
Flo Rida's finances would appear to be in good shape at the moment, though. In January, he won an $82.6 million award from the energy drink company Celsius, courtesy of a Florida jury.
The rapper and his production company, Strong Arm Productions, sued Celsius in May 2021, for violating the stock-option provisions of a 2014-2018 endorsement deal.
Flo Rida told NBC News that he had gained a "new respect for the judicial system" after the jury's verdict.
Atzmon was cordial to both parties on Tuesday. When Drummond, Flo Rida's attorney, thanked her for her patience as they spent the morning hammering out an agreement, she answered, "I'm glad. I'd much rather you both compromise than get a decision from me."
But Atzmon had scolded Flo Rida, through another of his lawyers, during a hearing in 2018, according to Bossip.
When that lawyer asked that Flo Rida be allowed to have a say in which school Zohar attends — so he could be sure that the tuition was "reasonable" — the magistrate snapped, "What does he care?" the news site reported.
"He's not involved in this child's life. He's met him once," the news site quoted the magistrate complaining. "This is all about money, and I've had it up to here."
Flo Rida is now hoping to arrange monthly visits, Drummond told Atzmon on Tuesday.
"He wants to have visitation with his son," Drummond said. "This is something we'd really like to see."
Atzmon responded that as a support magistrate, it is beyond her purview to order visitation. She wished the parents well in working out a visitation schedule among themselves.
Flo Rida had been a mega-star for a decade by the time Zohar was born; the rapper's 2007 breakout single, "Low," became a club classic and topped the Billboard charts for 10 weeks.
The couple's child suffers from autism and the neurological disorder hydrocephalus, Adams' lawyers have said.
Source: Insider
