A singer who was wrongly arrested for drink-driving has revealed she was asked to pay $12,000 to have her mugshot removed from a social media site.
Stefanie Fair, married to Grammy award-winning hitmaker Ron Fair, was arrested in Nashville on June 23.
A Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper stopped her for failing to pull over and claimed he smelled alcohol on her during a field sobriety test. WSMV reports.
Her blood work eventually came back completely clean two months later, but not before her mugshot surfaced on Scoop Nashville.
The shocked mother contacted the site to have it taken down, but was instead offered $10,000 to make it go away.
The Fairs said they were also contacted separately by a person claiming to be from the firm Reputation Defenders, who said they could remove it for $12,000.
“It was outright extortion,” Ron Fair said. “Hey Ron, we see your wife’s mugshot there, and that must be horrible for you with your profile, and we can remove that for the $12,000 fee.”
Stefanie Fair, pictured with husband Ron, was asked to pay $10,000 to remove a mugshot of an unlawful DUI arrest from an online news site
A company representative told WSMV that their name was being used “incorrectly.”
Fair is an award-winning songwriter behind hits by Christina Aguilera, Fergie, Gwen Stefani and the Pussycat Dolls, among others.
He and his wife share four children, who the couple says were also involved in the evil scheme.
“There was also another aspect to it that was very mean, cowardly and unacceptable, and that was the tagging of our children,” Ron said of the Scoop Nashville post.
The website was a controversial news source led by owner Jason Steen until his death earlier this year.
The content relied on public data, social media posts and online rumors to produce sensational but popular stories.
The Fairs decided to reject Steen’s offer, but their attorney Ben Raybin said some of his other clients paid the ransom.
“In Stephanie’s case, he initially quoted $10,000 dollars, but as a favor to me, he gave us a $7,500 discount,” Raybin said.
Fair, who is married to Grammy award-winning hitmaker Ron Fair, was arrested in Nashville on June 23
Her blood work eventually came back completely clean two months later, but not before her mugshot surfaced on Scoop Nashville, who demanded an eye-watering amount of money to remove her mugshot.
The former member of the teen girl group Wild Orchid was one of seven sober drivers wrongfully arrested by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, a WSMV investigation shows.
Bodycam footage showed her insisting she doesn’t drink before the arresting officer ordered her to begin a sobriety test.
“When he started asking me about drinking, I immediately got a feeling in my stomach,” Fair said.
“When he said he could smell it, I knew it was corrupt. This is completely wrong.’
Video from before the arrest also showed Fair coming out of an ice cream shop, which helped her defense.
‘If this could happen to me sober. It was just really scary,” she said.