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Vanilla Ice Off the Hook for Wife-Spat Rap
Palm Beach County Sheriff's Department
The Iceman goeth free.
Prosecutors in Palm Beach, Fla., have dropped a charge of simple domestic battery against Vanilla Ice, citing lack of evidence, E! News has learned.
"There was no likelihood of conviction," said a spokeswoman for the state attorney in Palm Beach County.
According to the "no file" declaration, officials declined to press the battery charge against the 40-year-old "Ice Ice Baby" purveyor (real name: Robert Van Winkle) after wife Laura Van Winkle retracted allegations that he had hit and kicked her during a spat at home. (View the declaration.)
"There is insufficient credible evidence to prove the charge beyond a reasonable doubt due to the victim recanting her original statement and lack of an independent witness," the document reads.
The county clerk and sheriff also rescinded a restraining order barring Ice from having contact with his missus and only allowing him monitored visitation with their two children, 8-year-old Dustee Rain and 10-year-old Keelee Breeze.
According to the police report, Laura told deputies responding to her 911 call that the incident occurred in front of one of their two kids after the couple got into a heated argument about the purchase of a bedroom set.
Officers tracked down the one-hit wonder riding his motorcycle two blocks from the house. By the time they returned to his residence, his wife, who was not injured, changed her tune and said Ice had only shoved her and she wasn't really in fear for her safety.
An arraignment that had originally been scheduled for May 5 is now off the calendar.
Vanilla Ice's attorney, Bradford Cohen, welcomed today's news, insisting it was always the family's contention that the incident "was a verbal argument and it wasn't physical."
"His wife from the get-go indicated she didn't want to press charges and it was a big misunderstanding, but police arrested him anyway," the lawyer tells E! News. "We provided the State Attorney's Office with statements that it was only verbal from witnesses and from his wife, who recanted on the scene what she told them."
As for the Van Winkles, Cohen said the family was "doing very well" and eager to put the mess behind them.
"Rob's excited that he gets to go back home, because all the restraining orders have been dropped. He can't wait to see his kids, and everyone's excited about it."
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