A reggae artist told police he was “just looking to relax a bit after working hard” when they cited him for leaving his two children in an SUV outside a Sandy Springs hotel during a party.
“Survivor Slim,” whose real name is Ricardo Raffington, was at the Extended Stay on the 900 block of Crestline Parkway on June 29 when Sandy Springs police found the children in the vehicle as music blared from the speakers.
“They apologized and stated they were simply waiting for their father who had entered the (hotel) to get a room for the night,” Officer G.L. Gorham wrote in his report. “I asked the children to keep the volume down and stay within the vehicle.”
A second officer attempted to search for Raffington inside the hotel, but management told him they received no requests for a room and that a large group was going to room 211, according to the report.
After checking to make sure they had the correct hotel, officers said they ran into Raffington, who told police he’d gone to the room to get his wallet from his fellow musicians and planned to return to his car within five minutes.
Gorham said he told Raffington he’d been waiting at the SUV for 20 minutes.
Raffington gave officers permission to search the room, where they found several adults drinking alcohol and smelled a distinct marijuana odor, the report states. The officers continued to search the room before releasing Raffington on reckless conduct charges.
Raffington told Gorham his “biased perspective” as an officer clouded his judgment and that he was a hardworking father looking to relax after work, according to the report.
“He further added his children did not seem at harm, in distress or distraught given they were comfortable in air conditioning, and playing on their iPad,” Gorham wrote.
But Gorham said leaving the children alone in the SUV at 2 a.m. in the hotel district of the city was not safe: “(That) was the reason for my concern.”
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