Victor Willis, the legendary lead singer of the Village Individuals who famously dressed as a cop within the costume-clad group, discovered himself in hassle with the actual police after a wild evening in Reno that ended with him below arrest, RadaOnline.com can report.
The founding member of the disco band handed away on Tuesday, June 30, at age 74 after a “quick however aggressive sickness.”
Lengthy earlier than the campy Village Folks turned President Trump’s favourite band, Willis confronted life in jail on prices of drug trafficking and assaulting a homeless lady.
The alleged assault went down in Reno, Nevada, in 1997, when Willis was arrested by police hours after selecting up a 29-year-old lady outdoors the Flamingo Hilton.
“She’s not a hooker,” defined a Flamingo insider on the time. “She’s a homeless individual and likes to occasion, however she’s not promoting s-x.”
Willis got here to Reno from San Francisco to gamble. Onlookers stated he dressed the half: an extended brown leather-based coat, fedora, black pants and boots, and a silk shirt. The lady stated he confirmed her about $2,000 and promised that she’d “have a very good time.”
The pair reportedly performed craps and roulette earlier than going as much as his room, the place insiders stated Willis went wild.
“She stated Willis was demanding s-x,” the supply claimed. “She stated no, and he misplaced his cool.”
In keeping with police, Willis beat the slim, 5-foot-1 occasion lady, ripped off her necklace and bracelet, and emptied her purse. Bruised and weeping, she discovered a safety guard, who known as the police.
Cops grabbed Willis as he performed roulette and escorted him as much as his room, the place they found $1,500 in money, drug gear, and 15 grams of crack cocaine price $10,000.
Willis was jailed on a $16,500 bail. Finally, the felony theft and drug prices have been later dropped.
Nevertheless, that wasn’t the primary time Willis discovered himself below arrest for assaulting a girl. In October 1992, he was jailed for beating and raping a girl who lived with him for every week in San Francisco. The jury deadlocked on prices, and Willis walked.
Willis blamed his troubles on the top of his two-year marriage to actress Phylicia Rashad in 1979, proper on the peak of his recognition. Rashad later soared to fame on The Cosby Present and married sportscaster Ahmad Rashad.
Then in 1980, after hits YMCA, Macho Man and Within the Navy, the Village Folks booted him from the group. He claimed it was as a result of he wasn’t homosexual. After that rejection, he bought hooked on cocaine – and his life fell to items.
“I’ve had my probabilities, and I’ve blown them,” Willis lamented. “Crack cocaine has ruined my life. I haven’t got the cash for bail. I may face a giant sentence. I nonetheless cannot perceive: How did all of it go so flawed?”
Willis’ dying was introduced in a quick assertion shared by his spouse on Fb.
“It’s with profound disappointment that I need to announce the dying of my husband, Victor Willis,” Karen Huff-Willis wrote. “Victor handed away on Tuesday, June 30, 2026 on account of a brief, however aggressive sickness.”
“The household request privateness presently of nice loss.”