A sex charge for a sort-of celebrity

Uncle Kracker leaves jail in limo

RALEIGH -- On Thursday evening, Uncle Kracker was a second-tier pop star best known for his famous friends Kenny Chesney and Kid Rock. On Friday morning, he shot straight to the top of the celebrity charts, thanks to an eye-popping headline: Jailed in Raleigh and charged with a sexual offense, bail set at $5 million.

Kracker, real name Matthew Shafer, had been in Raleigh to perform at a Thursday night outdoor concert at the Depot building on Davie Street downtown. He was arrested early Friday after a woman who had been at a downtown club filed a complaint.

Shafer, who called the accusation "regretable" in a statement to People magazine, spent less than a day in jail. After he hired a local lawyer, his bail was reduced to $75,000 by District Court Judge Jane P. Gray at a Friday afternoon hearing.

By then, however, news of the arrest was major news in the gossip sphere. Between the high-dollar bail and the charge -- second-degree forcible sexual offense, a Class C felony punishable by four to 15 years in prison -- Shafer's case has ample spectacle potential.

The story made headlines on news sites where you'd rarely see Uncle Kracker's name nowadays, including Forbes and CBS News, as well as celebrity-gossip sites including idolator.com and tmz.com. On the latter, reader comments ranged from, "Kracker is whack" to "He was framed by the man!!"

After posting bail, Shafer left town in a waiting limousine, slipping out of a rear exit of the Public Safety Building to avoid crowds of reporters, photographers and onlookers. Given that Shafer's biggest hit came years ago, it was probably the biggest paparazzi situation he has confronted in some time.

"Scandal does not pay attention to whether or not somebody is between projects," said Sean Ross, a vice president for Edison Media Research in New Jersey. "Britney Spears' last real hit was almost four years ago, and it's been many years since Lindsay Lohan's last hit movie. They still make headlines."

Shafer is a 33-year-old Michigan native who gained notice in the 1990s as the disc jockey for rock-rap star Kid Rock. Like his mentor, Shafer works a similar crossover between hip-hop and redneck rock. In recent years, he has moved away from rap to bluesy country-rock.

Buoyed by the top-5 hit single "Follow Me," Uncle Kracker's 2000 debut album "Double Wide" sold more than 2 million copies. He had his best-known hit in 2003 with a cover of Dobie Gray's 1973 classic "Drift Away."

Kracker performed Thursday night at the grand opening for three nightspots in the restored Depot building -- although the clubs weren't open because of construction and permit issues. The show went on anyway, in the parking lot, with several thousand people in attendance.

Afterward, a crowd gathered in the nearby Ess Lounge at 327 W. Davie St. About 1:30 a.m. Friday, a 26-year-old woman approached an off-duty police officer to say that Shafer committed a sexual act against her in the nightclub.

Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue said that the woman and Shafer were not acquaintances and that she did not require medical treatment. Authorities have not described the nature of the offense.

"It's not the appropriate time to detail that," Sughrue said Friday. "It may come out during the judicial process."

The News & Observer generally does not name people who report sexual assaults.

In a statement that People magazine reported on its Web site Friday night, Shafer said, "It's regretable that someone would make this kind of allegation, not only because it's not the kind of thing I'd do, as the father of two girls, it's the kind of thing that I wouldn't stand for."