News broke on June 10 about James William Ross IV, most famously known as RuPaul’s Drag Race season 2 winner Tyra Sanchez, being arrested for resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer. The same day, Ross posted on Twitter saying “Ummm. I’m not in jail,” and proceeded to say he woke up from a trip to Boston where he attended his son’s high school graduation. He continued to say, “You can stop with the rumors and speculation. Standby while I sue,” then tagged Starke Police Department who arrested him on May 17 according to Bradford County public court documents.
On June 11, Ross made a tweet directed at celebrity blogger @lovebscott saying it’s funny that a black trans identifying person who uses they/them pronouns continues to refer to Ross with she/her pronouns while still calling him Tyra.
He then follows up with another tweet to media outlets, “To every news outlet/media/blog that has reached out, NO I WILL NOT INTERVIEW WITH YOU.” Ross then asks why no one covered his comeback tour in February and an interview he did in March, ending his tweet by saying unless media outlets are paying at least $1,000 for his time to stay out of his inbox.
Ross retweets one of his tweets from February 8, 2023 to remind everyone that while he’s bringing back the character of Tyra he prefers he/him/his pronouns along with a collage of images of himself in and out of drag as well as Tyler Perry and Madea and Martin Lawrence and Sheneneh Jenkins. He retweets another tweet of his from December 20, 2022 where he lists names he goes by, none of them include Tyra, and under the he/him/his section it includes “KING.”
On June 15, Ross posted four pictures of himself in four different drag looks holding up a sign that reads “MIDDLE FINGER STARKE PD OINK!”
A tweet of his on June 16 claims his charges were dropped and is thinking of receiving $10 million for pain, suffering, and defamation as well as an extra $5 million for taser scars he has to see daily.
According to Bradford County Florida court documents, his charges for resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer have both been dropped/abandoned and the case is set to close.