A Grammy-winning producer and Stevenson Ranch resident who’s been in Sheriff’s Department custody since his August 2020 arrest on multiple sexual assault charges had a pretrial hearing last week over access to his Instagram account.
Noel Christopher Fisher, 46, who goes by the stage name Detail, was in court Friday to file a signed declaration granting Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, consent to release his private messages on the platform over an 11-year span, from 2010 to 2021, to his defense counsel.
Fisher’s attorney, Andrew Flier, is seeking his client’s release from custody using a motion under Penal Code section 995 that claims there are problems with the indictment.
Flier was not immediately available Thursday to comment on the case.
Fisher is facing 26 felony charges stemming from his arrest nearly five years ago, which involved allegations of sexual assaults against multiple victims dating back to 2010, according to the minute order in court records and previous reports.
The “Drunk in Love” producer is now facing accusations from 11 women who have alleged he assaulted them, which also included physical, emotional and sexual abuse, according to victim statements in court records.
Fisher has pleaded not guilty to 13 counts of rape, four counts of sodomy, four counts of oral copulation by force, three counts of assault and one count each of rape and battery.
The allegations against Detail first surfaced in a 2018 lawsuit alleging the assaults happened at Fisher’s Fountain Glen Court home. One of the victims, a Santa Clarita woman identified in court records as K.B., won a $15 million judgment against Fisher after he failed to respond to her lawsuit.
On Friday, Fisher’s defense counsel told the court it has been seeking Fisher’s social media messages since October, according to a motion filed in Downtown Los Angeles. Fisher’s attorney filed statements that Fisher no longer has access to the account, “and has been unable to regain access because the account was hacked and the account login credentials were changed.”
Meta’s legal position is that consent to release messages to law enforcement “must be express,” under the Stored Communications Act, meaning its position is the law “does not permit Meta to disclose content without consent and finding that the user only lawfully consented after he sent the email presented in court.”
A producer for nearly 15 years prior to his arrest, Detail won Grammys for Best R&B Performance and Best R&B Song in 2015. He has worked with artists such as Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Ray J and Niki Minaj, according to a Nixle alert posted by the Sheriff’s Department.
California’s Penal Code section 995 allows for a judge to dismiss a criminal indictment if a party can prove the indictment was granted without probable cause or there was a problem with the information presented for the indictment, according to state law.
The delays in the case and the challenges in presenting evidence have been numerous, based on court statements and testimony.
In January, private investigators asked for 95 more hours to review the case, which was granted, due to the sheer volume of evidence. The preliminary hearing contains 13 volumes of evidence and required trips both to England and France to speak with the victims.
Fisher’s next hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 22.
