A woman who performed Toni Braxton songs at a concert in South America has been acquitted in Suriname after a judge said it wasn’t clear if she was aware she was being passed off as the Grammy Award-winning singer.
As previously reported, Trina Johnson-Finn denied that she allowed up to 3,000 people to believe she was Braxton at a concert earlier this year. Many of those in attendance paid up to $53 per ticket.
When Johnson-Finn hit a bum note at the show, the audience realised they had been duped and pelted the stage with trash. Johnso-Finnn was rushed from the stage.
However, the singer’s husband Raymond Finn claimed that Johnson-Finn was conned by a local promoter who was responsible for duping the crowd, and that Johnson-Finn believed she was appearing as a Toni Braxton tribute artist.
The promoter, Angel Ventura, was tracked down and arrested in May, and will stand trial alongside his girlfriend Signet Sampson in July. Ventura had claimed that Johnson-Finn was aware of the scam but later retracted it, reports the Associated Press.
Johnson-Finn spent three months in jail before the ruling was made.
--By our New York staff.
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