Image: EurWeb
She says she was assaulted, police are lying, and a friend made the fundraiser
Police charged her with theft by deception in January 2024, and the jury returned its guilty verdict in October 2025 after hearing three days of testimony. She was then sentenced to 10 years of probation, and she and her defence team said in court that they would appeal the conviction. KPRC reported that Houston police officers responded to an aggravated assault call on 3 September 2023 and met Osman and a female friend. By 25 October 2023, it had raised $42,302, according to the charging documents. On 15 September, detectives tried to reach Osman but found that the number she had given belonged to her friend. She pointed them to a 2020 GoFundMe page created by or for Osman. It had a $5,000 goal to cover medical bills, legal fees and a new phone after a claimed attack by private security that left facial bruising, a black eye and leg injuries. Minneapolis police told Houston police they had no record of any report that Osman was assaulted in 2020. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office asked the court to set bail at $50,000 on the theft charge. Osman was already on bail for a separate offence dated 22 September 2023, which court records list as felony assault and domestic violence. She had agreed to surrender at a quarter to four in the afternoon on Thursday 18 January 2024, but did not arrive. Osman told Business Insider in January 2024, when she was 33, that on the night in question she and her friend met two men while going clubbing, and that one of them pestered her for her phone number all night even though she turned him down. She rejected the claim that the 2020 fundraiser was fraudulent, saying police were taking it from social media and that being attacked more than once is not a crime or a hoax. As per reports from October 2025 that the jury reached its verdict after about two and a half hours of deliberation, and that Osman had to be told to calm down several times when it was returned. Judge Dan Simons attached conditions to the probation, 90 days in jail, inpatient substance abuse treatment, full restitution of $42,302 and a ban on using social media for 10 years. If she violates the terms, she could serve a 10-year prison sentence. Osman was taken into custody at the end of the trial to begin the 90 days. A $50,000 appeal bond was denied the following morning for unclear reasons, and the appeals process could take more than a year. In January 2024, he had said he received death threats over the false brick claim.
Because she believed Osman was running a scam, citing a similar situation in Minneapolis in 2020, while the investigation was under way, a mental health advocate and TikTok blogger called detectives. Because she had been hit on the head, had a concussion and had been drinking, she said she could not recall everything clearly. Because she did not create the GoFundMe page, and that her friend made it because she wanted to help, she also said she should not face a fraud charge.
Several donors reported it as fraudulent, and it was frozen. Hospital records she shared with the outlet show a doctor reported a bruise on the left side of her face and blood coming from her left ear. Harris County prosecutor Keith Houston said bank records shown at trial revealed all of the donated money had been spent on trips to Jamaica and New York, at restaurants, at spas and on rideshares.
Roda Osman, the Houston woman known online as the “Brick Lady”, was convicted of theft by a Harris County jury over a GoFundMe fundraiser that raised $42,302 on her claim that a man hit her in the face with a brick after she refused to give him her phone number. A GoFundMe page called “Help Roda Recover”, listing Osman as the beneficiary, was created on 4 September, the day after the reported assault. Its description said she was viciously attacked with a brick by a man whose number she refused to give, and that onlookers stood by and did not even call an ambulance. GoFundMe said in a statement that it has zero tolerance for misuse of its platform and cooperates with law enforcement. The friend told them she was not from Houston and had gone drinking at several places with Osman, who called male friends to pick them up. She said she heard Osman cry out that she had been hit, but heard no argument beforehand. She also said she did not believe Osman had been hit with a brick, according to the charging documents. She said she ended the friendship after finding out Osman was scamming people, and that the donation request was based on a false story. Community activists Candence Matthews and Quannel X said Osman had contacted them for help and that they had arranged the surrender with her. They said it was the first time someone they had worked with failed to show up. She said that at around four or five in the morning, as the group stood on the street deciding whether to call an Uber, the man forced her to touch him sexually and choked her. When she tried to get away, she said, he hit her over the head with something and ran to his friend’s car. She said police were lying about the surveillance footage, that she never held an object, and that what hit her could have been a liquor bottle. “Not remembering every single detail of assault and trauma is not a crime,” she said. Houston said the leading theory for her facial injury is that she hit her head on the car door frame when she went down beside the open door, though exactly what happened is not fully clear. Douglas also said that Osman made a couple of months of his life “a living hell”, and that he was happy with the verdict and the sentencing plan.
Officers noted that Osman was intoxicated, hostile and irate. Police alleged in the complaint that Osman had a friend start the page based on the brick story. The fundraiser has been removed, all donors have been refunded and Osman has been barred from using the site. Osman’s former roommate, who was living with her when the first fundraiser was created, also contacted detectives. She then saw a brick on the ground and assumed he had used it. The affidavit does not mention her claim that he forced her to touch him. She called police afterwards and was taken to hospital by ambulance. Osman believed police filed the charges in retaliation for her reporting one of the officers who handled her case. The Houston Police Department declined to comment on that allegation. Surveillance video showed Osman hitting Olan Douglas, the man she had accused, before he hit her back. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.
Because she would not give him her phone number, according to court documents, in her original report at the scene, Osman said she was walking on Schumacher Lane when an unknown man threw a brick at her.
She also said she had ordered an Uber and believed the man who threw the brick was the driver, that she got into his car, and that he then tried to kidnap her. Osman added that the man was involved in human trafficking and had a large group of women in the car.
A detective finally reached Osman by phone on 19 September. On 20 September, detectives canvassed the area and obtained footage from surveillance cameras in the 5600 block of Schumacher Lane. About 20 minutes later, the three came out and, with an unidentified driver, got into a white Maserati.
Business Insider reported that in a video later taken down, Osman appeared in a hospital gown with a swollen face.
She said a man picked up a brick in front of many other men and asked what they were going to do about it, and she accused those men of doing nothing. Online, she became known as the “Brick Lady”, and many creators debated what had happened. Osman said a dark-coloured sedan pulled up as she left a club, that she assumed it was the Uber she had called, and that the man inside hit her in the face with a brick. She also said she had carried out her own investigation and identified the man. When the detective asked where her friend was, Osman became upset and said she was far away, talking to another man. Osman and the man argued in the back seat, according to the charging documents. When they got out, the detective’s affidavit says Osman hit the man in the face with an unknown object, and he struck her in the face with a plastic water bottle in response. Detectives described Osman as the aggressor and said the footage did not match her recorded statement.
Osman also went live on Instagram, and the video linked from her fundraiser received more than one million likes. Osman then changed her account, saying she was instead assaulted at a club. After further questions, she asked for the detective’s supervisor and hung up. It shows Osman, her friend and the man she named walking into a lounge together.