(HAMBURG) - Coolio and seven members of his band 40 Thevz have been released on bail by prosecutors in Stuttgart, Germany, after being charged with committing theft and assault Friday in a boutique in the town of B÷blingen|

The charges include assaulting a female sales clerk in the clothes store Higgins Downtown and theft of clothes worth DM3,500 ($2,000). According to the city's public prosecutors' office, Coolio has denied most of the charges against him. Warrants were issued Sunday for the arrest of Coolio and the band members, shortly before they were due to leave the country for Switzerland as part of a concert tour.

Coolio was released on bail of DM150,000 ($85,800), and the band members on sums of DM20,000 ($11,400) each. The accused are to attend a pretrial hearing, the date of which has not been set. Jnrgen Sauer, Hamburg-based spokesman for Coolio's label, Tommy Boy, which is distributed by East/West Germany, says, "The reports in the media are an unfair distortion of the incident." Coolio's "C U When U Get There" is currently at No. 62 after 19 weeks on the German singles chart. It has already gone gold (250,000 sales).