Legal News: Remy Ma Faces 25 Years, T.I. Pleads Guilty; News on Diddy, Kanye and Nate Dogg
By Bryan Munson
New York, NY (March 27, 2008) – While our nation’s biggest entertainers feel it necessary to break the law willingly and often, this has been an exceptionally busy week. Lawsuits, claims and guilty verdicts… just another day in hip-hop.
Gangstas Don’t Dance, They Boogie: Remy Ma Facing 25 Years
Remy Ma (real name Remy Smith), on trial for allegedly shooting long-time friend Makeda Barnes Joseph after a monetary dispute, was found guilty today of weapons possession and coercion in relation to the July 2007 incident. She was lead out of the downtown Manhattan Supreme Court in handcuffs and tears; she faces up to 25 years in prison.
For those of you not up to speed on the trial, Remy and her peoples were partying down in the Meatpacking District of NYC when the rapper and Joseph got in a dispute over $3,000. Remy alleged that Joseph stole it, a claim Joseph denied. In the struggle that ensued, Joseph was shot in the stomach and Remy fled the scene, crashing her SUV a few blocks away. Joseph’s injury would require three surgeries to fix. At trial, Remy’s defense team admitted that she shot Joseph, but claimed it was an accident and that the gun went off as they fought over a purse Remy believed contained the money. The former Terror Squad femcee was denied a bail request and will wait in jail until sentencing on April 22nd.
Read more from The Post.
T.I. vs. The Feds
Clifford Harris, pka T.I., pleaded guilty to federal weapons charges today, and will begin serving his jail sentence in one year. While he awaits sentencing, Harris must complete at least 1,000 hours of a total 1,500 hours of community service, which includes but is not limited to, talking to youth groups about the pitfalls of guns, gangs and drugs. No word on how the perception of any music released during that time will be taken into account for sentencing (what’s T.I.’s music without a couple threats?)
Details of the case had Harris pleading guilty to charges that included possession of an unregistered firearm, possession of machine guns and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was initially charged with possession of unregistered machine guns and silencers, as well as possession of firearms by a convicted felon; he had faced a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count (instead he’ll receive a year and one day when he goes in March 27, 2009).
Harris was allegedly trying to buy machine guns and silencers when he was arrested. He initially pleaded not guilty, and had been under house arrest since being released October 26th on $3 million bond. Incidentally, Tip was let out his house for Easter and mingled with other Sunday churchgoers.
Will Diddy Sue The L.A. Times?
In case you’ve been high for the past 48 hours, one of the biggest news stories circulating has been the story of, well, the lack of a real story. Last week, the L.A. Times published an expose that accused Sean “Diddy” Combs and Jimmy “Henchmen” Rosemond of having prior knowledge of the 1994 Tupac Shakur/Quad Recording Studios shooting incident in New York City, the incident that ignited the East Coast/West Coast fued. The information was based on an anonymous studio informant and apparently legitimate FBI documents obtained by the L.A. Times from James Sabatino, a part-time promoter for Combs at the time.
However, on Wednesday, The Smoking Gun, a U.S.-based investigative watchdog site, claimed that the documents Pulitzer Prize-winning Times journalist Chuck Philips based his article on were elaborate forgeries, done at the hand of the full-time scam artist Sabatino. They cited a mountain of evidence in extremely detailed expose of their own (click here for TSG: “Big Phat Liar").
After reviewing the Smoking Gun report and some internal conferences, the Times and Phillips issued a joint apology late last night, admitting they were “duped” by the very con artist that they trusted to delivery the real story. Phillips said he was sorry and accepted responsibility for the goof. If you haven’t already, you can check out the original L.A. Times piece (as well as the official apology directly before it) here.
On the media side, the fall-out here is akin to the NY Times/Jayson Blair case a few years ago, and the Dan Rather/CBS fiasco over President Bush’s war records. These are only two of many examples where sensationalism got the best of an overzealous scribe, and it’s unfortunate because everyone involved in the situation (including me) was seeking some sort of closure and deemed this a somewhat definitive step in that direction.
Now, on the legal side, the day the story hit the web, both Diddy and Rosemond vehemently denied involvement; if the documents prove to be as false as The Smoking Gun is claiming and Sabatino did indeed fake the entire funk, then the cards are stacked for a potential slam-dunk defamation lawsuit against the Times. The question is, will Diddy pull the trigger (no pun intended), or refrain and let the situation dissolve? What SHOULD he do? Read more on the ethical problems involved here.
In other Diddy news, he settled his assault case from February 2007.
Kanye Stole The Good Life Away From Me!
A Maryland-based producer named D’Mystro is suing Kanye West for copyright infringement. The suit alleges that West “didn’t obtain a license to use ‘Volume of Good Life’” in creating his own version, “Good Life.” TMZ.com has links if you’d like to actually see the documentation.
D’Mystro also says that his reputation is being damaged because of West’s “vulgar and offensive” lyrics. In D’Mystro’s bio on his MySpace, he happily claims to have rubbed elbows with Jay-Z, Memphis Bleek, Dame Dash, Freeway, Roc Family and the Neptunes as part of the Sprite Liquid Mixer Tour. My question is… what was his image like back then that it wasn’t being affected by authors of such gems like: “cheat on your man ma, that’s how you get a-hizzead”?
Sounds like someone wants some money and isn’t afraid to whore himself out to get it. Thoughts?
Oh No! Nate Dogg Ain’t Scared To Assault…
This one might have slipped under the radar. TMZ.com reported on Tuesday that hook-master Nate Dogg pleaded guilty to trespassing and battery in a 2006 Huntington Beach, CA incident where Nate punched his ex-wife’s boyfriend in the face. As part of the agreement, TMZ.com notes, he must complete “three years informal probation, must complete a domestic violence/batterers treatment program and can not own a weapon for 10 years.”
Sixteen in the clip and one in the hole…
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