Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz
Meek Mill will be going back to court Tuesday to make his case for having his 2008 gun possession conviction overturned. He will base his case off of the arresting cop having a notoriously dirty record, mixed with a credibility issue.
Back in 2007, Meek Mill was arrested while on his way to the corner store when Narcotics Officer Reggie Graham went to execute an arrest warrant on Meek. Meek admits he was carrying a gun at the time, but when he noticed he was being pursued by police he says he ditched it. Graham claimed that Meek had pointed the gun at him. During the arrest, Meek claims Graham used excessive force by using his head to physically open the door of the home where the officers found $30,000 that belonged to his Meek’s cousin, William Bailey, who sold weed. The product of the arrest was Meek’s infamous mugshot that would later be used for the DC4 mixtape cover.
https://twitter.com/KarenCivil/status/791846205982580736
In 2008, Meek faced 19 counts of different charges ranging from guns to possession of drugs. This is when he first encountered Judge Genece Brinkley, Meek opted not to go to jury trial because of the cost. Judge Brinkley found Meek guilty on seven charges, four were related to the weapon. Any misdemeanor illegal carry charge typically warrants a fine and house arrest rather than either of those punishments, the rapper got two years in a county prison and eight years of probation.
In October of 2012 Meek was in New York promoting his debut Album Dreams and Nightmares when he was pulled over, and subsequently arrested for not allowing police to search his car. Police say they pulled Meek over because of the tints, and said they smelled weed in his car. Two weeks later Judge Brinkley violates Meek probation and demands he takes two drug tests, both of which came back clean. Despite both tests coming back clean, Brinkley does not let the rapper leave the city to promote his album.
Over the next five years Meek would be in and out of court and jail with petty probation violations. Consistently probation made it extremely difficult for him to do basic daily tasks, such as picking his son up from school, or touring to promote his album, which is simply his job.
Gayle King of CBS sat down with Meek Mill and talked about the troubles probation has caused him.
“My son lived in New Jersey, but I lived in Philadelphia, and the bridge is a 15-minute ride, it’s just a bridge. I couldn’t go get my son from school when I wanted to… Some days I would get off work early, I would just have a free day, and I would just want to pop up at my son’s school and get him from school, can’t really do it.”
Judge Brinkley who was over the case and sent him to prison in 2017 on a parole violation (go figure) had a grudge against the performer, the lawyers said, and city prosecutors agree. Now Meek will plead to have his case overturned, and retried with a new judge.
