Crime

F.B.I. Investigating Judge Who Dropped Devastating Diss-Sentence On Meek Mill

Would the rapper receive mercy if he was with a different label? Does he even deserve it?

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Meek Mill

If you had black friends, you’d be all about the Meek Mill situation today. Since you don’t have any, let me explain why #JUSTICE4MEEK is trending.

Robert Rihmeek Williams, a.k.a. Meek Mill, is a talented Philadelphia rapper who could whup Drake’s ass (just my opinion). Unfortunately, before he was famous, he was busted for firearm possession and assaulting a police officer back when he was 18. In 2008 he was convicted on gun and drug possession charges, and went to prison. He was released on probation in 2009.

Since then, Mill has had a series of probation violations. Some of them are minor — he failed to notify officers of his travel plans while flying around the country doing concerts. Some of them are more serious — he apparently made death threats to a judge on social media. The most serious violation is the most recent. Mill was arrested in 2017 in a St. Louis airport for assaulting two pedestrians.

That last one sent him back to jail. Even though the prosecutors themselves suggested no additional jail time, even though the assault charges were dropped, Judge Genece Brinkley evidently had enough of Mill’s antics. She considered the arrests themselves an additional violation, and threw the book at him, sentencing him to two-to-four years in prison, and then telling the rapper “I’ll be done with you.”

The end, right? Black man, in trouble with the law, finally runs into a judge who won’t play. Happens all the time.

It’s not nearly the end. First, Mill is famous enough, and black people are aware enough of our systemic oppression by this country, that putting a man in lock-up for two-to-four years more than even the prosecutors thought was appropriate is going to draw some ire. Colin Kaepernick, Jay-Z, (not Drake, I checked), Kevin Hart and many others, posted support of Meek Mill on their social media accounts.

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Jay-Z, in particular, went right after the judge in the case:

The sentence handed down by the Judge — against the recommendation of the Assistant District Attorney and Probation Officer — is unjust and heavy handed. We will always stand by and support Meek Mill, both as he attempts to right this wrongful sentence and then in returning to his musical career.

When reached for comment, I sure hope Judge Brinkley said: “B*tch I’m a boss, I call the shots.”

But, normally, the F.B.I. doesn’t get involved just because some famous black people are talking about injustice. It’s not the strong statements from the celebrity community that make this case important, but the allegations from Mill’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, about Judge Brinkley that has piqued the F.B.I.’s interest. From Billboard:

“She’s enamored with him,” Tacopina tells Billboard. “She showed up at his community service for the homeless people. She showed up and sat at the table. She’s a judge. You could pull any judge in America and ask them how many times they’ve showed up at a community service for a probation and the answer is zero.”…

Tacopina spoke to Billboard about what he called Brinkley’s “infatuation” with Mill, how she requested that he re-record a Boyz II Men song and shout her out, and how she wanted him to leave Roc Nation to sign with a friend of hers.

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Umm… BIG IF TRUE! It’s highly irregular for a judge to “check-in” on somebody’s community service. And it’s entirely inappropriate for a judge to request a freaking song, even in jest. Mill’s not there to step and fetch. (And, for the uninitiated, a black judge asking a rapper to cover Boyz II Men is like a white judge asking a rapper to cover Frank Sinatra. It’s purposefully insulting to rap music and suggests a level of cultural elitism and bias that, again, is wholly inappropriate for a judge.)

However, Tacopina does not cover himself in credibility here. His innuendo that Judge Brinkley is somehow sexually interested in Mill is prima facie sexist. Judge Brinkley is not Nicki Minaj. Suggesting that she wants to bone Mill makes me doubt other elements of Tacopina’s story.

Still, the fact that the F.B.I. is involved suggests that something is going on with Judge Brinkley that should not be, and it might not be limited to Meek Mill. According to the Daily Mail, undercover agents have been in her courtroom since sometime in 2016.

Folks, the F.B.I. is not dedicating that resource just because you were over harsh with a black guy, I don’t care how much flow he has.

Was the Meek Mill sentence harsh? Yes. Does it speak to the greater injustice against black men in the criminal justice system? Sure. But I have no faith that the system is capable of self-correcting itself to stop the systemic incarceration of young black men.

I do have some faith that the system can protect itself from out-and-out judicial corruption. If Judge Brinkley is compromised, I expect Mill to be released soon. But if she’s not… well then this is just the way it goes. If you are on probation, you better be perfect, or the system will snatch you up and take your freedom at its earliest opportunity. Meek Mill, as he said in court, is “not perfect.”

He said he was asking for “mercy,” but what he was really asking for is for was that his fame to keep him out of jail once again. Non-rap star black men would be back in jail for fewer probation violations, and their incarceration wouldn’t blow up my Twitter feed in the morning.

Meek Mill’s Attorney Says Judge Told Rapper to Leave Roc Nation, Sign With Her Friend [Billboard]
FBI investigates judge who jailed Meek Mill [Daily Mail]

Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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