Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine arrested in New York for parole violation – National
Rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine tried unsuccessfully Tuesday to persuade a federal judge not to send him to prison, calling him a “brother” and insisting he never intended to violate the terms of his probation following a felony conviction.
Judge Paul A. Engelmayer of Manhattan ordered him detained for at least two weeks, citing allegations of misconduct such as failing drug tests and refusing to obtain required permission to travel – acts which, according to him, would reflect a lack of respect for the law.
The judge also noted that the artist left the Dominican Republic this year, violating a court order allowing him to stay there after being arrested in January on domestic violence charges and detained in October 2023 after being accused of assaulting a local music producer. His lawyers say he is being treated unfairly there, in a corrupt justice system.
In 2019, Engelmayer sentenced him to two years in prison in a racketeering case. The musician, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, pleaded guilty in 2019 to charges accusing him of joining and leading the violence of the gang known as the Nine Trey Gangsta Bloods.
Tekashi 6ix9ine was scheduled to appear in court Tuesday morning. When he failed to do so, Engelmayer signed an arrest warrant. When the rapper showed up later that morning, he was arrested and charged with violating his probation multiple times, which a prosecutor described as a “pattern of non-compliance.”
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Engelmayer, who released Tekashi 6ix9ine in early April 2020 by granting a request for compassionate release due to the dangers the coronavirus posed to him, was stern as the rapper sat before him.
He seemed to soften somewhat after Tekashi 6ix9ine insisted on addressing him directly.
The rapper apologized for arriving late to court.
“I’m not a bad person,” he said, noting that he had completed four and a half years of a five-year supervised release sentence but ran into problems after his supervision was transferred in July from New York court officers. York to officers of the Southern District Court of Florida, where he currently lives.
He disputed prosecutors’ claims that he did not seek permission to travel to Las Vegas in early September for a show in front of 20,000 people, and said he skipped two appointments for drug tests because he thought they were unnecessary. after a previous positive test for marijuana use turned out to be incorrect.
“I feel like I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said, while quickly adding that he knew he did some things that were “technically” wrong.
Otherwise, he said, it would have been “perfectly clean.”
He also said that his life was difficult and that “the last four years have been bad, brother.”
He added: “Freedom is everything to me. »
Later, Tekashi 6ix9ine addressed the judge in more typical fashion, saying his failure to appear for a few drug tests was “just a misunderstanding, your honor.” He insisted that he had never used drugs and that a drug test that revealed the presence of methamphetamine was the result of prescription medications containing traces of that substance.
At another point, he told Engelmayer, “I’m not a piece of…” before pausing, apparently to choose the right words, before saying, “I’m not a bad person.” »
The judge admitted there might be justification for some of his behavior, but said he felt the rapper had “cut corners.”
After the hearing, the rapper’s attorney, Lance Lazzaro, said in an email that his client was charged with three “technical violations” of his probation and that he was “confident that each specification will be dismissed.”
The musician’s next hearing is scheduled for November 12.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
