Meek Mill Denied Early Parole

At the top of the summer, Meek Mill was blazing the streets with new material in anticipation of his Dreams Worth More Than Money album. Today, the rapper is serving a three-six month sentence behind bars for a parole violation, and a hearing Monday (August 18) ensured that he’ll be in there a bit longer.

Philadelphia judge Genece E. Brinkley denied Meek’s request for early parole, after his defense argued that he was found in violation of his probation under false pretenses.

The MMG artist’s well-documented history of discrepancies with his hometown’s judicial system followed a 2009 drug and gun conviction that landed him some jail time. But this time, a photo of him holding a gun on Instagram, along with a failed drug test and a lack of communication with his parole officer, sent him to CFCF detention center.

At earliest, Meek will be released on October 11, but not before he completes anger management and fatherhood classes. If he fails to comply, he’ll forced to serve the entire six month sentence.

The rap star’s legal team reportedly taken their case to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, with hopes of getting his situation rectified.

Mill, born Robert Williams, has been on probation for about five years following a 2009 drug and gun case conviction, for which he served about a year of house arrest. He has since emerged as a gifted rapper who has been tapped to perform with Jay-Z.

But his career has been interrupted the past two years by what he considers an increasingly fraught relationship with a new parole officer.

"We never clicked 100 percent," Mill said Monday, his voice sounding ready to crack.

He has not committed any new crimes while on probation, but was flagged this year after failing a drug test and appearing to use a gun in a music video. "Defense lawyer Dennis Cogan said Mill had a prescription for the OxyContin after spraining his ankle, and said the video prop was a water pistol.

He also said his client's tweets, however unwise, were protected by the First Amendment.

"You never said, 'As a condition of probation, you can't speak outside the courtroom about the district attorney or the probation officer,'"' Cogan argued to the judge.
He has asked the state Supreme Court to intervene and grant bail.

A prison official, a music promoter and a professor of race relations spoke on Mills' behalf Monday, and spoke of the difficulty of growing up fatherless - Mill's father was killed when he was young - and staying out of the crosshairs of the parole system.

"It's not set up for a man to win in society -- a black man," said local music promoter and mentor Charles Alstin, known as Charlie Mack.

Mill, lean, lanky and baby-faced, has been kept in protective custody at Curran-Fromhold Correctional Facility, but complained Tuesday that his neighbors on the high-security block are rapists and murders. He also questioned whether he would be able to take the required anger management class there.

Brinkley said she had called the warden last week about the plan. She agreed to rescind her protective custody order, but warned Cogan "if something happens... it's going to be on you."

Mill released his debut album, ``Dreams & Nightmares,'' in late 2012.

The album's launch party was delayed when Mill and three others -- including an Atlantic Records executive and a police officer friend -- were stopped in a Range Rover and detained by Philadelphia police for several hours. No drugs were found and no charges filed.

Meek sued the city over the arrest, but a mostly-white federal jury in Philadelphia this spring rejected the civil rights lawsuit.

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