Meek Mill was sentenced to 2-4 years in prison for violating his parole relating to an altercation at a St. Louis airport and riding a dirt bike in Manhattan without a helmet.
Despite the fact that both charges were dropped, the judge in the case, the same judge that has presided over Meek’s legal proceedings since 2009, found Meek’s violations worthy of sending him to prison.
“I’ve been trying to help you since 2009. You basically thumbed your nose at me,” said Judge Genece Brinkley at Meek’s sentencing.
But since the sentencing, details have emerged about Judge Brinkley’s seeming “infatuation” with Meek Mill, and things look extremely sketchy.
Meek Mill’s lawyer Joe Tacopina has given several interviews and revealed some rather troubling behavior by the judge, including asking Meek to shout out the judge in a song and telling the artist to change his management team to an associate of Brinkley’s.
Tacopina told Billboard that Brinkley wanted Meek Mill to perform a Boyz II Men song and mention the judge,
“[Brinkley asked] that Meek Mill re-record a famous Philadelphia pop band, Boyz II Men’s song ‘On Bended Knee,’ where he concludes with a tribute to her and mentions her by name in the song. And [Meek], of course, was laughing and thought it was a joke, she said, ‘I’m serious.’ He refused to do that.”
So the judge wanted Meek Mill to shout her out in a Boyz II Men tribute and was then allegedly upset when he refused. Brinkley also apparently wanted Meek to change his management team from Roc Nation to some dude Brinkley knew named Charlie Mack.
Tacopina said that Brinkley requested that Meek,
“Leaves his current management Roc Nation — which is one of the most important management companies in the world — and goes back to a local Philadelphia guy who has a spotted past because [Brinkley] had a personal relationship with him as manager, again, she’s doing something that a judge would never be doing, having a personal interest.”
According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Brinkley even allowed Meek to have contact with Mack despite the fact that Mack or someone on his team was a convicted felon (part of Meek’s probation was to not associate with known criminals).
Basically, Brinkley created a loophole in Meek’s probation so he could communicate with this guy she wanted to manage him.
According to Page Six, the FBI is investigating Brinkley’s behavior in the case. A source told Page Six that Charlie Mack even said to Meek Mill that he could help sway the judge’s decision if he agreed to allow him to manage him, “Mack had previously told Meek how he ‘knows the judge and he could help him with his case.'”
Tacopina said of the judge’s apparent vendetta against Meek,
“Maybe she felt scorned that he didn’t add her in a song that she may have requested for. I don’t know. Why did she show up at a community service? What judge has ever showed up at a community service to watch whether somebody is doing something, community service or not. Why did she ask that her friend be his manager and not Roc Nation? That lacks appropriateness of a judge. You can’t do that as a judge, but she did it.”
If this is all true, Meek Mill’s heavy sentence becomes all the more startling. This is surely not the end of the story, but in the meantime Meek Mill is appealing the decision.
Meek Mill isn’t a saint, but this entire ordeal seems really fucked up.