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PEOPLE & ARTSSaturday 19 December 2015
Meek Mill faces potential prison time over parole violations
MARYCLAIRE DALE while girlfriend Nicki Minaj
Associated Press and various managers
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A pledged to keep him on
judge appears likely to track.
send rapper Meek Mill But Common Pleas Judge
back behind bars early Genece Brinkley, who had
next year for a steady spared him state prison in
stream of probation vio- a 2009 drug and gun case,
lations, most involving his had heard it all before.
failure to keep the court “How many times am I sup-
aware of his erratic travels. posed to give him a sec-
Mill offered emotional tes- ond chance?” she asked,
timony this week about concluding that probation
his rudderless childhood in may no longer be “appro-
gritty North Philadelphia, priate.” She ordered him
Nicki Minaj, left, and Meek Mill appear onstage together at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
Minaj promised to keep boyfriend Meek Mill on the straight and narrow as a judge threatened
jail over his latest parole infractions. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
not to work or perform be- lost his father to violence “He’s not a person who
fore the Feb. 5 sentencing. when he was 5 and left knows how to keep sched-
A jail term would presum- school in the tenth grade. ules. He’s not an accoun-
ably stall his career follow- The 28-year-old now dates tant. He’s an artist,” argued
ing a year in which the Roc one of the most famous his latest lawyer, Frank
Nation-signed talent has women in entertainment. DeSimone. “And those
performed with Minaj, Jay- “He doesn’t have a lot of people are notoriously slip-
Z and other industry A-list- structure. He can be irre- shod (at organization).”
ers, and issued his second sponsible,” Minaj, 33, testi- The violations include Mill’s
studio album, “Dreams fied last week. “Since I’ve performances at a New
Worth More than Money.” come in his life, I think I’ve York benefit concert last
Mill served short stints in jail been working on that a month and, according
and home confinement little bit. ... He’s just getting to prosecutors, efforts to
following his conviction, accustomed to being an meet up in various cities
when he could have got- adult.” with Minaj. Brinkley also
ten five to 10 years in pris- He said he has dropped raised questions about a
on. old friends from his entou- suspicious sample during a
“The chance you gave rage to focus on his family drug test. Mill denied trying
me definitely changed and girlfriend. His lawyer to thwart the test or taking
my life and changed my said he and Minaj were se- any drugs. He also dissed
family’s life,” Mill testified riously discussing marriage. the case prosecutor in a
Thursday, explaining that The lawyer blamed the rap song, a decision he
he supports his mother, ex- problems on the chaos of now calls “immature.”
tended family and 4-year- the music industry. The lat- Mill told the judge he was
old son. “If you didn’t give est rules required Mill to so concerned about the
me a chance, I probably get travel vouchers before rules that he missed being
wouldn’t be at this place he leaves town and meet at his mother’s bedside af-
I’m at now.” with his probation officer in ter a recent surgery in New
Mill, born Robert Williams, Philadelphia every 60 days. Jersey.q
Chadwick Boseman to play Thurgood Marshall
NEW YORK (AP) — Hav- to be directed by “Djan- War,” broke out in the Rob-
ing already played Jack- go Unchained” producer inson biopic “42,” which he
ie Robinson and James Reginald Hudlin. The film followed with “Get on Up.”
Brown, Chadwick Bose- focuses on a case early in Another movie featuring
man will tackle another the career of the Supreme Marshall as a young lawyer
icon in a courtroom thriller Court justice. It will begin is in the works. Lionsgate
about Thurgood Marshall. production this week in Los is developing an adapta-
Producers announced this Angeles. Boseman, who tion of Gilbert King’s Pulit-
week that Boseman will co-stars as the Black Pan- zer Prize-winning book “The
star as the legendary at- ther in Marvel’s upcoming Devil in the Grove,” with
torney in “Marshall,” a film “Captain America: Civil Anton Corbijn to direct.q
