Crime and Justice
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PnB Rock was senselessly murdered in 2022 during a robbery in California and a jury has found the two of the three individuals involved guilty on all counts in the trial. Freddie Trone was found guilty of sending his teenage son to rob and subsequently gun down PnB Rock inside a popular soul food restaurant.
Rolling Stone reports that Freddie Trone, 46, ordered his son, 17 at the time, to enter the Roscoe’s House of Chicken ‘N Waffles in South Los Angeles after being tipped off by Tremont Jones, 46, that PnB Rock and his fiancée Stephanie Sibounheuang entered the eatery.
Under Trone’s orders, the masked teenager confronted the Philadelphia artist demanding his jewelry while threatening Sibounheuang by saying, “If you don’t give me the jewelry, I’m going to blow her head off” as heard in court testimony.
After nine days of testimony, the jury decided that Trone was guilty of one count of felony murder, two counts of robbery, and one count of conspiracy. Jones was found guilty of two counts of robbery and one count of conspiracy. Trone’s son, now 19, was found incompetent to stand trial and is still being held in a juvenile facility.
Deana Allen, the mother of PnB Rock, real name Rakim Allen, offered a statement to Rolling Stone after the verdict was heard in a Compton, Calif. court.
“I’m elated. I wanted to jump up and scream, ‘Hallelujah.’ I’m so happy it was quick. We got justice for Rakim. I feel better knowing they’ll be in jail for a long time.”
PnB Rock was 30.
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Photo: Gilbert Carrasquillo / Getty
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Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson is mostly known these days for his work as a leading power player in the entertainment industry, but he hasn’t lost his sharp sense of humor. After a judge dismissed a lawsuit brought against him by a former drug lord alleging that his story was lifted, 50 Cent taunted the man in his typical sarcastic fashion.
As exclusively reported by AllHipHop, Cory “Ghost” Holland launched a lawsuit back in 2021 against 50 Cent, Courtney Kemp, Starz, and Lionsgate for allegedly stealing his life story for the Power series.
Holland asserted in his lawsuit that the character of Ghost on Power modeled his own life, and retold his time on the street on a 2007 musical release. Holland claims he sent a CD of the album, titled Blasphemy, to the father of Kemp in order to find his way out of the drug game. Holland accused 50 Cent and the show’s co-creators of stealing his life story for the show.
New York District Judge Hon. Analisa Torres dismissed Holland’s claims within the three-count lawsuit. Judge Torres ruled in the first matter that the character of Ghost in the Power series never directly referenced Holland so the defamation claim was tossed.
In a second lawsuit, Holland claimed that 50 Cent sent people to harass and threaten him while showing up in his neighborhood. On the third matter, Holland said that people connected to 50 played a song that suggested a threat near his home.
Holland left behind a paper trail towards 50 and his camp, clearly illustrated in a letter obtained by AllHipHop with Holland explicitly stating there would be violent consequences.
50 Cent, never one to let a moment pass, took to Instagram and shared an image of a report regarding the tossed lawsuit and wrote in the caption, “Fool thought he was GHOST [laughing emoji] da fvck wrong wit these [Ninja emoji]’s man LOL @bransoncognac @lecheminduroi.”
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Photo: Getty
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Young Thug will remain behind bars along with his co-defendants after the new judge overseeing the YSL RICO trial has denied the group bond. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Paige Reese Whitaker also denied requests by prosecutors to place gag orders on attorneys from speaking to the media.
As reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Young Thug attorney Brian Steel stated to the court that his client has been living under poor conditions at Cobb County and asked that the rapper be released and placed on house arrest during an argument for bond.
In response, Judge Whitaker said to Young Thug and his co-defendants’ defense team, “I’m not going to reconsider any bond issues that have already been considered and ruled upon by another court absent legitimate changed circumstances.”
Whitaker came into view after Chief Judge Ural Glanville recused himself due to an ex-parte meeting held in secret in June with prosecutors and a state’s witness. Running for 19th months now, the trial remains the longest Georgia court history but Whittaker promises to move things along.
“It should not take another seven months,” Whitaker said to attorneys during a motion hearing on Tuesday (July 30).
State prosecutors said to the court that they will aim efforts at calling 105 witnesses to the stand. Whitaker is ordering the state to compile a list of evidence in connection to the next 30 witnesses they plan to call.
Further, AJC added in its reporting that the judge is looking over the case to decide whether or not to proceed with the case against Young Thug and his five co-defendants. Four attorneys from the defense have filed mistrial motions with two being denied by Whitaker thus far.
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The state police of Illinois have filed charges against a now-former sheriff’s deputy who killed a Black woman in her own home after she called law enforcement about suspicious activity near her home.
On Wednesday (July 17), a grand jury in Sangamon County, Illinois, returned a five-count indictment against a former Sangamon County sheriff’s deputy who reportedly shot and killed a Black woman, Sonya Massey (pictured above), who called police to her home about an intruder.
State’s Attorney John Milhiser announced the charges against former Deputy John Grayson, which include first-degree murder, official misconduct, and aggravated assault with a firearm. Milhiser said that the investigation by the Illinois State Police “did not support a finding that (Grayson) was justified in his use of deadly force.”
This investigation also included the body camera footage from the night of July 6, when Massey called police to her home on the 2800 block in Springfield at 1 a.m. Gunfire was reported at the address at 1:21 a.m..
The Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office had not offered any comment before the charges were announced, deferring to the Illinois State Police. Massey’s family and community activists held protests last week demanding that the body camera footage be released.
“It is clear that the deputy did not act as trained or in accordance with our standards,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement, further writing: “In times like these, it is crucial for leadership across all sides and spectrums to come together to heal our community.” Grayson was terminated shortly after the incident. He is expected to make his first court appearance on Thursday afternoon (July 18). Prosecutors are seeking to detain him per the Pretrial Fairness Act.
Attorney Ben Crump, notable for representing the families of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, is representing the Massey family in the case. “This news is a step toward justice for Sonya’s loved ones, especially her children, who have endured unimaginable pain and suffering since they were notified of this tragedy,” Crump said in a statement. “We remain committed to uncovering the truth of what happened and identifying the failures that allowed this tragic death to occur.”
The attorney also said in the statement released on Wednesday that Grayson allegedly shot the 36-year-old woman in the face. Massey’s family viewed the body camera footage from that night in private that evening. The funeral for Massey will be held on Friday (July 19).
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Photo: Facebook/Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office
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It seems like whenever Lil Reese begins to trend on social media it’s almost never for anything positive and unfortunately that once again happens to be the case.
According to TMZ, the Chicago rapper was just arrested and booked in Los Angeles for allegedly raping a woman he went on a date with.
Reese and the woman in question went out on a dinner date this past Saturday night (July 13) before he took her to a hotel in Downtown Los Angeles where the sexual assault allegedly occurred. Once in the hotel room, the woman rejected Reese’s sexual advances before she said he forced himself on top of her and sexually assaulted her.
TMZ reports:
We’re told the woman then went straight down to the hotel lobby, and called the police around 3:30 AM Sunday.
We’re told officers promptly arrived on the scene and arrested Reese on suspicion of sexual assault and rape.
Boosie Badazz was an apparent witness to the arrest and put out an APB on Reese’s friends to bail him out.
Lil Boosie being there at the same time and seeing Reese hauled off to jail was hella random.
Lil Reese was eventually released on a $100K bond.
What do y’all think of the situation that Lil Reese finds himself in? Let us know in the comments section below.
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Photo: Johnny Nunez / Getty
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Irv Gotti, the Murder Inc. Records co-founder and longtime music executive, faces a lawsuit from a woman who claims she was raped by the New York native. The lawsuit was filed in Miami-Dade County and accuses Irv Gotti of sexually assaulting the woman over two years across several locales.
The Miami New Times reports that the lawsuit against Irv Gotti, 54, was filed on July 11 in Florida’s Miami-Dade County courts. The alleged victim, using the name Jane Doe, claims that Gotti, real name Irving Lorenzo, sexually assaulted her between 2020 and 2022 across Atlanta, Miami, and the island of Saint Martin.
More from Miami New Times:
“As a result of this sexually abusive relationship, Plaintiff has suffered severe emotional and psychological harm for which she had to be committed to a psychiatric ward,” the lawsuit (attached at the bottom of this story) reads. “These injuries continue and affect Plaintiff to this day.”
The woman alleges that she and Gotti met through a mutual friend at a poker tournament in the summer of 2020, and Gotti invited her on a vacation to Saint Martin afterward. But upon arriving on the Caribbean island, Gotti allegedly coerced her into having sex with him, threatening to send her home if she didn’t.
The lawsuit states that Gotti and Jane Doe entered into a romantic relationship but claims that she was forced to perform sex acts against her will and verbally abused her. According to the filing, Jane Doe claims that Gotti would demand she perform sexual favors under the pressures of coercion.
Irv Gotti has yet to respond to the lawsuit and explosive allegations within.
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Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg requested last week that a gag order against Donald Trump remain in place, alluding to the fact several threats have been made against those working on the case. The gag order, which has been in place since April, prevents Trump from issuing threats and attacking witnesses, jurors, court employees, and the relatives of New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan.
As seen in Mediaite, Alvin Bragg requested the extension on Friday, June 21, pointing to an alarming number of threats — 56 to be exact according to a New York Times report — and this comes as Trump is attempting to have the gag order lifted as he continues his presidential campaign.
Bragg and other prosecutors added that while Justice Merchan would not need to enforce the order for witnesses, the other barriers should remain until Trump’s sentencing on July 11. Trump was convicted by a New York jury back in May on 34 felony counts in the hush money trial.
The muzzling of Trump is typically a difficult task as the former president is known for his unfiltered views and bold tone. Trump has had choice words for Bragg, Justice Merchan, and the justice system, citing that his current legal ordeal is politically motivated as he attempts a return to the White House.
Among those threats mentioned above, an employee of Bragg’s office was doxxed with their home address getting leaked online, and two other individuals connected to the case faced bomb threats. Beyond those instances, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has seen a deluge of emails and phone calls levying all manner of threats.
Trump is stating that the gag order violates his right to free speech and is hoping to have the order lifted as he continues to appeal to his base ahead of the November election. It hasn’t been reported if Justice Merchan will honor the extension request from DA Alvin Bragg or from Donald Trump to lift the order.
We’ve got some reactions from X below.
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Source: Jared Siskin / Getty / Lamor Whitehead
The Niggler, aka Bishop Lamor Whitehead, is going to prison for a long time.
NYC Mayor Eric Adams’ mentee, allegedly Bishop Lamor Whitehead, will head to prison for nine years.
Whitehead’s prison sentence is a verdict of him hoodwinking and bamboozling a parishioner’s mother out of her life savings, plus other scams.
The decision comes after Judge Lorna Schofield listened to testimony from the victims of Whitehead’s scamming and from the “Bling Bishop” himself, who took a page out of rapper The Game’s book, namedropping everyone he allegedly dealt with.
Per The Daily News:
Manhattan federal court Judge Lorna Schofield handed the term after hearing from financially destroyed victims and Whitehead himself, who namedropped a laundry list of city and state officials he’s dealt with, including the mayor, state Attorney General Letitia James, Brooklyn District Attorney General Eric Gonzalez, his predecessor, the late Ken Thompson, NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey and others, none of whom were in attendance.
“I don’t see any remorse for your conduct,” Judge Schofield said, describing the evidence as “frankly overwhelming.”
Lamor Whitehead’s Reckoning Comes After A Jury Hit With A Guilty Verdict In March
A jury hit Whitehead, the pastor of the Leaders of Tomorrow International Ministries in Canarsie, Brooklyn, with a guilty verdict for five counts, including wire fraud, attempted extortion, lying to the FBI, and other charges from three different schemes in March.
Prosecutors successfully argued during the trial that Whitehead abused the trust of his loyal followers, defrauding them out of tens of thousands of dollars by dangling his ties to Mayor Adams.
Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement:
“Lamore Whitehead is a con man who stole millions of dollars in a string of financial. frauds and even stole from one of his parishioners. He lied to federal agents and again to the court during his trial. Today’s sentence puts an end to Whitehead’s various schemes and reflects this office’s commitment to bring accountability to those who abuse their positions of trust.”
Social Media Also Wants Eric Adams In Prison
The reactions to the news of Whitehead going to prison for nine years are pouring in.
Of course, many are clowing the Bling Bishop, but many of the reactions want NYC Mayor Eric Adams to end up behind bars.
“DO @NYCMAYOR NEXT PLEASE AND THANK YOU @FBI,” one user on X wrote.
Mayor Adams was not accused of any wrongdoing during Whitehead’s trial, but Mayor Mixxy does have his own issues he needs to worry about and could face some serious jail time, according to some legal experts, if the FBI investigation he is currently under turns up damning evidence.
The gallery below shows more reactions to Lamor Whitehead heading to prison for nine years.
1. Damn, y’all don’t like Mayor Mixxy at all
2. Where is the lie?
4. The walls are closing in on Eric Admas
7. They sure don’t.
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Bun B and his wife, Queenie, were the victims of a 2019 home invasion that ended with the armed robber being shot and eventually arrested. Facing the robber in court this week, Bun B was rendered emotional after sharing that his wife is still suffering from the event.
Local outlet KTRK aired a report about Bun B testifying in court against the defendant, Demonte Jackson, an event that took five years to occur as Jackson reportedly struggled with mental health issues. After the Houston rapper and entrepreneur took the stand, he opened by stating to the defense how the 2019 incident was so horrifying that his wife never returned to the home.
From KTRK:
“This was an entirely new traumatizing incident,” Bun B said. “This is something we still deal with to this day.”
“There are times when she gets closed off. She can’t communicate, and I just get so angry all over again because she didn’t deserve this. She didn’t ask for this,” he continued, getting visibly emotional.
Bun B, real name Bernard Freeman, then began to detail how he eventually came to his wife’s aid after she warned him not to approach the robber from an upper-level room because she was fearful that Jackson would kill her. Jackson then made his way to the couple’s garage with Bun B opening fire and striking Jackson who then fled on foot but was later captured by the rapper.
The outlet added in its report that Queenie, real name Angela Walls, was also set to take the stand.
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The-Dream is the latest entertainer to be slammed with a lawsuit alleging several serious crimes from a former understudy who claims she was subjected to sexual abuse, battery, and more. Chanaaz Mangroe claims in her lawsuit that The-Dream promised to guide her singing career but instead used his position and power to abuse and torture her.
TMZ was able to obtain the court documents filed by Chanaaz Mangroe, which detail some of the heinous acts she was allegedly subjected to. Mangroe, who hails from the Netherlands, says in her lawsuit that The-Dream, real name Terius Nash, took it upon himself to extend her work visa in 2014 in order to help grow her career in the States.
What transpired instead, according to Mangroe, was a yearlong abusive relationship with Nash using his age and influence to control her actions.
More from TMZ:
She alleges she was locked in a dark room where The-Dream “violently” had sex with her, leaving her naked and alone “for hours on end” before returning for another encounter.
The aspiring singer goes on to claim she was “frequently strangled” by Dream during their sexual encounters … almost losing consciousness on a number of occasions.
Further, Mangroe says that Nash would record their sexual encounters and allegedly used that as leverage to keep her silent as it was assumed he could leak the footage publicly.
So far, the legal team for The-Dream has yet to respond to the allegations.
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Photo: Getty