Crime and Justice
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Moriah Mills is back in the headlines this week after being suspended on Twitter for abusing the terms and conditions of the site while centering her former romantic partner, Zion Williamson. In a new social media clip, Moriah Mills claimed that Williamson physically abused her but Twitter is casting some doubt on her accusation.
Moriah Mills took to her TikTok page on Friday (July 15) to share a video explaining that Williamson allegedly paid her hush money to keep details of the physical abuse she claims to have suffered from the public view. It is the first time Mills has made such a claim, this after she has maintained a hot and cold stance on the 22-year-old New Orleans Pelicans star.
Via her now-suspended Twitter account, Mills shared intimate details of her relationship with Williamson after the player and the mother of his child did a public gender reveal via social media. Mills says she was blindsided by the news and aired out Williamson’s dirty laundry while also attacking Concrete Rose, the woman carrying their daughter.
With the TikTok video making its rounds on social media, folks are calling into question the timing of Mills’ message, who also says she’s expecting a child with Williamson. While domestic violence claims are never a laughing matter and should be investigated as the crime that it is, many on Twitter think this is a ploy on the part of Mills to shame Williamson into taking responsibility for reportedly wronging her and misrepresenting their romantic connection.
On Twitter, folks are reacting to the new Moriah Mills video claiming that Zion Williamson physically abused her. We’ve got the reactions below.
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Photo: @thisismoriahmills / Instagram
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FN DaDealer, a young rapper signed to Young Thug‘s Young Stoner Life recording label, was arrested and charged with murder. FN DaDealer is currently being held without bond in Fulton County, Georgia.
As reported by local news outlet WSB-TV, FN DaDealer, 20, was arrested in late June after he was connected to a fatal shooting at an apartment complex in Mechanicsville.
FN DaDealer, real name Jakobe Moody, was arrested on June 29 and charged in the shooting death of Tremaine Glasper, 28. The outlet adds that Moody is currently behind bars at Fulton County Jail facing charges of murder along with possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
According to details provided by the outlet, Glasper was shot on June 5 while sitting inside a vehicle, prompting officials to respond to calls regarding the shooting. The investigation revealed that Moody was one of three gunmen.
The outlet spoke with Moody’s mother, who claims her son was not involved in any street activity and that he was primarily focused on his burgeoning music career.
Police did not reveal details about the other two suspects.
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Photo: FCSO
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Grandmaster Melle Mel was arrested in Los Angeles earlier this week after an alleged domestic violence incident took place in an area hotel. The Hip-Hop pioneer has since gone public after the arrest, denying the claims made by the alleged victim.
Grandmaster Melle Mel, 62, was arrested and charged with felony domestic violence on Monday (June, as reported in detail by Rolling Stone. Melle Mel, real name Melvin Glover, posted a $50,000 bond and now awaits the legal developments. The outlet also took a look at a video from a woman named Jori Jordon, who posted a video of Grandmaster Melle Mel getting arrested on her Facebook page. We will not show the video in the body of this text but the clip can be viewed here.
Jordon is seen in the clip calling Melle Mel a “d*ck” after saying that the rapper would rather go to jail than travel with her to the hospital to get treatment for her injury. In the video, Jordon’s eye appeared to be injured but it appears that was from an unrelated incident. Jordon also continued to ramp up her disdain against Grandmaster Melle Mel with subsequent posts such as the one posted below.
Speaking exclusively with Rolling Stone, Melle Mel explained his side of things. According to him, the pair attended a 2023 BET Awards after-party and then traveled back to his hotel. Jordon reportedly asked to join him and he agreed to the encounter. From there, things took a turn.
“It’s very simple,” he says. “She said I punched her in the eye. She also said she had eye surgery a month ago. Had I punched her in the eye, especially with rings on, she would have had a cut eye. It would have been way worse. Something did happen to her eye, but I did not punch her. With me tussling with her and trying to get her away from me to get her out of the room, something happened.”
As this case develops, we will return with additional details if needed.
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Andrew Tate controls a significant corner of the Internet as a figure who purports to be a leader of men and sells the angle of being the so-called “Top G” among other titles. Andrew Tate was charged with rape and human trafficking charges along with others in Romania, and both fans and critics of Tate are reacting as expected.
As seen in The Washington Post, Andrew Tate, his brother Tristan, and two others were hit with charges by Romanian officials with the official charges reading as human trafficking, rape, and forming an organized crime group. Tate, his brother, and two Romanian women were arrested last December with the Tate brothers reportedly being on house arrest since March of this year.
The charges come after a months-long investigation into the activities and alleged criminal acts involving Tate and the three other individuals. According to officials, Tate orchestrated forced participation in online pornography onto the alleged victims under violent and psychologically controlling means.
Tate’s legal team maintains that their side is innocent and expected the charges to be read while stating that they will “vindicate” their clients.
“The indictment now allows us to present a comprehensive body of evidence, diligently collected and prepared over time, which will undoubtedly substantiate the brothers’ claims of innocence,” the legal team shared in a statement.
Today, Tate enjoys millions of followers across his social media pages who buy into his brand of brash masculinity and is framing the criminal investigation and indictment against him as an attack on the issues he stands for while authorities ignore other figures who have allegedly committed similar or worse crimes on record.
The timeline of Tate’s arrest can be pinpointed to a Twitter exchange between him and climate activist Greta Thunberg. Tate fired the first salvo at Thunberg, boasting of his cars and their collective emissions total. Thunberg returned fire with a snappy email targeting Tate’s manhood which prompted Tate to fire back with a video response featuring him eating pizza from a known Romanian chain.
It was all the spark authorities needed to raid Tate’s villa in Romania after being tipped off by U.S. officials in the embassy at Bucharest that the Tate brothers were holding a young woman against her will.
Defiant as ever, Andrew Tate is still tweeting and declaring this is a takedown of what he stands for and not connected to his charges.
We’ve got reactions from Twitter below.
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Jordan Neely, a young Black homeless man who reportedly suffered a mental health episode while on a New York City subway train, was subdued by a passenger and eventually lost his life. Neely’s death was ruled a homicide as protestors continue to demand justice.
Neely, 30, was aboard an F train at the Broadway-Lafayette station when he allegedly threated passengers while standing. Another passenger, reportedly a U.S. Marine, grabbed Neely from behind with a rear-naked chokehold to subdue Neely as others looked on. From the little video footage we could bear to watch, Neely was effectively constrained by the Marine and two others posing no real threat but the Marine kept the deadly chokehold applied tightly and emergency response teams were unable to revive him.
As reported by local outlet ABC 7, protestors planned a protest outside of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office for Thursday (May 4), adding to the growing cries of injustice and a common refrain that Neely’s death was indeed murder. The Marine, 24, was taken into custody and eventually released. Howwever, with the homicide ruling, charges could be pending for the Long Island resident.
As the news of Neely’s passing grew wide, most remembered him as a Michael Jackson imprsonator who held performances in and around the Times Square area. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among the many public figures to speak out regarding Neely’s death and opened a tweet about the matter with, “Jordan Neely was murdered.”
The tweet was decried by New York Mayor Eric Adams, who said of Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’s tweet, “I don’t think that’s very responsible at the time when we’re still investigating the situation.”
While Neely’s death was ruled a homicide, the Manhattan DA will need to file charges if the case is to move ahead.
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander has been especially vocal regarding Neely’s death, also incurring the criticism of Mayor Adams. However, Lander is refusing to back down.
Across social media, many are gathered in support of Jordan Neely and his family in their ongoing fight to find a legal resolution.
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Pras, also known as Pras Michel of Fugees fame, found himself at the center of a global conspiracy case where it became assumed that the rapper became an informant to the FBI. While that fact is currently being debunked by Pras’ legal team, that hasn’t stopped Twitter from roasting his Fugees bandmates Wyclef Jean and Ms. Lauryn Hill with John Forte catching strays in the process.
Pras Michel was recently in Washington to take the stand in his federal conspiracy trial where he faces up to 22 years in prison for allegedly involving himself in a global money laundering scheme and working with a foreign nation to influence U.S. government matters.
Pras did admit on the stand that he spoke with FBI agents regarding his connection to Malaysian financier and fugitive, Jho Low.
After examining the case further, Michel is actually on trial because he took Low’s money to the tune of millions and reentered a portion of those funds into President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign and then attempted to ask the Trump Administration to move away from investigating Kow and extradite Chinese businessman, Guo Wengui who was connected to former Trump ally, Steve Bannon.
Hip-Hop Wired also received a statement this week from Michel’s legal team correcting the perception that their client turned informant.
From the statement:
Simply stated, if Pras had been an informant for the government, he wouldn’t be on trial right now. The government does not prosecute and threaten its informants with more than two decades of jail time.
Pras never was an “informant” for the FBI.
Nothing could be further from the truth, and the reckless suggestion that he was an informant carries life-threatening implications in hip-hop circles.
During a portion of Pras’ nearly two days of testimony last week, Pras described from the stand a decision he made a handful of years ago to approach the FBI in regard to a narrow issue related to his wider case.
In law enforcement parlance, an “informant” is someone who works directly with an investigating law enforcement agency either to cut a deal for him or herself, or with the direct interests of that law enforcement agency as part of their own agenda.
As it stands, Twitter won’t care about all of that legal mumbo jumbo and is always hellbent on getting those jokes off. We’ve got some of them listed below.
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Photo: Tasos Katopodis / Getty
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Pras Michel is at the center of an explosive federal conspiracy trial unfolding in Washington in connection to an alleged Malaysian embezzler who wanted a photo with former President Barack Obama. The Fugees rapper took the stand this week and claimed that he became an informant for the FBI after his dealings with Low Taek, also known as Jho Low, began to head into murky territory.
Pras Michel, 50, was inside the U.S. District Court in Washington on Tuesday (April 18) when he took the stand in the conspiracy trial where he faces charges of money laundering, campaign finance violations, and other related charges in what authorities say was a sham to cover the $4.5 billion Low, 41, allegedly stole from Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund.
The most detailed accounts of Michel’s testimony came by way of Katie Buehler, a reporter for Law360 who covers court cases in Washington. In a series of tweets, Buehler was able to encapsulate how bizarre it is that a former top-charting rapper is at the center of a conspiracy case with global implications.
“Ex-Fugees rapper Pras Michel has taken the witness stand and is seemingly trying to charm the jury. Before answering any questions, he conducted a microphone check, saying, “Mic check 1, 2” twice. He also said “bless you” after an observer in the courtroom sneezed,” read the first tweet of a thread that broke down Michel’s testimony.
It was followed with, “Michel, who is accused of conspiring to funnel foreign money into and assert influence over American politics, explained he grew up in a strict, religious household and that his fame with the Fugees saw him go “from being on the streets of New York to Park Avenue overnight.”
Michel said he first met Low in 2006 in a New York nightclub where the businessman displayed reckless spending and exceptional wealth adding in his testimony that Low’s actions were, “something I’ve never witnessed in my life.”
Low essentially employed Michel to arrange the photo opportunity with President Obama by way of an Obama fundraising official who has decided not to testify by invoking his Fifth Amendment rights despite not facing charges.
According to Michel, he pocketed around $12 million and used $2 million of the cash Low gave him to attend an Obama fundraiser and somehow make the photo happen. The fundraising official instructed Michel to keep Low away from the fundraiser and then received another $20 million from Low for a chance at the photo.
The thread from the reporter ends with Michel saying he met with federal agents in New York in connection to Guo Wengui, a Chinese businessman arrested on money laundering, fraud, and other charges that China wanted to be extradited.
“I took it upon myself to report because I thought the FBI should know,” Michel said on the stand.
Read the entire thread below.
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Photo: Tasos Katopodis / Getty
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XXXTentacion appeared to be turning a corner in his musical and personal life when he was senselessly murdered by a trio of men in South Florida after a 2018 robbery attempt. The men were convicted of the murder in court on Thursday (April 6) with the three receiving sentences of life in prison.
NBC Miami was among several outlets reporting on the XXXTentacion murder trial where Dedrick Williams, Michael Boatwright, and Trayvon Newsome stood trial in a Broward County courthouse. According to the outlet, prosecutors did not seek the death penalty and Judge Michael Usan delivered a message to the men for carrying out the heinous crime.
“You’ll spend every hour and week and year in your cell. And one day you have passed on, and on that day you would’ve served your sentence,” Usan said.
The outlet also mentioned that the manager for XXXTentacion, Solomon Sobande, delivered a statement on behalf of the rapper’s family.
“This is a loss we will never truly recover from,” Sobande said. “We will never get to see Jahseh [Onfroy] live to his full potential, we will never get to watch him grow old, we will never get to watch him be a father.”
XXXTentacion’s grand aunt, Melody Jones, said she hoped that the men would receive the death penalty.
XXXTentacion was 20 at the time of his death.
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Photo: Source: Scott Dudelson / Getty
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Carlos Watson, the founder of digital entertainment company Ozy Media, was arrested on Thursday (Feb. 23) and charged with securities fraud. The arrest comes after other members of Ozy Media’s executive team were charged with defrauding investors out of large sums of cash.
As seen in the New York Times, Carlos Watson, 53, was arrested Thursday morning in midtown Manhattan by FBI officials and later appeared in federal court in Brooklyn by the afternoon. Beyond fraud charges, Watson also faces identity theft charges and has pleaded not guilty to all counts and is now free on a $1 million bond.
According to the court filing, Watson, “engaged in a scheme to defraud Ozy’s potential investors, potential acquirers, lenders and potential lenders,” and baked the numbers on Ozy Media’s various holdings and results Eastern District of New York prosecutors wrote.
Along with Watson, Samir Rao, former Ozy Media CEO, and Suzee Han, Ozy Media’s former chief of staff, both pleaded guilty to fraud charges. The Securities and Exchange Commission then brought charges that the trio defrauded investors out of $50 million.
Much of the fall of Ozy Media can be traced to the fall of 2021 after the Times reported that an Ozy Media staffer pretended to be an executive from YouTube during a business call with Goldman Sachs involving a potential investment venture. The staffer sold a tall tale of YouTube being a strong business ally of Ozy Media and that content produced by Ozy performed well on YouTube’s channels.
According to Watson’s legal team, the arrest came as a shock to their side as Watson was reportedly working with authorities on the matter as recently as this week. If convicted, Carlos Watson could face a range of time of a mandatory minimum sentence of two years to a maximum of 37 years.
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Photo: Matthew Eisman / Getty
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Kay Flock was one of eight individuals indicted with racketeering and murder charges among two Bronx, N.Y. gangs. The list of charges for Kay Flock has the potential to land him in prison for life or the death penalty.
Kay Flock, real name Kevin Perez, shot and killed a man in broad daylight in December 2021, just as the budding NY Drill rapper was finding some success as a musical artist. According to the press release released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York, Perez was a member of the Sev Side or DOA gang in the Bronx borough and was involved in several crimes with his codefendants dating back to 2019.
From the press release:
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Keechant L. Sewell, Commissioner of the New York City Police Department (“NYPD”), announced the unsealing today of an Indictment charging KEVIN PEREZ, a/k/a “Kay Flock,” a/k/a “Kay,” a/k/a “KK,” DEVON MASON, a/k/a “BJ,” ERVIN BEAMON, a/k/a “EJ,” NICHOLAS JOHNSON, a/k/a “Nick,” SEAN SMITH, a/k/a “Sticky,” and JOSSI CASTRO, a/k/a “Jesse,” with racketeering conspiracy and other crimes related to their membership in “Sev Side,” or “DOA,” a street gang based in the Bronx, New York.
In a superseding indictment from January, the office named two other men, Iszayah Rowson and Michael Gant in the charges and noted their membership in the Third Slide gang, which maintained close ties to the Sev Side group.
The charges the 19-year-old Perez faces are Racketeering Conspiracy, Murder in Aid of Racketeering, Use of a Firearm Resulting in Death, Attempted Murder and Assault with a Dangerous Weapon in Aid of Racketeering, Use of a Firearm for Attempted Murder, and Assault with a Dangerous Weapon.
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Photo: Kay Flock / @officialkayflock