By Canadian Press

Meek Mill retrial decision rescheduled to later this month

Aug 8, 2019 | 7:17 AM

PHILADELPHIA — A decision on whether Meek Mill will be retried in a 2007 drug and gun case was delayed until later this month after his lawyer asked a judge Tuesday for more time.

The 32-year-old rapper has been on probation most of his adult life over the teenage arrest.

He has become an activist for criminal justice reform since he was sent back to prison in 2017 for technical violations he blamed on his erratic travel schedule as his career soared. He spent five months locked up before an appeals court granted him bail.

Last month, a Pennsylvania appeals court overturned the conviction, saying new evidence undermines the credibility of the officer who testified against the rapper at his trial and makes it likely he would be acquitted if the case were retried.

District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office had supported Mill’s appeal and said it could not call the former officer to testify after an internal probe found he’d stolen money on duty and lied about it.

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“(The state) cannot call a witness whose credibility it mistrusts,” prosecutors wrote in a legal brief this year.

The officer, Reginald Graham, has denied the allegations.

Meek Mill’s lawyer, Brian McMonagle, asked the judge Tuesday for more time to resolve the case. It was rescheduled to Aug. 27, and Judge Leon Tucker allowed Mill to remain out on bail.

Mill and his lawyer left the courthouse without making any comments.

Mill, whose real name is Robert Williams, has spent a total of about two years in prison over the case, including an initial term of about a year and several later stints over travel violations and painkiller use.

“The past 11 years have been mentally and emotionally challenging, but I’m ecstatic that justice prevailed,” Mill said last month after his conviction was overturned. “Unfortunately, millions of people are dealing with similar issues in our country and don’t have the resources to fight back like I did. We need to continue supporting them.”?

He is now free of the close scrutiny of Judge Genece Brinkley, who convicted him after a short nonjury trial in 2008 and called him back to court repeatedly during a decade of court supervision. Brinkley frequently complained that Mill was “thumbing his nose” at her, and once visited a homeless shelter to check up on his community service efforts. She later reprimanded him for sorting clothes rather than serving meals as she had ordered. He said he was directed to the job.

The Pennsylvania Superior Court removed Brinkley from the case as it granted Mill a new trial. Krasner’s office must now decide whether to retry him, dismiss the case or try to negotiate a plea, perhaps to misdemeanour charges.

In 2015, a federal jury rejected a lawsuit Mill filed against Philadelphia police over what he called a racially motivated, 10-hour traffic stop that led him to miss the launch party for his 2012 debut album, “Dreams & Nightmares.”

His follow-up albums include the chart-topping “Dreams Worth More Than Money” and last year’s “Championships,” which includes performances from Jay-Z, his mentor, and former girlfriend Nicki Minaj.

On July 24, just hours before the Pennsylvania Superior Court threw out his conviction, Meek Mill and Jay-Z announced they were launching a new label called Dream Chasers Records. His growing business empire also includes an ownership stake in the hat company Lids.

He performed at Lollapalooza in Chicago over the weekend, and will release a five-episode documentary series on Friday on Amazon Prime Video called “Free Meek,” which follows his fight for exoneration in his legal case and his work with the Reform Alliance.

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This story has been corrected to say that the case has been delayed until later this month rather than next month.

Kristen De Groot, The Associated Press