14 February 2018
Newsdesk
Meek Mill's attorney is trying to get the rapper's conviction overturned after the police officer who originally arrested him featured on a list of "tainted" cops compiled by the District Attorney.
The Ima Boss star was sentenced to two-to-four years behind bars in November (17) for violating his probation relating to a 2008 drug and gun bust.
The sentence has stirred widespread debate about the fairness of the criminal-justice system, with the rapper's lawyers determined to get the sentence overturned.
Their latest attempt centres on Officer Reginald V. Graham, who arrested the rapper in 2007 on gun and drug charges and later testified against him in court. According to editors at The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, Graham is reportedly on a list secretly compiled by the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office of around 24 police officers who have an alleged history of lying, racial bias, brutality or abuse of power. The purpose of the list was to block those featured from testifying in court again, the newspaper reported yesterday.
Following Mill's 2007 arrest, he went on trial in 2008, during which Graham testified that police informants had seen the then 18-year-old Mill selling crack cocaine on the streets of Philadelphia. Mill denied the claims and said that at the time he was allegedly seen on the streets, he was actually in court supporting his cousin. Graham also claimed the rapper pulled out an illegal gun and started trying to shoot at them, which the rapper denied.
Graham's testimony was largely responsible for Mill's eventual conviction, for drug possession, a firearms violation and assault, which saw him serve five months in jail.
However, following the alleged emergence of the D.A.'s list, Mill's legal team are convinced they have enough evidence to prove that the musician's original conviction was wrongful.
"The news of this secret list, which includes the only officer to testify under oath against Meek Mill, is troubling but not surprising because we knew all along that the information officer Graham gave in court was false," Mill's attorney Joe Tacopina told the New York Post's gossip column Page Six.
Mill's legal team have also accused trial judge Genece Brinkley of bias, saying that she handed Mill prison time after the rapper laughed off her request for a shout-out in a song, and snubbed her suggestion to dump his management team at JAY-Z's Roc Nation firm and sign with Philadelphia music figure Charlie Mack.
