There’s been a lot of back and forth in the news about the current status of Meek Mill’s case. Just last week, his lawyers argued that transcripts from the court could prove that Judge Genece Brinkley was biased when handing Meek a heavy two to four year prison sentence for a probation violation stemming from charges he received when he was 19. TMZ reported this week that the transcript showed no such bias, but now Meek’s lawyers are firing back saying that the proof is there in the documents.
The argument concerns whether or not Judge Brinkley gave Meek an unfair sentence, because she favored his old manager Charles Mack and wanted Meek to leave behind his current Roc Nation team. “We think that Judge Brinkley has taken an unusual interest in his career,” Meek’s defense lawyer Jordan Siev said on The Angie Martinez Show on Wednesday. Meek’s team is asking the judge to recuse herself from the case.
Meek terminated Mack in 2011. Siev explained that from 2012 to now Meek’s probation officer, the assistant district attorney, and Judge Brinkley made multiple references to Mack and problems with Meek’s new management. Martinez asked Siev if he thinks Brinkley and the others having some kind of business with Mack. “I don’t know the answer to that,” Siev said. “What we see repeatedly is not just a request...for Meek to replace his management. Time and time again specifically mentioning [Mack].”
Siev explains that the transcript shared on media outlets like TMZ have not been the fully released transcripts. He then reads from two transcribed conversations from 2012 where the judge and assistant district attorney are complaining about Meek’s new management, the year after Meek fired Mack.
The rest of interview continues as Martinez and Siev meticulously go through a number of instances where Mack is brought up in court. One instance is in February 2016, where the assistant district attorney asks Meek in open court if he would consider working with Mack again. “She’s assumed a role that’s gone beyond the judge’s judicial function getting involved with things like his management. It’s simply not appropriate and she can’t fairly provide over this case,” Siev said of Judge Brinkley.
Meek’s team has appealed his case, but the process continues to drag on while Meek is still in jail, where the rapper has been for three months after being sentenced in November. “We are hopeful that the appellate court is going to see the injustice of this sentence,” Siev said. “I think this highlights a broader issue. The clogging of the jails by people who didn’t commit another crime but violated probation. The numbers are staggering.”
