Prosecutor: Meek Mill, meet Man in the Mirror
The Philly-born rapper has been jailed on probation violations since July 11.
PHILLY-BORN RAPPER Meek Mill was only 8 months old when Michael Jackson's song "Man in the Mirror" was released in January 1988, but he needs to listen to the lyrics and try to learn something from them, according to the latest court filing in the jailed entertainer's case.
In opposing a petition filed last week by the rapper's lawyers seeking to have him paroled from jail, Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Noel Ann DeSantis wrote Friday that Mill is unappreciative of the court's efforts to rehabilitate him and to allow his career to flourish in the five years he's been on probation for a drug and gun conviction.
"This defendant has consistently crossed the lines and pushed the limits of this court with his behavior, attitude and failure to follow even the simple rules and regulations of this honorable court and the probation department," DeSantis wrote in her motion to Common Pleas Judge Genece Brinkley.
She even slammed the charity work done by Mill, whose real name is Robert Williams. "The defendant flaunts his charity work as a way to spin more publicity for himself, not to be charitable," DeSantis wrote.
She offered Jackson's song to the 27-year-old rapper as a teaching tool to help him change his ways, and even included the lyrics in her court filing:
I'm starting with the Man in the Mirror
I am asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself and then make a change
"Since the defendant's language is music, this commonwealth felt that perhaps the best way to reach the defendant would be through music," the prosecutor wrote.
On July 11, Brinkley sentenced Mill to three to six months in jail and five years of probation after finding him in technical violation of his probation.
Among the infractions she cited: Mill's failure to give his probation officer a working phone number, posting disparaging remarks on Twitter about the probation officer and DeSantis, "combative" and "disrespectful" behavior to probation-office staffers in a meeting on May 15, posing for a picture on Instagram holding a gun, and not getting court approval to travel for work.
Since being jailed, Mill has missed concert dates in Washington, D.C.; at Temple University's Liacouras Center; and in New York. Online ticket sites list an Aug. 2 show in Jackson, Miss., as his next scheduled show - which he'll also miss unless Brinkley reverses her order.
DeSantis wrote that if the judge decides to parole the rapper before his minimum release date of Oct. 11, she'd like a hearing on the matter.