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Busta Going To Trial
Busta Rhymes should've busted a move when he had the chance.
The "Gimme Some More" rapper will stand trial on two assault charges after a New York judge opted Monday to rescind a plea deal proposal, citing Rhymes' arrest last month for driving with a suspended license.
During a court appearance on Feb. 20, Rhymes agreed to consider an offer by Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Tanya Kennedy that would have allowed him to avoid the slammer and receive a conditional discharge if he pleaded guilty to third-degree assault.
In return, the hip-hopster would have received three years' probation. He also would have had to complete 10 days of community service for the city, along with another four weeks of community service with a private organization, as well as attend six weeks of anger-management classes.
Just two days after that hearing however, Rhymes was pulled over for running a red light in the Big Apple. Officers ran his license and determined that it had been suspended after he failed to answer a summons.
That bust—the latest in a string of run-ins with the law for Busta over the past year—was apparently enough to convince Kennedy that maybe it was time Rhymes faced the music.
"The court's offer is off the table," the judge told the 34-year-old emcee.
After the judge withdrew her offer, the Brooklyn-born Rhymes, real name Trevor Smith, rejected a follow-up offer from prosecutors that was not as enticing—one year in jail for each of the assault charges, to be served concurrently, and a $500 fine for driving with a suspended license.
In February, Rhymes turned down a prosecutor's original offer of a six-month jail term for each assault count that would have run concurrently. The D.A.'s office upped the recommendation to a year in jail for each count, plus the added fine after Rhymes was collared for the suspended license.
Now that the judge has withdrawn her far more generous offer, the proposition by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office is the only option the rapper has left if he wants to avoid being tried—which he apparently doesn't.
"He could've come back at any point and could've taken the judge's offer and never did," said prosecutor's spokesman Edison Alban. "Our office decided to put our offer back on the table...[which] we upped because there was another crime committed afterwards."
The two misdemeanor counts against Rhymes are the result of separate assault complaints which have both been assigned to Kennedy. At the D.A.'s request, the judge will tend to both charges at the same court date, though according to Alban, the complaints have yet to be formally consolidated.
The first assault complaint was filed last summer by a 19-year-old fan who claimed he was beaten up by the entertainer for spitting on Rhymes' SUV. Prosecutors initially slapped Rhymes with assault and harassment counts and later tacked on a weapons-possession charge after police found a 10-inch machete in his vehicle.
The second complaint came from a 39-year-old man, reportedly Rhymes' former driver, who alleged Rhymes roughed him up last December in a dispute over money.
The multiplatinum-selling star has pleaded not guilty in both cases.
Rhymes' attorney, Robert Kalina, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
A tentative trial date has been set for May 8.
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