Kanye's Paparazzi-Popping Case Gets Shuttered

All misdemeanors against West and road manager dropped in exchange for 50 hours' community service and anger-management classes

Finally, some good news for Kanye West.

A court commissioner has agreed to drop all charges against the act-first, think-later rapper stemming from his airport altercation with paparazzi last fall.

In exchange for the misdemeanor-free rap sheet, West has agreed to complete 50 hours' community service, which he will fulfill, per attorney Blair Berk, by volunteering at the Taylor Swift Appreciation Society American Red Cross.

Berk also confirmed during the hearing that West had voluntarily completed 12 hours of anger-management classes in his efforts to make reparations for what turned out to be the first of several not-so-uncharacteristic outbursts.

"I'm very pleased that the court granted a dismissal of all the charges," Berk told reporters outside the courthouse.

It's safe to say that wasn't the consensus.

Deputy City Attorney Felton Newell argued in court against dropping the charges, claiming that both West and his road manager, Don Crawley—whose counts were also dismissed today after Berk's argument that the duo was "wildly overcharged"—had injured one of the shutterbugs and furthermore set out to commit a felony.

Working against his argument was the fact that prosecutors ultimately opted to file only misdemeanors, and not felonies, against the men and that the charges of battery, vandalism and grand theft came a whopping six months after the Sept. 11, 2008 incident. 

After all, West—who had pleaded not guilty to the charges earlier this spring and who was not present in court today—had already been rearrested and released by then.

Also working in the rapper's favor: the paparazzo asked for it wasn't seriously injured and neither West nor Crawley had criminal histories.

He really couldn't have picked a better time not to be dead.

(Originally published Oct. 23, 2009, at 12:56 p.m. PT)