Bossip.com:
Lauryn Hill has been sentenced to spend 3 months in
FEDERAL PRISON for tax evasion … even though she claims she paid off her
nearly $1 million bill to Uncle Sam before sentencing.
A judge in Newark, New Jersey dished out the sentence moments ago …
and told Hill that after she completes her stint behind bars, she’ll
spend 3 more months on house arrest … followed by 9 months of supervised
release.
Before the hearing, Hill’s attorney told the media the singer scraped
together more than $970,000 to repay her debt to the government.
The 37-year-old former Fugee pled guilty last year to three counts of
tax evasion for failing to file returns on $1.8 million she earned from
2005 to 2007. Lauryn’s attorney asked for mercy because of her charity
work and 6 kids … but the judge wasn’t buying it.
During the hearing, the judge ordered Hill to report to prison by July 8. It’s unclear where Hill will serve her time.
Hill was present during the hearing, and delivered a statement to the judge in which she compared her situation to slavery.
“I was put into a system I didn’t know the nature of. … I’m a child
of former slaves. I got into an economic paradigm and had that imposed
on me,” Hill said.
She continued, “I sold 50 million units … now I’m up here paying a
tax debt. If that’s not likened to slavery, I don’t know what is.”
TMZ.com:
Grammy Award-winning R&B legend Lauryn Hill is being sued for eviction ... the good news, she's probably going to prison so she won't need that place anyway.
Lauryn's
been renting a South Orange, New Jersey mansion since 2009. Things
went south when she stopped paying rent last month, so her landlord ran
to court and filed a legal ultimatum -- pay your rent NOW, or get out.
Lauryn hasn't paid, so the eviction lawsuit is now full steam ahead.
Lauryn will be sentenced next week for tax fraud. She pled guilty and now faces several years in federal prison.
Nothing like moving from a big house to the big house.
FOXNews.com:
Flava Flav might be heading to the slammer… soon.
The reality TV personality and rapper, Flavor Flav is facing a trial
on felony charges that he threatened his longtime girlfriend's
17-year-old son with a butcher knife during a family argument.
The 54-year-old, whose legal name is William Jonathan Drayton Jr.,
didn't testify during a Wednesday evidence hearing in Las Vegas Justice
Court.
But the teen did. He pointed from the witness stand toward Drayton at
the defendant's table, identified him as the man wearing a clock around
his neck, and told Justice of the Peace Melanie Andress-Tobiasson that
Drayton chased him to a bedroom and stabbed the knife through the door
during the argument early Oct. 17.
The teen quoted the obscenity he says Drayton used as the rapper
threatened to kill him. Drayton was standing 2 feet away with the knife
still in his hand, the boy said.
The Associated Press is not reporting the boy's name because he is a juvenile.
The argument began when Drayton woke the boy during a 3 a.m. argument
with the boy's mother, Elizabeth Trujillo, with whom he has lived for
about eight years. It escalated when the teen, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound
high school football and basketball player, wrestled the 5-foot-6
Drayton into a head lock in the kitchen.
"I told him, 'You're not going to talk to my mom like that,'" he testified. "He pushed me. ... I pushed him."
Defense attorney Tony Abbatangelo later told the judge he believed
Drayton may have been acting in self-defense when he allegedly grabbed
the butcher knife, a steak knife and a pizza cutter during the scuffle.
Abbatangelo noted that a police report didn't include the quote the teen recalled Wednesday.
Andress-Tobiasson said the evidence was enough to bind Drayton over to state court for trial.
She set arraignment for April 18 on felony charges of assault with a
weapon and child endangerment that could get Drayton up to 12 years in
prison if he's convicted. Drayton also faces a misdemeanor domestic
violence battery charge.
LATimes.com:
Bobby Brown
reported to court Wednesday to begin serving his sentence of 55 days in jail
and four years' informal probation after pleading no contest in February to a
DUI charge -- one of two such offenses last year by the singer.
Because of jail overcrowding, as well as time off for good behavior
and credit for "good time work time," Brown is likely to serve no more
than nine days in county jail, sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.
He noted that Brown's sentence could be influenced by his county probation officer or a judge's order.
In addition to the jail time for pleas related to drunk driving,
driving on a suspended license and a probation violation for a prior DUI
incident, Brown also must complete an 18-month alcohol-treatment
program and attend three Alcoholics Anonymous meetings a week.
Brown had been sentenced to a day in jail and three years' probation
for the March 26, 2012, arrest, which took place in the San Fernando
Valley after officers with the California Highway Patrol spotted him
talking on his cellphone while driving. The second arrest, also in the
Valley, took place Oct. 24.
The singer, who went solo after being part of the group New Edition,
also has a previous DUI conviction from 1996. The latest incidents came
after the death of his former wife, Whitney Houston.
Vladtv.com:
Bow wow has to fork over nearly $80k to a French porn star for
allegedly using footage of her dancing in one of his videos without her
permission.
Celine Tran, known as "Katsuni", sued the "106 & Park" host back
in July 2012, claiming he stole clips of her pole dancing in a video for
a French band called Electronic Conspiracy, and then used the footage
in his music video "Drank in My Cup" without her permission.
The Young Money rapper completely ignored the lawsuit, so now a
federal judge has ordered him to cough up $79,346.07 in damages and
attorneys' fees, and stop using the footage immediately.
AJC.com:
Authorities
and celebrities were grappling Monday with how to respond to a website
that posted what appears to be private financial information about top
government officials and stars such as Jay-Z and Mel Gibson.
The
Justice Department said Monday the FBI was investigating how the Social
Security number, address and a credit report of FBI Director Robert
Mueller ended up on the site. The site also posted the same information
about Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck, and the department said it
was investigating the matter.
In addition to Jay-Z and Gibson, other targeted stars included Beyonce, Ashton Kutcher, Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton. Info posted about Vice President Joe Biden
and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did not include credit
reports but included addresses and other sensitive information.
Social Security numbers posted on Gibson, Jay-Z and others matched records in public databases.
The
site, which bears an Internet suffix originally assigned to the Soviet
Union, expanded throughout the day Monday to add entries on Britney
Spears, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and others.
It
did not state how the information was obtained or why the 11 people
targeted on the site were selected, describing the records only as
"secret files." A Twitter profile linked to the site and created after
its existence was first reported by celebrity website TMZ included an
anti-police message in Russian.
