Thanks to the city earning its first Super Bowl win in history, many in Philadelphia have reason to celebrate. The team and fans have used Meek Mill’s iconic “Death and Nightmares (Intro)” as an anthem throughout the journey, its scrappy defiance symbolizing the attitude of the city. “Hold up wait a minute, y’all thought I was finished,” and similar lyrics could be heard anywhere from the locker room to the streets.
Notably absent throughout the proceeding has been Meek Mill himself. In November of last year the rapper stood before Judge Genece E. Brinkley, a woman who has overseen Meek’s probation for over a year, after parole violations that included a failed drug test and Meek’s noncompliance to a court order that severely limited his travel.
Not helping matters was two misdemeanor arrests Meek experienced in 2017. The first arrest involved an alleged altercation in the St. Louis airport after an airport employee asked for a photo and Meek refused. The second included reckless endangerment charges issued by the NYPD for popping wheelies on his dirt bike through upper Manhattan. NYPD officials used a story posted on Meek’s Instagram account to identify him a day after the incident.
For these violations, Meek was given 2-4 years in prison by Judge Brinkley. The sentence shocked many as it directly opposed recommendations by the Assistant District Attorney and Probation Officer who did not want Meek imprisoned as he had been off drugs since January and mostly complied with his probation requirements. The ruling has raised many questions regarding the criminal justice system in Philadelphia. A top public defender noted that Meek’s case represented deep systemic problems with long probation cycles and courts focusing on technical rules instead of a defendant’s actual progress.
Recent developments involving Judge Brinkley and the alleged corruption involving Meek’s initial arresting officer have warranted an appeal date set this April. But that is no surefire guarantee. The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that seven times in the past four years has Judge Brinkley sent men to prison for violating parole. Meek’s case, with its long probation period and the resulting punishment, fits the formula Brinkley has followed. Those men have appealed each time and “every time, her decisions have been upheld by a higher court.”
Initial Arrest
To understand how bizarre the circumstances around Meek Mill’s case are, it helps to start from the beginning. Back in 2007, he was a battle rapper on the come-up. Known as Meek Millz, he had messy braids and, as he told Billboard, spit rhymes like, “Let off and blow a motherf--er's face off," into other rappers’ grills. The rhyme wasn’t a boast; Meek was always strapped in those battles, existing in a world where he could “smell death in the air.”
Packing firearms, however necessary, would be the start of his troubled relationship with the criminal justice system. One night, as the then-18-year-old was walking to a corner store with a gun in his possession, police arrested him, and “beat the shit out of me,” Meek alleges. His Dreamchasers 4 mixtape cover is his mugshot from that night—look at his face to witness the “justice” Meek was served.
The rapper was tried in 2008 and faced assault, drug and gun possession charges (Cops say Meek pulled a gun on them; Meek repeatedly has said those claims are farcical). Philadelphia Commons Pleas Court Judge Genece E. Brinkley would sentence Meek to an 11-23 month sentence in January 2009. Meek would serve eight months, before given house arrest that ended later that year. Most importantly, though, Meek was given five years probation. That detail has trapped him in the clutches of the system to this day.
Parole Violations
The following years Meek’s career would ignite, exploding him into a rapper who at one time called Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and J. Cole his peers. But wherever Meek went, that one infraction he made as an 18-year-old would haunt him. Every mistake and parole violation Meek has made since resulted in more probation time, ensuring he’d never escape Judge Brinkley’s courtroom.
In 2012, cops pulled over Meek Mill on Halloween. Police officials smelled marijuana emanating from the car, and Meek was arrested because he refused to allow the police to search his car, according to Philly.com. The rapper would sue police over this night, as Meek lost out on a $40,000 club appearance and Puma cut his lucrative sponsorship deal by more than half due to negative publicity.
He would also test positively for marijuana and opioids around this time, exacerbating Judge Brinkley’s relationship. Because Meek missed court dates due to the touring and travel requirements of a budding rap star, Brinkley suggested maybe he shouldn’t be trusted with travel.
In 2014, Meek received a three to six month sentence for violating his parole. He went in July and was released in December 2014. He also was put on further parole and, in the beginning of odd behavior from Judge Brinkley, Meek had to sign up for etiquette classes “in order to address his inappropriate social media use and crude language in the courtroom,” she later wrote. Multiple Philadelphia lawyers say they’d never heard of judge ordering that kind of sentence, according to Pitchfork.
Meek Mill vs. Judge Brinkley
You might have deduced already the two main figures in this dramatic conflict are the defendant, Meek Mill, and Judge Genece E. Brinkley. As the judge overseeing his parole, she alone is responsible for handing out punishments to Meek’s parole violations. In 2016, she was visibly frustrated because she wasn’t made aware of Meek’s ongoing travel arrangements, a stipulation of his probation arrangement. That resulted in a 90-day house arrest sentence and six more years of probation. These events would culminate as too many strikes against the rapper, in Brinkley’s opinion, resulting in Meek’s current prison sentence.
“What’s happening to Meek Mill is just one example of how our criminal justice system entraps and harasses hundreds of thousands of black people every day,” Jay Z wrote in the New York Times following the sentencing.
Since then, alarming news has dropped via Meek Mill’s lawyer Joe Tacopina who alleges that Judge Brinkley developed a vendetta against the rapper. Her alleged strange behavior includes Brinkley requesting Meek drops his current Roc Nation management to sign with a friend of hers. She also appeared at one of Meek’s community service engagements to ensure his attendance. “You could pull any judge in America and ask them how many times they've showed up at a community service for a probation and the answer is zero," Tacopina told Billboard.
Perhaps most baffling is an alleged encounter where Judge Brinkley asked to meet Meek Mill and then-girlfriend Nicki Minaj privately in chambers. There she requested that Meek release a remix of “On Bended Knee” by Boyz II Men and give her a shoutout on the record. Meek refused, to which Brinkley allegedly replied, “Suit yourself.”
News also broke that Judge Brinkley is under investigation by the FBI for her handling of Meek’s case. His lawyers believe she should step down from the case, as she has been made aware of this investigation, and it questions her ability to preside impartially over future rulings.
More questions
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philly District Attorney’s office “last year secretly compiled a list of Philadelphia police officers with a history of lying, racial bias, or brutality, in a move to block them from testifying in court.” Among the list was Reginald V. Graham, the police officer from Meek Mill’s initial 2007 arrest. Court documents reveal that Graham’s testimony—where he claimed to have witnessed Meek selling drugs and pointing a gun at officers—was responsible for Meek’s 2007 conviction.
Meek’s lawyers in 2007 were never made aware of this list’s existence. In fact, the Inquirer reported that "hundreds of past defendants" were never told their arrests came from officers “the District Attorney’s Office had identified as tainted.”
Following the news, Meek’s legal team has argued this as basis to file a petition demanding the rapper’s release and starting a new trial.
“When you're in the justice system and you have the power of the district attorney's office, you have to present all the evidence: good, bad or indifferent,” Meek’s lawyer Joe Tacopina told HotNewHipHop. “You can't hide the [proof] and prevent defense lawyers from understanding that perhaps the officer that was the linchpin to your client's case is somehow corrupt.”
It is just another unexpected twist in Meek’s case that has spanned the majority of his adult life. After more than 10 years, maybe one day Meek Mill will receive the justice he deserves.