The rapper is again facing time behind bars after violating his probation as a result of his September marijuana arrest with a judge saying that he 'dumped a lot of smut on the whole experiment.'
- Oct 16, 2010
AceShowbiz - T.I. faces another prison days now that he is sentenced to 11 months behind bars for violating his probation following his marijuana arrest with his wife Tameka Cottle aka Tiny on September 1. T.I. was given the sentence during a court hearing in Atlanta on Friday, October 15 with U.S. District Judge Charles Pannell Jr. declaring that the rapper "has had about the limit of second chances," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
During the hearing, the rapper said, "I screwed up. I screwed up bigtime, and I'm sorry. I'm truly and sincerely sorry. I don't want and I don't need to use drugs anymore. I want them out of my life." However, judge Pannell Jr. was unmoved, stating "The worst thing is this case was an experiment. You certainly dumped a lot of smut on the whole experiment."
U.S. Attorney Sally Yates added that T.I. submitted two diluted urine samples before his arrest and lied about five pills of ecstasy found on his pants pocket when he was arrested. According to Yates, the star first told a probation officer that the pants belonged to a designer, then said they were his brother's. She requested a two-year sentence.
Meanwhile, defense attorney Steve Sadow asked judge Pannell Jr. to sentence T.I. to six months' home confinement and allow him to be admitted into an inpatient rehabilitation program instead of the jail sentence. He also suggested T.I. would receive more therapy and submit to urine screens three times a week.
Defense lawyers further argued that T.I. stayed clean for years but was back using drugs during a period of intense pressure at work. Moreover, a fellow member of T.I.'s Narcotics Anonymous group spoke on his behalf to highlight T.I.'s positive influence to young people, hoping the judge would gave him leniency. Atlanta police officer James Polite also recounted the rapper's recent help of talking suicidal man down from a 22-story building.
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, T.I. will begin his prison stint at a later date. The rapper was already on probation for gun charges stemming from an arrest in 2007. He completed his prison sentence for those charges in December 2009.
