FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2005

D.A. BROWN: RAPPER DMX SENTENCED TO 70 DAYS IN JAIL FOR VIOLATING SENTENCING CONDITIONS OF 2004 JFK AIRPORT INCIDENT AND FOR FAILING TO APPEAR IN COURT YESTERDAY

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that rapper DMX who was remanded late yesterday after showing up almost three hours late for sentencing for violating the terms of an earlier conditional discharge has been ordered to serve a total of 70 days in jail – 60 days for violating the conditions of his release following a June 2004 John F. Kennedy International Airport parking lot gate crash incident and 10 additional days for failing to appear in court as ordered.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant has consistently exhibited contempt for the criminal justice system and has now learned the hard way that his actions will not be tolerated. Hopefully, he has learned his lesson.”

According to District Attorney Brown, in a December 8, 2004 proceeding in Criminal Court in Kew Gardens, DMX – whose real name is Earl Simmons – pled guilty to Reckless Endangerment in the Second Degree and Operating a Motor Vehicle While Under the Influence of Alcohol or Drugs and admitted that he drove a vehicle recklessly while under the influence of Valium. He was then sentenced to a conditional discharge and was directed to pay a $1,000 fine and to forfeit his personalized 1998 Ford Expedition SUV valued at $13,200 in which a police-style emergency response flashing light and siren package valued at an additional $2,500 had been installed.

District Attorney Brown said Simmons, 34, of 142 McLein Street in Mount Kisco, New York, admitted in a hearing on October 25, 2005 before Justice Dorothy Chin-Brandt that one week after being sentenced on December 8, 2004, for the JFK incident, he was charged with driving a motor vehicle at 104 miles per hour on Route 684 in Westchester County and that on April 15, 2005, he was driving a vehicle that was involved in an accident on the Major Deegan Expressway in the Bronx with two other vehicles, one of which was an unmarked police car. In each incident, his driver’s license had either been suspended or revoked. The defendant, who was scheduled to receive 60 days in jail yesterday but failed to appear in a timely fashion, was sentenced by Judge Chin-Brandt today to 70 days in jail. He was also ordered to pay a fine of $1,000.

District Attorney Brown said that, according to the criminal charges filed in the earlier case, at 8:10 p.m. on June 24, 2004, Simmons, while operating a black 1998 Ford Expedition at Parking Lot Green outside Terminals One, Two and Three at John F. Kennedy International Airport, crashed through the parking lot exit gate after telling the attendant to let him leave the lot because he was a federal agent. Immediately upon exiting the parking lot, the defendants were apprehended by Port Authority of New York and New Jersey police officers.

District Attorney Brown said that, according to the criminal charges, Simmons was additionally alleged to have ordered the driver of another vehicle inside an adjacent parking lot to get out of his vehicle after Simmons grabbed the driver’s seat belt buckle and attempted to pull him from the vehicle, stating that he was an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The District Attorney said that a police search resulted in the recovery from the vehicle of numerous Valium and Percocet tablets.

Assistant District Attorney Christina Hanophy, Chief Counter-Terrorism and Airport Investigations Unit in the District Attorney’s Organized Crime and Rackets Bureau prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Gerard A. Brave, Bureau Chief, and Marc P. Resnick, Deputy Bureau Chief, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Peter A. Crusco and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Linda M. Cantoni.