(AllHipHop News) Journalist and former Los Angeles Times writer Chuck Philips has responded to a recent press release from James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond, who was recently indicted on federal cocaine distribution charges.
In a statement released yesterday (May 23rd), Henchman name checked Chuck Philips and accused Philips and The New York Daily News of writing baseless stories in the media, which alleged that Henchman was involved in criminal activities, and cooperating with the government.
Chuck Philips contacted AllHipHop.com to reply to Jimmy Henchman’s allegations.
“I had no idea Jimmy Henchman was such a sensitive wee man suffering from so many paranoid delusions,” Philips snapped to AllHipHop.com. “Nor did I realize that Tha (self-proclaimed) Gangsta Manager of Rap was in fact a persecuted civil rights martyr at the center of a government conspiracy. Poor Jimmy. Has anyone seen my tiny violin?”
Jimmy Henchman is accused of being involved in a cocaine distribution ring that shipped kilos of cocaine to studios New York, from the West coast, in road cases for music equipment.Hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash proceeds were then allegedly sent back to the West coast.
Henchman, who is facing at least 15 years in prison when he is sentenced this June, lashed out at Philips in his statement yesterday.
“Last year, in their frustration, the authorities employed Chuck Philips and The New York Daily News to spread baseless stories claiming that I was a rat (but never mentioned nor produced one person who I supposedly “snitched” on),” Jimmy Henchman said in his statement.
“Their hope was to dupe susceptible people into cooperating with their bogus investigation,” Henchman continued. “Moreover, Chuck Philips – the ‘journalist’ who was fired by The Los Angeles Times after it was revealed that he falsified documents as the basis for a libelous and eventually retracted story he fabricated about me back in 2008 – started an anonymous campaign by planting more false stories on me in The Daily News and by writing dozens of letters to inmates serving considerable time in federal prison, begging them to cooperate in a grand jury convening on cooked up allegations against me,” Jimmy Henchman said in the statement.
Chuck Philips accused Henchman of executing a PR stunt and making libelous comments against him repeatedly.
“I believe he has confused me with a snitch he once saw in the mirror,” Philips said. “I never worked for the government,” Chuck Philips told AllHipHop.com. “It is Jimmy who ratted out his own friends for the feds. If he has lost the proffer he signed with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office, I can send him a copy to refresh his memory.”
Jimmy Henchman and Chuck Philips have a storied history together.
It was Chuck Philips who supported Tupac Shakur’s allegations that Henchman and other associates set him up to be robbed and shot five times, in the lobby of Quad Recording Studios in 1994.
On March 17th, 2008, The Los Angeles Times published an article titled “An Attack on Tupac Shakur Launched a Hip-Hop War” by Philips, which claimed that Henchman and Sean “Diddy” Combs had advanced knowledge that Tupac would be shot.
The story was retracted by The Los Angeles Times in April of 2008, after a known con man named James Sabatino doctored FBI records in order to support the claims against Henchman and Combs, which were obtained from a court.
The Los Angeles Times issued an apology to Combs and Henchmen and Henchman threatened the paper with $100 million dollar lawsuit. Both men vehemently denied any advanced knowledge about Tupac Shakur’s shooting in the lobby of The Quad.
Now Chuck Philips is demanding an apology from Jimmy Henchman or else a lawsuit will be filed.
“I noticed that Jimmy apologized to everyone except me – the man he has slandered the most,” Chuck Philips told AllHipHop.com. “To paraphrase a letter with which his lawyer once put my ex-employer on notice, I would suggest that Mr. Henchman immediately print an apology to me and take out his checkbook — or brace himself for an epic lawsuit.”