A Manhattan judge has denied rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine’s request to end his supervised release.
Federal Judge Paul Engelmayer, according to the Daily News, stated that he would not agree to the early termination of the Brooklyn rapper’s five-year term for a few reasons. One of them is that he did not do community service.
He wrote, “Particularly in light of Mr. Hernandez’s alarming, violent and diverse history of crimes and other anti-social conduct, his history of surrounding himself with criminal elements, his youth, his tendency to impulsive action, and other aspects of his personal history, the court judged these interests as weighty.”
The issue of the “GOOBA” artist’s community service was addressed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Longyear, who noted in a letter to the court, that Tekashi, whose real name is Daniel Hernandez, only completed 10 of his required 300 hours of community service. His team said that he didn’t do them because of “security concerns.”
His lawyer Lance Lazzaro said, “The truth is, even without supervised release, Mr. Hernandez seems to be monitored by the media and the public every time he ventures out into public.”
“While I do not believe it will happen, if Mr. Hernandez were to commit a crime in the future,” Lazzaro continued. “It seems safe to say that his illegal act would be caught in some way by the media or someone in public with a camera on his phone.”
He also added that the concern has been principally raised by the Probation Department, who told them that to have the artist do community service could be dangerous.
The judge was not having it.
He said, “Although security concerns arising from Mr. Hernandez’s celebrity and well-publicized cooperation with law enforcement assuredly closed off some avenues of potential community service, the court is unpersuaded that no such avenues remain open — as reflected in the fact that Mr. Hernandez has already performed some such service.”
But the judge did celebrate the rainbow-haired rapper for not getting into trouble in almost two years.
Behaving well or not, he said, that he “cannot be divorced from the fact that he has been under judicial supervision.”
“Although the court is hopeful that Mr. Hernandez’s choice since his release to abide by the law reflects a durably matured internal compass,” Engelmayer stated. “The court cannot be fully confident that, freed of judicial supervision, he would not lapse.”
He also said that he knows that there are other forms of community service that he can complete that will not put the rapper in danger.