No new bail hearing scheduled for Meek Mill

Editor’s note: Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill’s bail hearing was incorrectly scheduled. Common Pleas Court records showed on Friday that Mill was granted a bail hearing as he appeals his prison sentence. The court removed that hearing from its docket Friday afternoon, citing an administrative error. Earlier reports that the hearing had been scheduled for Nov. 27 at 9 a.m. are incorrect.

The original story is below:

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The Philadelphia judge who has attracted widespread controversy after sentencing rapper Meek Mill to prison has scheduled a hearing on whether Mill should be released on bail.

Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Genece Brinkley has set the hearing date for Nov. 27 at 9 a.m. in the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice in Center City. [See editor’s note above.]

The development follows lawyers for Mill accusing Brinkley of engaging in a “pattern of extrajudicial, personal and injudicious conduct,” in court papers filed recently to the judge.

Last week, Brinkley sentenced Mill to two to four years in state prison for violating terms of his probation. Neither prosecutors nor Mill’s probation officer asked the judge to incarcerate Mill.

Mill’s attorneys argue the prison term stemmed from a series court violations that Brinkley took as personal insults. In addition, the lawyers contend that the judge overstepped her authority by trying to give Mill advice on his career and even asking for a professional request. 

In one instance, during a February 2016 hearing, Brinkley brought Mill and his ex-girlfriend Nicki Minaj into her chambers for a conversation. There, according to the motion, Brinkley asked Mill to cover the Boyz II Men song “On Bended Knee,” asking that Mill give Brinkley a shout-out in the track. When Mill brushed that suggestion aside, Brinkley responded, “Suit yourself.”

On Monday, hundreds of Mill’s supporters rallied in front of the courthouse calling for his release and that his case be re-examined by a different judge. Big names like Philadelphia 76ers legend Dr. J, current Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins, and rapper Rick Ross came to the event to show support for Mill’s release. And on Friday, rapper Jay-Z wrote an op-ed in the New York Times criticizing the judge’s decision.

Throughout the week, billboards asking that Mill be released have appeared throughout the city, and a black tour bus has been driving around Center City with a light display on both sides of the vehicle prominently featuring “Stand with Meek Mill.”

On Nov. 6, Brinkley revoked Mill’s probation and sent him to prison for at least two years in a case that started with his arrest at age 19 on drug and gun charges.

The violations were prompted by two recent arrests: one in connection with a scuffle in a St. Louis airport and another for reckless driving in New York. Both cases are pending dismissal.

Mill, whose legal name is Robert Williams, also tested positive for Percocet, but his probation officer told the court that Mill described trying to kick the habit as his “biggest battle,” saying he used the narcotic to treat depression and stress.

Mill’s probation officer wrote Brinkley weeks before he was sent to jail and said he “responded well” to corrective measures and had been showing promising signs of behavior change, according to an exhibit to Tuesday’s motion.

Still, Brinkley has found 30-year-old Mill in violation of his probation at least three times over the past decade.

In a separate motion filed on Thursday, Mill’s lawyers said the 23-hour solitary confinement Mill has been in as a protective matter has been “repressive of his essential humanity and creativity,” adding that the conditions may “cause psychological pain and suffering many times greater even than the same period of time spent by the average person.”