Rapper DMX faces about 60 days in jail after he pleaded guilty yesterday to violating the conditional discharge he was given after he drove through a barrier at John F Kennedy International Airport last year.
As previously reported, the rapper, real name Earl Simmons, pleaded guilty to charges of reckless endangerment in December last year and admitted that he was on valium at the time of the incident, in which he crashed his vehicle into an airport gate after telling a parking lot attendant that he was a federal agent. He was subsequently sentenced to a conditional discharge, but has twice violated it by committing traffic violations. Firstly he was caught driving a car at 104mph near his Westchester County home just one week after the conditional discharge was issued. Then in April he was involved in an accident in the Bronx with two other vehicles, one of which was an unmarked police car.
According to the Queens District Attorney's office, Simmons yesterday admitted both violations to Judge Dorothy Chin-Brandt and he now awaits sentencing. It had been thought the rapper might avoid trail because his lawyers were reportedly close to doing a deal with the DA's office - so much so the original court hearing was postponed. But clearly no deal could be done, so presumably the best Simmons could hope for was pleading guilty and getting the shortest possible sentence - probably two months.