Meek Mill's lawyer talks judge's connection with Charlie Mack, Al Sharpton visit
“The judge continuously…repeated the request that Meek go back to Charlie Mack as a manager. That is not within the boundaries of a judge.”
Minutes after joining Rev. Al Sharpton for a press conference outside of State Correctional Institution in Chester, Penn., Meek Mill’s lawyer Joe Tacopina discussed their meeting and the judge’s connection to entertainment mogul Charlie Mack.
Meek’s lawyers have alleged that Judge Genece Brinkley urged Meek to leave Roc Nation and sign a management deal with Philadelphia entertainment veteran Charlie Mack, who helped guide Meek’s career early on, along with overseeing the careers of acts like Boyz II Men and Will Smith. Meek’s legal team is using that allegation, and others, to assert that Brinkley had an unfair bias against Meek Mill, which led to what they have said is an unjust sentence. Sharpton is joining their efforts to get Brinkley to either reconsider Meek’s sentence of two to four years in prison, or to recuse herself so another judge can preside over the case.
The FBI, according to reports, is investigating the allegations about Brinkley’s behavior concerning a relationship with Mack.
Charlie Mack denied any connection to Brinkley in an interview with Page Six, saying, “I’ve spent more time talking to you than I ever talked to the Judge. There is no conspiracy.” He also stood by Meek’s family and hundreds of other supporters in a protest rally in Philadelphia, and joined their refrains for Brinkley to be recused from the case.
But Tacopina stuck to his and his legal partner’s claims when speaking to REVOLT TV.
“The facts are that Charlie Mack represented certain things to Meek Mill about what he can do for Meek with the judge. And the judge on the record, over a dozen times, suggested that Meek leave Roc Nation, one of the most important management agencies for artists, and go back to Charlie Mack, someone who he had a real problem with when he was managing Meek,” Tacopina said.
“Meek left Charlie Mack for a reason. I don’t think I need to go into that now, but it was a reason I’m sure Charlie prefers stays under wraps,” Tacopina continued. “But Meek left him, and the judge continuously over years, repeated the request that he go back to Charlie Mack as a manager. That is not within the boundaries of a judge, and when Meek denied that recommendation, caused a friction that shouldn’t be there when a judge is sitting in judgment of a defendant.”
Mack, for his part, continues to say that he does not know Brinkley.
“God is real and the devil is a liar,” he told REVOLT TV. “Free these slaves in Libya. Free Meek Mill and get him back to his son and his family.”
Meek Mill’s legal team has filed motions for Brinkley to either reconsider Meek Mill’s sentence, or to recuse herself from the case altogether. Tacopina said that if Brinkley doesn’t respond to the motions by Dec. 5, that they will pursue further action.
Sharpton visited Meek Mill at State Correctional Institution for more than an hour on Monday, Nov. 27. When speaking to press afterward, he emphasized that Meek wasn’t only an individual case, but that he was representative of a system that “throws people’s lives away” for minor infractions.
“It was really to get the reverend to lay eyes on Meek, and speak to Meek from the heart, and really understand what he’s going through,” Tacopina said. “It wasn’t really so much a legal strategy meeting, as it was sort of a spiritual meeting, and a meeting to understand how horrific the injustice is in this case.”
In the latest news to come from the case, a Pennsylvania Supreme Court has ordered Brinkley to issue a ruling on his application for bail “without further delay.”