Legal News

DMX Sentenced To Six Months For Probation Violation

By (Breaking Legal News)

DMX was sentenced to six months in an Arizona jail on Tuesday for violating his probation by using drugs. The rapper (born Earl Simmons), who has been in jail since his arrest on March 9 for five counts of probation violation, admitted to a single violation for failing a court-mandated drug test last June and testing positive for cocaine, according to The Arizona Republic.

Though she could have sent him to prison for the infringement, Maricopa County Superior Court Commissioner Christine Mulleneaux reinstated X's probation over the objections of the prosecutor. In addition to ordering him to spend six months in jail, Mulleneaux said the troubled rapper must undergo a mental health evaluation to search for possible underlying psychological issues that might be driving his need to self-medicate. She said he could be released earlier if he is accepted into a court-approved drug rehabilitation program.

As a result, X seemed destined to be the next star to land on the VH1 reality show "Celebrity Rehab," as he's already been accepted by the Pasadena Recovery Center, which is the setting for the show hosted by addiction specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky. But show staffer Will Smith told the paper that the "Party Up" rapper would not join the cast of "Rehab" because he is destined for a lockdown facility.

"He's looking at nine months to a year of treatment," Smith said. Where Simmons, 39, ends up depends on whether California allows him to serve out his intensive probation in the state, a sentence that will keep him under virtual house arrest until December. If not, X may have to undergo the Maricopa County Sheriff's substance-abuse treatment program at the jail where he is currently incarcerated.

Full post as published by Breaking Legal News on March 17, 2010 (boomark / email).