{"id":190654,"date":"2018-11-22T06:34:43","date_gmt":"2018-11-22T11:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=190654"},"modified":"2018-11-22T06:34:43","modified_gmt":"2018-11-22T11:34:43","slug":"attorney-rapper-6ix9ine-innocent-of-racketeering-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/11\/22\/attorney-rapper-6ix9ine-innocent-of-racketeering-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"Attorney: Rapper 6ix9ine innocent of racketeering charges"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
The rapper, whose legal name is Daniel Hernandez, is among five people indicted this week on charges that he directed or participated in violent acts as part of a deadly gang known as the 9 Trey Bloods. (File Photo<\/a>: @6ix9ine\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

NEW YORK \u2014 The defence attorney for Brooklyn rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine says his client is \u201ccompletely innocent\u201d of federal racketeering and firearms charges.<\/p>\n

The rapper, whose legal name is Daniel Hernandez, is among five people indicted this week on charges that he directed or participated in violent acts as part of a deadly gang known as the 9 Trey Bloods.<\/p>\n

The indictment alleges that the violent episodes involving 6ix9ine included the July shooting of a bystander in Brooklyn and the gunpoint robbery of one of the gang’s rivals last spring.<\/p>\n

6ix9ine was held without bail after an initial appearance before a Manhattan federal magistrate judge Monday.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, defence attorney Lance Lazzaro said in a statement that his client was \u201ccompletely innocent of all charges.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAn entertainer who portrays a ‘gangster image’ to promote his music does not make him a member of an enterprise,\u201d Lazzaro said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Hernandez became a victim of this enterprise and later took steps by firing employees and publicly denounced this enterprise through a morning show. Threats were then made against his life which resulted in this case being brought immediately,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

At Monday’s hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Longyear said the rapper did not renounce his membership in the gang on the radio show last week.<\/p>\n

He said 6ix9ine would have been arrested this week anyway, but the timetable was speeded up when authorities learned that he planned to go to a Connecticut casino where it would be harder to protect him from the threats.<\/p>\n

Longyear said the threats were overheard on phone calls intercepted Saturday by investigators, including one in which an individual was heard saying that gang members wanted to \u201csuper violate him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prosecutor noted that violence seemed to surround the entertainer. He said 10 shots were fired into a Beverly Hills, California, home where he was filming a music video a week ago.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/p>\n

Associated Press Writer Larry Neumeister contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 The defence attorney for Brooklyn rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine says his client is \u201ccompletely innocent\u201d of federal racketeering …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":190655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","mauthors-jim-mustian","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}