The family of former No Limit Records artist McKinley “Mac” Phipps is demanding he receive a new trial after witnesses in his manslaughter case have recently come forth and admitted that they were bullied and coerced into pointing the finger at the New Orleans rapper as the killer.
The family and supporters of Mac are demanding a new trail. Continue reading “New Orleans Rapper Mac’s Family Demands A New Trial In His 30 Yr Manslaughter Conviction”
A former Spanish teacher at a Michigan Catholic high school received 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to sex abuse charges involving a 15-year-old student.
Kathryn Ronk, 30, admitted to having sex with a sophomore at Bishop Foley High School in Madison Heights, a northern Detroit suburb. She originally faced five counts of criminal sexual misconduct, but took a plea deal last month for lesser charges. Instead of life in prison, she got 15 years with parole eligibility in five-and-a-half years.
“I’m so sorry for the victim and his family, for the school and the community, my family… and I’m so sorry for my husband,” Ronk said through sobs before her sentencing.
Police began investigating Roink in May 2014 after the victim’s parents learned their son was involved with the teacher. School administration fired Ronk when they found out she was under investigation.
Cops said Ronk had sex with the boy in different classrooms at the school, between class and after hours, according to CBS Detroit. She also provided him with alcohol, and had sex with him in a car in Sterling Heights and at the victim’s Macomb Township home.
In an interview with police, the boy said Ronk once told him, “This is what we used to do in high school,” according to the Detroit News.
Although Oakland Circuit Court Judge Nanci Grant appreciated Ronk’s apology, she said that she’d taken offense at the letters of support that she had received from the defendant’s friends and family.
“I have never seen letters of support for a defendant with nothing about the victim,” Grant said, according to the Detroit News. “They were all about you and what you were going through. Poor you… You did something you shouldn’t have done.”
In court Grant noted that there’s often a double-standard in society about sex abuse cases, but maintained that, “Fifteen is 15. He’s still a boy figuring out the ways in the world.”
“If this was a male teacher who had been involved with a 15-year-old female there would be people here hanging from the ceiling trying to get every drop of blood,” Grant said. “But because it is a woman, there seems to be a winking about what happened.”
Ronk faces additional charges of rape and child sex abuse in Macomb Circuit Court, with a trial date set for March 31 unless another deal is made, WXYZ reports.
At least five witnesses in the 2001 manslaughter conviction against rapper McKinley “MAC” Phipps Jr. were threatened and bullied by prosecutors, says a Huffington Post report.
Phipps, a New Orleans-based artist once signed to No Limit Records, has served almost half of a 30-year sentence for the shooting death of 19-year-old Barron Victor Jr. during a concert.
Yulon James, the prosecution’s star witness, reportedly lied when implicating Phipps as the shooter. James now claims that she “never saw anything” and was threatened and hounded by the office of former St. Tammany Parish District Attorney Walter Reed. “They stalked my house, they stalked my job and they stalked my family,” James said. “The DA came over to my parents’ house and told me I would have my baby in prison if I didn’t testify.”
Phipps has been locked up since age 24. Back then, he went by the stage name “Mac the Camouflage Assassin.” Prosecutors used lyrics in his music against him during the trial, although the now 37-year-old maintains that the raps were taken out of context.
James is one of four other names, including the victim’s currently incarcerated cousin, Jerry Price, who claims to have been threatened, thrown in jail, or ignored by the D.A.’s office.
District Attorney Reed is the current subject of a government probe over misuse of campaign funds and decided not to seek re-election amid the federal investigation. His brother, Richard Reed, was recently indicted and arrested on four federal charges including kidnapping and sexual battery. He’s currently out on bond.
In a statement published by the Times-Picayune, the new D.A., Warren Montgomery, acknowledged the latest allegations surrounding Phipps’ conviction. “Certainly no one wants to see an innocent person remain in jail. But there is a procedure for correcting injustices for those who feel they have been treated unfairly,” said Montgomery. “That procedure is to petition the court with evidence. At that time, I will fulfill my responsibility to respond to the allegations.”
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