Boosie Badazz has been released from prison despite efforts by federal prosecutors to keep him in jail after a judge granted him bond earlier this week.
The Baton Rouge rapper, whose real name is Terrence Hatch, was arrested in court this week after beating a gun case, but cops re-arrested him at the courthouse over an Instagram video where he was seen with a gun tucked into his waistband. Boosie Badazz had complained online that a judge had granted him bond, but prosecutors had refused to release him, causing his lawyers to go to another judge with the bail application.
His attorneys successfully argued that the rapper should be released on bond with conditions that the second judge agreed. Prosecutors argued that he was a flight risk and likely to abscond from the jurisdiction and not turn up for his trial.
Boosie has been charged with possession of a firearm by a felon in relation to the Instagram video. According to prosecutors, the charge stems from a May 6 traffic stop where cops found two guns inside an SUV.
Lil Boosie had initially told cops that there was one gun in the car that belonged to his security. However, his driver had volunteered that there was a second gun in between the seats causing Boosie to shout at the security that he was to secure the guns properly.
Prosecutors claim that the second gun belonged to Boosie, who was spotted in an Instagram video by cops who were conducting a separate investigation of an alleged gang member. In the IG video, Boosie was seen with the weapon tucked into his waistband.
U.S. District Judge Cathy Bencivengo released Boosie, whose real name is Torrence Ivy Hatch Jr., with certain conditions despite the protests of prosecutors that the rapper was a threat to a possible witness.
According to them, Boosie Badazz had allegedly threatened to kill his bodyguard by putting a $10,000 bounty on his head for not telling cops the gun belonged to him, The Advocate reported.
“You’re gonna be in a body bag,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Wheat claimed he told the bodyguard.
However, Boosie’s lawyer, Meghan Blanco, called into question the claim by the prosecution, noting that no police report made mention of that threat, and Boosie’s bodyguard has also not made a statement to that effect.
The attorney successfully argued that the rapper was not a flight risk, given his stellar court attendance in his past case.
Boosie was originally granted bond in the sum of $50,000 by U.S. Magistrate Judge Allison Goddard on Tuesday. The prosecution had appealed that decision which was further sustained by Judge Bencivengo, who ordered that he be released on bond of $100,000.
The judge based her decision on the prosecution not being convincing enough that Boosie was a danger to the community and not a flight risk and sided with defense counsel on the veracity of the claims of threat against his bodyguard even though she did express that any threats by itself are concerning.
