Free Republic

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Gangster rapper Beanie Sigel was sentenced to a year in federal prison Friday on a gun-possession charge stemming from a traffic stop. Sigel, 30, could have received more than three years, but the judge cited the rapper's charity work and drug abuse treatment in taking leniency. "It is clear that the defendant has made a substantial effort to change his life," said U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick. Prosecutors had argued that Sigel was much like the man he presents himself as in his gritty lyrics: a ruthless, dangerous gangster The charges stemmed from a 2002 incident...

Jailed rapper Beanie Sigel can attend a residential treatment program for substance abuse and anger management while awaiting his federal drug and weapons trial, a federal judge ruled. U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick granted Sigel's request Thursday after the rapper, born Dwight Grant, agreed to post a $1 million bond, including $150,000 in cash, his $400,000 suburban Philadelphia home and four other properties. "I don't see how 28 days of treatment in the life of Beanie Sigel is enough to stamp out 29 years of being Dwight Grant," Assistant U.S. Attorney Curtis Douglas argued in court against Sigel's release....