Wednesday, March 7, 2001
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Wednesday, March 7, 2001 |
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After three days in jail for missing jury duty, local rapper ready to give out new address By JOHN
MUNFORD
Exiting the Fayette County Jail Sunday evening after completing his three-day sentence for skipping jury duty, rapper Jermaine Dupri Mauldin said he didn't want to go back. "I need to let them know my new address ... I live in Buckhead now," said the recording artist and record executive, who still owns a home in the Dix-Lee-On subdivision in northern Fayette County. "You got people doing bad things out there and they got me in here," he said, referring to the jail. Mauldin answered several questions from reporters before riding off in a chauffeured black Range Rover SUV with Fulton County tags. Jail employees said Mauldin gave them no problems whatsoever. "He was real quiet," said one jail worker. Mauldin was sentenced to three days in jail by Superior Court Judge Christopher Edwards for failing to report for jury duty in March of 1999. Mauldin had appealed the sentence for contempt of court, but it was recently upheld by the Georgia Court of Appeals. Through his attorneys, Mauldin said he couldn't appear for jury duty because he had a previous commitment to perform in a rap concert in New Jersey on the same date. In the Court of Appeals ruling, the judges made it clear that Mauldin willingly refused to return for jury duty. They also refuted that the three-day jail sentence was "cruel and unusual punishment" as Mauldin claimed. "Mauldin ... made the conscious choice to instead honor a previously made commitment," the court wrote. The court also said the three-day sentence was justified for missing three days of jury service. Mauldin was notified that he was scheduled to serve on jury duty for the week of March 1. He appeared that day and was asked to return two days later, which he admits he didn't do. At the time, one of Mauldin's attorneys tried to gain a waiver of jury duty from the court. However, an employee at the clerk's office notified the attorney such a waiver would not be granted, according to court records. The lawyer then inquired what the fine would be for failing to appear for jury duty, according to court records. Previously, the rapper had received three different jury waivers postponing his jury service until another date. Mauldin's attorney later claimed the rapper could not be reached to notify him that the waiver was not granted.
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