Lil Boosie's probation includes community service
Lil Boosie was ordered Thursday to perform 100 hours of community service in New Orleans as part of his four-year probation term stemming from a 2009 guilty plea to a marijuana possession charge.
The 31-year-old rapper, whose real name is Torence Hatch, appeared Thursday in Baton Rouge, La., before state District Judge Chip Moore, his first court appearance since his release from state prison last week, The Advocate reports. A few fans and heightened security greeted him as he entered the courthouse.
Moore transferred his court supervision to New Orleans, where Hatch is now living, Baton Rouge attorney Lewis Unglesby told The Associated Press.
The judge congratulated Hatch for obtaining his GED while serving four years and four months in prison, said Unglesby, who also noted that Hatch had completed programs in substance abuse, anger management, parenting and victim awareness.
"He's happy to move on to the next stage of his life," Unglesby said of his client.
NOLA.com's The Times-Picayune reports Moore said Hatch should complete his community service by speaking with students at New Orleans area schools about the importance of staying in school and away from trouble that could land them behind bars.
"They may listen to you more than everyone else," Moore told him.
The judge said Hatch should split up the required time by ticking off five hours for every school he addresses for a total of 20 schools.
Moore also had Hatch tested for drugs before he left the courthouse and said he will be subject to random testing while on probation, The Advocate reported. When the judge asked if he had any drugs in his system, Hatch replied, "No, sir."
Unglesby said Moore did not place any restrictions on Hatch's travel, clearing the way for him to possibly go on tour which he has said he's eager to do. Moore set Hatch's next probation review for July 18.
Hatch pleaded guilty in 2009 to third-offense marijuana possession and was expected to serve about a year for that conviction, but was sentenced to additional time after he failed to abide by certain requirements under his plea deal.
In 2010, an East Baton Rouge Parish grand jury indicted Hatch on a first-degree murder charge in the October 2009 slaying of Terry Boyd, 35, who was shot through a window inside his home. Hatch was accused of paying Michael "Marlo Mike" Louding to kill Boyd.
Louding told investigators Hatch paid him $2,800 to murder Boyd, but he later recanted in sworn testimony at Hatch's trial. An anonymous jury found Hatch not guilty after the 2012 trial.
Louding was convicted in the killing last year and sentenced to life in prison.
Hatch wasn't freed after his acquittal because he also had pleaded guilty in 2011 to other drug-related counts after he conspired to smuggle codeine, marijuana, Ecstasy and other contraband into Dixon Correctional Institute and the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.
He was sentenced to eight years in prison but released early after earning good behavior and educational credits.
Earlier this week, Hatch held a news conference at a New Orleans hotel to talk about his future, where he called his time in prison life-changing and that it's made him a better person and ultimately, he hopes, a better artist. He also said he wrote more than 1,000 songs while he was imprisoned.