Rapper T.I. and Wife Arrested on Drug Charges: T.I. Asked to Return to Atlanta
ATLANTA (CBS/AP) The probation officer of multi-platinum selling hip-hop artist T.I. has asked the rapper to return to his hometown of Atlanta, according to Don Samuel, one of T.I.'s attorneys.
The request came after the rapper was arrested Wednesday night, along with his wife, on suspicion of possessing methamphetamines after police allegedly smelled marijuana smoke coming from their Maybach during a traffic stop in West Hollywood, officials said.
T.I. is currently on probation for federal weapons charges.
U.S. Attorney Sally Yates, Atlanta's top federal law enforcement official, said she would not speculate on what could happen to T.I. "The probation office is in the process of determining what happened and will make a recommendation regarding Mr. Harris when they have all the facts, she said.
T.I's probation officer can opt to modify the terms of his probation, such as to require that he take more drug counseling classes and undergo more frequent drug tests, or the officer could ask the judge to revoke the rapper's probation, which was set to end in 2013. If the latter happens, it could mean more prison time for the rapper.
That decision will be left up to U.S. District Judge Charles Pannell, Jr., who presided over the rapper's original case.
The rapper spent seven months in an Arkansas federal prison
and three months in a Georgia halfway house on federal weapons charges.
Since that case, the 29-year-old rapper proclaimed that he had shifted his life in a new direction. He gave several speeches about the dangers of drugs and guns, and former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young was one of his supporters.
Young was skeptical about the charges and circumstances of the rapper's arrest.
"I assume that you're innocent until you're proven guilty," Young told the Associated Press in a telephone interview. "If he was driving and smoking marijuana, that is absolutely stupid. But why was he pulled over in the first place? Because he had a Maybach? Because he was black? Because they know who he is and resent his success?"
The self-proclaimed "King of the South" was pulled by police for allegedly making an illegal U turn on Sunset Boulevard Wednesday night, according to MTV news.
Police booked T.I., whose birth name is Clifford Harris, Jr. and wife Tameka "Tiny" Cottle in Los Angeles County jail for possession of a controlled substance, according to Los Angeles sheriff's deputy Mark Pope.
Deputy Luis Castro says the couple posted $10,000 bail each and were released from jail at about 4 a.m. Thursday.