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Snoop faces 3 years in jail
05/12/2006 11:19 - (SA)
Santa Ana, California - A judge agreed to postpone rapper Snoop Dogg's arraignment on a felony possession of a deadly weapon charge until January.
The rapper, whose real name is Cordozar Calvin Broadus, was charged with the felony count after a security screener at John Wayne Airport noticed a collapsible baton in his luggage on September 27.
He remains free on $150 000 bail.
Broadus has said the 53.3cm baton, which collapses to 20.3cm, was a prop for a video he was filming in New York.
Broadus showed up on Monday with three bodyguards and his defence attorney, who sought the delay form Superior Court Judge Kazuharu Makino so he could get all the discovery in the case.
Broadus also signed a waiver that will allow him to skip most "non-substantive" hearings, said the attorney, Don Etra.
Etra declined to say whether Broadus knew the baton was banned.
"It's premature to discuss what he knew," Etra said. "He had no intent to use it as a weapon and no intent to carry a weapon on his person."
If convicted, Broadus could face up to three years in prison, said Susan Schroeder, a spokesperson for the district attorney.
Broadus, 35, has had several run-ins with the law in recent months.
He was arrested on October 26 at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a gun and transportation of marijuana. He posted $35 000 bail and will appear in court on December 12.
He was arrested outside NBC Studios in Burbank on November 28 on suspicion of illegal possession of a firearm, possession of cocaine, possession of marijuana for sale and possession of a false compartment in a vehicle when Burbank police served a search warrant, stemming from the earlier arrest at Bob Hope Airport.
Broadus posted $60 000 bail in that case and has a court hearing on January 11.
In May, he accepted responsibility for using "threatening words or behaviour" in an April brawl at Heathrow Airport in London.
Broadus and five other men were arrested on charges of violent disorder and starting a brawl after some members of the rapper's party were denied entry to British Airways' first-class lounge.
Seven officers received minor injuries - mainly cuts and bruises - and one suffered a fracture to the hand. British Airways has banned Broadus from future travel on the airline.
- SAPA
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South Africa
