Sept. 30--A man who was charged with threatening a police officer in a video he posted on Facebook pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct Wednesday.
Gerard Golston originally faced a more serious, felony charge of threatening a police officer in January after authorities found a video he posted that showed him rapping freestyle while driving a car. His words include a reference to a Crystal Lake police officer who had written him a seat belt citation in 2013.
"Know I'm going to get the nine, know I'm going to pop it," Golston rapped, in an apparent reference to shooting a pistol.
Golston, 25, appeared in court with this mother Wednesday morning, where he pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor and was sentenced to six months of court supervision and 40 hours of community service, his lawyer, George Kililis, said.
"He knows he did something stupid," Kililis said. "He thought he was a gangster rapper, but he was neither a gangster (nor) a rapper."
The attorney said Golston also wrote a letter of apology to Crystal Lake police, whom Kililis praised as "reasonable" in their handling of the case. He noted that the charges against Golston came during a period of heightened tensions between law enforcement and the public after protests in Ferguson, Mo., and elsewhere over police treatment of African-American men in particular.
Weeks earlier, a grand jury had declined to indict the Ferguson police officer who fatally shot unarmed teenager Michael Brown.
Golston spent 37 days in jail after he was charged, his lawyer said.
Amanda Marrazzo is a freelance reporter.
