PHILADELPHIA _ Meek Mill's legal saga, more than a decade old, is officially over.
Common Pleas Court Judge Leon Tucker on Tuesday morning agreed to let Mill plead guilty to illegal possession of a firearm and the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office dropped all other charges against the celebrity rapper. Mill will face no further penalty as part of his plea agreement with prosecutors.
The decision closed the books on a years-long process in which the Philadelphia-born Mill was incarcerated for probation violations, freed early amid widespread outcry, and then became a high-profile and outspoken advocate for criminal justice reform.
Mill's supporters in the packed courtroom gallery applauded when Tucker tapped his gavel to end the brief hearing at the Stout Criminal Justice Center. In accepting Mill's guilty plea,the judge told him: "I know it's been a long road for you, and hopefully this is the end of it."
Afterward, Mill, 32, told a crowd of fans gathered in front of the courthouse: "Meek free, I'm not on probation anymore," before boarding a coach bus parked on Filbert Street. Drum performers gave the setting a festival atmosphere.
The decision came a month after the Pennsylvania Superior Court vacated Mill's 2008 conviction on gun and drug charges. The appellate court noted that prosecutors had agreed with Mill's lawyers that his case had been tainted by the involvement of former Philadelphia police officer Reginald Graham.
Graham _ the only witness to testify at Mill's trial _ left the force in 2017 after internal investigators found him guilty of stealing money during a 2005 raid in Overbrook, then lying to the FBI about it.
Mill's defense team last year also produced an affidavit from a fellow ex-cop accusing Graham of lying to secure Mill's conviction.
Assistant District Attorney Paul George on Tuesday did not mention Graham or any other issues prosecutors had with evidence in Mill's original case.
Instead, George said that prosecutors were satisfied allowing Mill to plead to gun possession without imposing any further penalty.
Mill's attorney, Joe Tacopina, said Mill has long admitted having a gun the night he encountered police.
George told Tucker that Mill had no criminal record before his initial arrest, and has maintained employment and close ties to his family in the years since. Tacopina noted that Mill has been active in the community and recently started a criminal justice reform organization.
Tucker told Mill _ whose given name is Robert Rihmeek Williams _ that they each had attended Strawberry Mansion High School decades apart.
"People depend on you now," the judge said, urging Mill to continue his community-focused acts.
Mill's past efforts to have his case tossed were repeatedly blocked by Common Pleas Court Judge Genece E. Brinkley, despite evidence that seemed to be in his favor and the emergence of an ally in DA Larry Krasner, who was sworn into office last year and who supported aspects of Mill's appeal.
Brinkley oversaw Mill's case from the beginning, when he had been accused by Graham of selling crack cocaine and pulling a gun from his waistband when he encountered police. At a bench trial in 2008, Brinkley found Mill guilty of drug possession, firearms violations, and simple assault. He served five months in jail.
Over the next decade, Brinkley oversaw Mill's probation and several times found him in violation of its terms. In 2013, she ordered him to take etiquette classes, and in 2014 she jailed him for three to six months for booking concerts after she had ordered him not to.
A breaking point occurred in 2017, when Brinkley ordered Mill to serve two to four years behind bars for probation violations. The judge cited incidents including an arrest for riding a dirt bike on the streets of Manhattan, and Mill's involvement in a fight in a St. Louis airport. Charges against Mill in that incident were ultimately dropped, and his lawyers said an airport worker started the fracas.
Brinkley also once made a surprise visit to a homeless shelter where she had ordered him to serve food, and criticized him after seeing that he instead was sorting clothing.
Almost as soon as she issued her decision to imprison Mill, Brinkley faced backlash. Celebrities weighed in, and protesters later staged a demonstration outside the courthouse.
Mill's team, meanwhile, began accusing Brinkley of ethical improprieties and bias against him, accusations she consistently denied.
Although barred from speaking about the case publicly, Brinkley in court documents defended her handling of Mill's case, and again denied his efforts to overturn his conviction.
Still, Mill's fortunes began slowly turning in his favor last year.
In April 2018, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court agreed to release him from prison as he continued his appeals. And in court filings spanning that process, Krasner's office said it did not oppose Mill's release, agreed he deserved a new trial, and recently said it believed Brinkley had been biased against him.
Last month, the Superior Court agreed to grant Mill a new trial, assigning his case to a new judge, as is standard when convictions are overturned. Krasner's office did not officially state until Tuesday that it had decided not to continue pursuing the case.
