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, closing the books on a years-long process in which Mill was incarcerated for probation violations, freed early amid widespread outcry, and then became a high-profile and outspoken advocate for criminal justice reform.
The decision, announced during a brief hearing at the Stout Criminal Justice Center, 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.
Despite those pieces of evidence _ 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 _ Mill's efforts to have his case tossed were repeatedly blocked by Common Pleas Court Judge Genece E. Brinkley.
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, 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.
