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Meek Mill’s dreams to win his civil rights case against the Philadelphia police department has been deferred. On Thursday (May 1), an eight-member panel, of mostly white jurors, ruled that police didn’t violate Mill’s civil rights.
The Maybach Music Group artist wasn’t pleased with the jury’s verdict and left hastily out of the courtroom, according to Philly.com.
“I quit,” he said. “I quit everything… except for music.”
Mill, born Robert Williams, believed his civil rights were violated after he was pulled over by police in October 2012 without just cause. The Philly rapper was on his way to pick up friends to board a jet to Atlanta to celebrate the release of his debut album ‘Dreams & Nightmares’ when he as pulled over by police. However, Mill feels he was racially profiled and harassed when he didn’t allow officers to search his vehicle.
As a result of the “traffic stop,” Mill and his passengers in his Range Rover were arrested and detained for about 10 hours. Despite being in custody for that period of time, none of them were ever charged.
Although the jury voted in favor of the police, in an open letter to the judge, they believed that both parties were at fault over the encounter.
“Although we voted unanimously that Mr. Williams’ Fourth Amendment rights were not violated, we feel strongly both the plaintiff and defendant were in the wrong and made mistakes,” the letter stated.
“They ain’t from where I’m from,” Mill said of the jurors. “I don’t really expect them to understand.”
Meanwhile, Amanda Shoffel, a deputy city solicitor, believes the city nor its officers owed Mill anything.
“Any reasonable officer faced with those circumstances would have conducted an investigation,” she said. “Any officer would have done the same thing.”
