Ja Rule in jail: After serving a two-year prison sentence on gun charges, Ja Rule was sent to a facility in Brooklyn in an unrelated tax case and won’t get out until July.
Authorities on Friday said that rapper Ja Rule will have to stay in a Brooklyn jail until July.
Ja Rule left a state prison in central New York last week two years after he was convicted and sentenced for illegal gun possession charges. He then was transferred to federal custody for tax evasion charges, reported The Associated Press.
The platinum-selling rapper admitted to not paying taxes on more than $3 million that he made between 2004 and 2006 while living in New Jersey. He agreed to pay $1.1 million in back taxes at the time.
“I in no way attempted to deceive the government or do anything illegal,” he said to the judge, according to AP, referring to his tax case. “I was a young man who made a lot of money—I’m getting a little choked up—I didn’t know how to deal with these finances, and I didn’t have people to guide me, so I made mistakes.”
Now, Ja Rule is at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the Federal Bureau of Prisons told AP. It said he will be released July 28.
“There’s a lot of anticipation knowing that he’s so close to the end of it ... and frustration,” his attorney, Stacey Richman, told MTV News. “He knew he wasn’t getting out today, but his spirits have been extraordinary throughout. A lot of people want to work with him.”
Ja Rule, born Jeffrey Atkins in Queens, pleaded guilty in June 2011 on the gun possession charge after police said they found a loaded .40-caliber semiautomatic gun in his car.
