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Rapper Warren G, real name Warren Griffin III, will not face
prosecution on drug charges because there is insufficient evidence to prove the
marijuana found in the car he was in last week belonged to him or that he was even aware
of its existence.
A spokesperson for Los Angeles County District Attorney said
there is insufficient evidence to prove Griffin knew about the marijuana found
in the car he was driving Sunday, reports E! Online.
So there you have it: one rare occasion when the arrest concludes
with the arrested being cleared as an innocent man.
It all began in the early hours of Sunday morning, when the
35-year-old rapper was traveling in a car registered to a third party who was
not in the vehicle when it was searched.
Griffin
was a passenger in the car driven by another man, the 29-year-old Ryan Butler.
They ran a red light near Hollywood
Boulevard, thus attracting the attention of police
officers. Due to a suspicious odor emanating from the car’s trunk, a search
ensued and Los Angeles
police found marijuana.
The two men were booked and subsequently released later
Sunday after posting $20,000 bail each.
Police had been seeking felony charges against the pair. The
quantity of marijuana found in the car, more than 25 grams, was enough to arrest
the two on suspicion of possession with intent to sell.
E! Online adds, quoting the court’s charge evaluation
worksheet, that there was “insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable
doubt that either/both suspects had knowledge of, or dominion and control over,
the [marijuana] in the trunk of a car that belonged to a third party who was
not present.”
The worksheet adds that even opening the trunk would not
reveal the bag containing the marijuana, “since it was contained within an
opaque container.”
Warren G, a rapper who grew up in Long Beach and took part in the emergence of
G-funk rap, was nominated for a Grammy award in 1995. His most famous hits
include “Regulate” and a hip-hop remake of the classic Bob Marley song “I Shot
the Sheriff.”
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