One of Meek Mill’s biggest advocates in his long fight for justice after being arrested for a probation violation and sentenced to two-to-four years in prison was his good friend Michael Rubin. Rubin also happens to be the co-owner of the Philadelphia 76ers, so he turned out to be a powerful friend to have. However, even a letter from the local NBA franchise co-owner wasn’t enough to keep the judge in Meek MIll’s case from sentencing him, which utterly shocked Rubin. He related the story to the hosts of the Pardon My Take podcast as a guest this morning, adding in his assessment that Judge Brinkley is also “batsh*t crazy.”
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At around 49:00 in the podcast above, Rubin explains how he met Meek, who came to a lot of games back when the 76ers “weren’t very good.” After inviting Meek out across the bridge to Atlantic City, he found out about the conditions of Meek’s probation meant that the rapper couldn’t leave the state of Pennsylvania without getting arrested. Once he learned more, he was happy to help out when Meek was arrested, saying: “I thought she’d see the letter, give it a little bit of value — no response.” He says that not only did Judge Brinkley show up 45 minutes late, then ignored advice from Meek’s probation officer and the District Attorney’s office recommending no sentence — Meek was arrested for popping a wheelie on a motorbike, the video of which ended up on social media — to hand down the two-to-four years.
Rubin says that experience changed his life “in the most radical way,” prompting him to join with Meek, Jay-Z, and other wealthy, influential people to form their criminal justice reform alliance. Funnily enough, Rubin isn’t the first person associated with Meek to question the judge’s mental health; Meek’s lawyers also called her mental capacity into question during the struggle to get him released.
