S. Samuel
Hip-Hop entrepreneur Jimmy Rosemond's lawyer has spoken with SOHH to clarify the reasons behind the multi-million dollar lawsuit launched against the New York Daily News and writer Chuck Phillips.
Speaking via statement, attorney David Feinstein justified his client’s suit.
“It never fails every year around Tupac‘s death that Chuck Phillips raises his fabricated mouth against Jimmy Rosemond but we intend to silence his foul mouth with this lawsuit and bury these tampered minutes and paperwork that Chuck Phillips received from jealous and envious inmates, which is the basis of this fairy tale story the Daily News wrote,” the statement reads. “A story void of any characters; Who are these invisible people Jimmy Rosemond informed on? Last year Chuck Phillips said Jimmy and Sean Combs shot Tupac and this year according to Chuck Phillips and the Daily News he’s an informant. Make up your mind. This is why we’ve named them both in this lawsuit and there’s more to come as our investigation unfolds. On more than one occasion both Daily News & Chuck Phillips have contacted the same inmate trying to coerce him into saying Jimmy was an informant. We have affidavits from inmates to prove the efforts of their coercion and how determined they were in proving their point. Even after the article’s release Chuck Phillips continued in his quest to change the mind of individuals who refused to lie against Jimmy Rosemond at grand jury proceedings.” (Statement)
Feinstein also stressed Rosemod’s involvement in the community.
“Jimmy Rosemond has paid his dues to society and since his release from jail, a decade ago, he’s been active in his community, working with troubled youths and have worked extensively abroad in Haiti. The only thing Jimmy Rosemond is guilty of is being an accomplished manager for singers and rappers and now he’s a victim of his own success.” (Statement)
In the past, Phillips accused Rosemond of being a conspirator in the 1994 shooting of Tupac Shakur.
If the name Chuck Phillips sounds familiar, it’s because he’s as infamous for slinging questionable articles as Drake is for dropping love songs. In 2008, Phillips was fired from the LA Times after alleging that Notorious B.I.G., Diddy and Czar Entertainment head Jimmy Rosemond knew that Tupac Shakur would be attacked at New York’s Quad Studios in 1994. (MTV)
Earlier today, Rosemond showed SOHH legal documents of requested monetary damages.
“Plaintiff James Rosemond demands judgement against Defendants Daily News and Philips as follows: (a) An awards of actual and special damages on the first cause of action in an amount to be determined at trial, but not less than $10 million, plus interest; (b) An awards of actual and special damages on the second cause of action in an amount to be determined at trail, but not less than $10 million, plus interest; (c) An award of punitive, or exemplary damages, on both causes of action in an amount to be determined at trial, but not less than $100 million, plus interest; (d) Such other and further relief as the Court deems just and proper, including an award of costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees.” (SOHH)
Last month, the New York Daily News reported Rosemond has cooperated with authorities in the past.
One of Rosemond’s former lawyers even cited his repeated cooperation with the authorities in asking for leniency in a Los Angeles gun case. He noted that Rosemond’s dime-dropping helped Brooklyn prosecutors send a man to jail – exactly what the “stop snitching” campaign rails against. Investigators say it’s hypocrisy: Rosemond dishes when it suits him, yet makes a fortune off artists like Game (real name Jayceon Terrell Taylor), who titled a 2005 album “Stop Snitchin/Stop Lyin.” This is what the court records show: While Rosemond was held on a drug and gun case in North Carolina in 1996, four inmates plotted a jailbreak and asked him to join. He alerted authorities and spent several days in solitary to avoid retribution, his lawyer at the time wrote in court papers obtained by The News from federal archives. In 1997, facing bail-jumping charges in New York, Rosemond gave information about crooked jail officials who altered paperwork to let him post bail. He made “several monitored phone calls to one of the correction officers,”but the target was suspicious and “reluctant to speak with Mr. Rosemond,” court papers said. (New York Daily News)
Check out a recent Jimmy Rosemond interview below:
