By Adam Kramer
After pleading guilty to charges of possession of a controlled substance, Russell Jones, better known to his fans as the rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard, was sentenced last week to two to four years in jail.
The Queens district attorney’s office said Jones had pleaded guilty to the charges of possessing crack and marijuana found in his car after he was pulled over for a traffic violation in Cambria Heights in July 1999.
The sentencing was postponed for a day because the rapper had hurt his arm, but on July 18 Queens Supreme Court Judge Joseph Grosso handed down the sentence to Jones, who is also known as ODB. He will be eligible for parole in two years.
“I think this is the first step in the end of a long process,” said Peter Frankel, Jones’ lawyer. “He has been incarcerated for two years and know he sees the light at the end of the tunnel. Under the circumstances he is doing quite well.”
For the past couple of years Jones has either been remanded to court-ordered drug rehabilitation centers or in jail in cases unrelated to the Cambria Heights incident.
Frankel said Grosso has recommended that Jones serve his time on Staten Island to be closer to his family.
There was some question about whether the rapper had made a suicide attempt, which is why sentencing was postponed for a day, but Sandra Lewis Smith, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections, said he did not attempt suicide. She said he had injured his arm, which did not even require stitches.
Jones, a member of the multiplatinum New York rap group Wu-Tang Clan, could have faced up to 25 years with a minimum of two to six years in prison on a felony charge if he had not taken the plea.
Jones, 32, was brought back to Queens from Philadelphia in the beginning of the year to face charges for allegedly running a red light in July 1999 at 228th Street and Linden Boulevard in Cambria Heights. Authorities said he was in possession of cocaine and marijuana.
When police pulled him over, they reported finding 20 envelopes of cocaine and one envelope of marijuana stuffed into his pocket, the DA’s office said.
According to court papers, Jones asked a police officer to ignore the cocaine and said he would face the marijuana charge.
“Can you make the drugs disappear? The marijuana charge I’ll take. Make the rocks disappear,” Jones allegedly told the officer. “The kids look up to me. They listen to my music. I’m a role model. Do the right thing. You are gonna know who I am.”
In the beginning of the year, Mary de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the Queens DA, said an arrest warrant for Jones was issued by the Queens DA’s office when he fled the California drug treatment center he had been remanded to on separate charges in that state.
Jones, who violated his probation when he did not return to the treatment center, was picked up by police in Philadelphia in the parking lot of a McDonald’s Restaurant.
The rapper was also wanted on motor vehicle and drug charges in Brooklyn and Manhattan, which will run concurrent with the time served for the Queens plea.
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
