Exclusive: Mendeecees Asks To Be Let Out Of Prison: I Was A Drug Runner – Not A Kingpin!!
NEW YORK, NY – FEBRUARY 24: Reality TV personality Yandy Smith and fiancee Mendeecees Harris attend the 2015 Dance Theatre Of Harlem Vision Gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on February 24, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by J. Countess/Getty Images)
Reality Star Mounts Appeal For Drug Trafficking Sentence
“Love & Hip Hop: New York’s” Mendeecees Harris has challenged a judge’s decision not to lower his eight to ten-year sentence for drug dealing.
Mendeecees’ lawyer filed paperwork July 21 to get the ball rolling on his appeal of his federal prison sentence for helping to run a drug ring. He has asked an appellate court to vacate his sentence because he believes he was punished under expired sentencing guidelines which unnecessarily drew out his prison sentence. Instead, he wants to be sentenced under the current guidelines, which would shave his time in lock up by up to 3.5 years.
In 2015, a federal judge sentenced Mendeecees to eight to ten years in prison for his role in a drug trafficking ring that flooded upstate New York with heroin and cocaine. As part of his plea deal, Mendeecees admitted that from 2006 to 2008, he helped to ferry hard drugs from New York City to the Rochester, NY area.
Mendeecees later argued that he was sentenced under expired guidelines, but the judge later ruled that Mendeecees wasn’t eligible for the sentence reduction because he OK’d the plea deal and because of the large amount of drugs involved.
attends the VH1 Big In 2015 with Entertainment Weekly Awards at Pacific Design Center on November 15, 2015 in West Hollywood, California.
However, Mendeecees argued in his appeal that even though he OK’d the plea, it was ultimately up to the judge to make sure that the sentence was within the appropriate guidelines. He also argued that the amount of drugs distributed in the ring were irrelevant because he maintained that his role was that of a relatively minor courier – not a kingpin.
Mendeecees has maintained that there was no evidence that he knew the ins and outs of the drug ring or had decision making authority.
In his appeal, Mendeecees’ lawyer characterized the Harlem man as a model suspect and inmate: turning himself in voluntarily before his sentencing, agreeing to forfeit nearly $200,000 in income from “Love & Hip Hop” and speaking to kids to warn them about street life and drug dealing.
On the inside, the father of four said he successfully completed a substance abuse prevention program, classes on how to parent from prison and courses in money management, health and nutrition and public speaking.
His lawyer argued that the court should have also taken into consideration that he is the breadwinner for four young chidren, his rough childhood and how he parlayed that into a reality show role.
A judge has yet to rule on Mendeecees’ appeal.
Source: Exclusive: Mendeecees Asks To Be Let Out Of Prison: I Was A Drug Runner – Not A Kingpin!!
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