A federal judge ruled Wednesday that Florida rapper Kodak Black could be released from custody after landing in jail two months ago on a Broward County drug possession charge that a different judge dismissed two weeks ago. The “Super Gremlin” rapper was expected to walk out of a federal detention center in Miami Wednesday night, his lawyer Bradford Cohen tells Rolling Stone.
“It was important for him to be out for the birth of his son,” Cohen says. “This is his fourth child. He has been at every birth, so to miss the birth would have been very detrimental to him.”
Black, whose legal name is Bill Kapri, was arrested Dec. 7 after Florida police allegedly found him asleep at the wheel of his black Bentley in a community neighboring Fort Lauderdale. An officer said powder recovered from Kapri tested positive for cocaine at the scene, but follow-up lab testing revealed it was oxycodone. Once Kapri’s defense team submitted proof he had a July 2022 prescription for oxycodone, a Broward County judge rejected the drug possession charge on Feb. 9.
Kapri, 26, wasn’t immediately released two weeks ago because his arrest led to the revocation of his bond in a separate 2022 Florida case alleging trafficking in oxycodone. It also triggered questions about whether he violated the three years of supervised release he was serving after former President Donald Trump commuted the three-year federal prison sentence he received for falsifying documents in a firearms purchase. The federal supervision was due to end this past January, if he had no violations.
Kapri inched closer to release last week when a Broward County judge reinstated his bond on his still-pending state charges. On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Jose E. Martinez said Kapri did indeed violated the terms of his supervised release, but he sentenced him to “time served with no supervised release to follow.” Speaking after the hearing, Cohen said Kapri “essentially” pleaded to not reporting his state “police contact.” After spending the last 10 weeks in lockup, Kapri will walk away free and clear of his federal case, Cohen confirmed.
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“It’s a good resolution. The judge was very concerned about Kodak but also understood the nature of what was going on with state cases,” Cohen tells Rolling Stone. “The judge said lot of things that resonated with him in terms of prescription drugs, that you have to be very careful, and you have to watch exactly how you feel, what’s going on, and get help when you need help. The judge was very complimentary about the type of work Kodak does for the community, but he was also concerned, obviously, that he doesn’t do any harm to himself – and that he gets any type of help that he needs.”
Kapri is still facing prosecution in the 2022 trafficking case in Broward County and for a remaining tampering charge related to the December arrest. (His lawyers are pursuing dismissals.) With the trafficking case, they argue authorities mishandled evidence and that some of the tablets seized from Kapri along with $75,000 cash actually tested as acetaminophen. Kapri was out on bond in that case when he was ordered to enter a drug rehab facility for 30 days last year because he tested positive for fentanyl on Feb. 8, 2023.
With the tampering charge, Kapri’s lawyers question how it can stand considering the underlying possession charged failed. “Here, the possession of the oxycodone is legal and therefore cannot be tampered with,” they wrote in their dismissal motion filed Tuesday.
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Kapri’s offial Dec. 7 arrest report, obtained by Rolling Stone, noted that Kapri willingly advised Plantation Police Officer Adam Stern that the white substance found in his possession was Percocet. Despite that assurance, Stern wrote in his report that the substance “field tested positive on scene for cocaine.” When lab tests eventually came back negative for cocaine, the Broward County State Attorney charged Kapri with illegal oxycodone possession instead – the charge rejected two weeks ago.
“The cop says crack cocaine, and it turned out to be oxycodone. I don’t know how an error like that happens. I’ve never seen in my career of 27 years where an officer tested an oxycodone pill, and it came back positive for cocaine. This officer was either grossly neglectful, incompetent or a liar. It’s one of those three,” Cohen previously told Rolling Stone. “I’m going to ask for an internal investigation of this officer and his testimony, which is incredulous.”