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Rapper DMX faces drugs, weapons charges

Musician arrested at airport for impersonating federal agent, threatening man
/ Source: The Associated Press

Prosecutors filed drug and weapons charges Friday against rapper DMX, a day after he was arrested for allegedly impersonating a federal agent and harassing another man in an airport parking lot.

DMX, 33, allegedly crashed his sport-utility vehicle, which prosecutors said was equipped with lights and sirens, through a parking lot gate at Kennedy Airport after telling the attendant to let him leave because he was a government agent.

The complaint also said that the rapper, whose real name is Earl Simmons, ordered a driver at an adjacent parking lot to get out of his vehicle. When the man refused, Simmons allegedly identified himself as an FBI agent, grabbed the driver’s seat belt buckle, and tried to pull him from the vehicle.

Simmons, 33, and a friend, Jackie Hudgins, 41, were arrested shortly afterward, said prosecutor Richard Brown.

Police found a billy club and rocks of crack cocaine in the vehicle, Brown said.

According to court documents, Simmons claimed he had been cut off by the other car. Hudgins said he had tried to calm Simmons down, and that if he had paid the $9 parking fee the incident would not have happened.

Hudgins said he had given Simmons the $9 to pay the fee, court documents said. Prosecutors said that when Simmons was taken into custody he had hundreds of dollars of cash on him.

Both men were charged with criminal possession of a weapon and controlled substance. Simmons is also charged with criminal mischief, impersonation, menacing, driving under the influence and other offenses. He was also charged with endangering the welfare of a child because the driver’s 13-year-old daughter was in the car at the time.

The men, who remained jailed Friday, face up to seven years in prison if convicted.

Simmons and Hudgins were arraigned in Queens Criminal Court late Friday before Judge Stephen Knopf, who set bail of $15,000. They were scheduled to return to court on July 23.

A message left for Simmons’ lawyer was not immediately returned. It was not immediately clear if Hudgins had hired a lawyer.

In 1999, DMX was fined and ordered to make public service announcements for the Humane Society after police found pipes for smoking crack cocaine, a pistol and 13 pit bulls at his home in Teaneck, N.J. He pleaded guilty to animal cruelty, disorderly conduct and possession of drug paraphernalia in that case.

DMX has produced several rap albums and has acted in films including “Romeo Must Die,” “Exit Wounds” and “Cradle 2 The Grave.”