Baltimore-born R&B singer Mario was arrested and charged early this morning after police responded to an altercation that involved his mother, according to court records and two law enforcement sources.
There are few details at the moment, but court records show Mario…. whose full name is Mario Dewar Bennett ….is charged with one count of second-degree assault. Sources said they were called to the 900 block of Fell St. after the singer’s mother called police.
He was held on $50,000 bond by a District Court commissioner, which he posted and was released.
A few years ago, the singer started a charity to help young people struggling with drug abuse. The Baltimore Sun reported that the charity was a personal cause, as his mother has struggled for years with heroin addiction. Shawntia Hardaway’s story was chronicled on an emotional MTV special, “I Won’t Love You To Death: The Story of Mario and His Mom.” At the time of the article, she had been sober for a year, and was helping Mario with the foundation.
He has appeared in several movies and on “Dancing With the Stars,” released four studio albums, and in 2008, then-City Council president and now Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake gave Mario the keys to the city.
The police statement of probable cause follows:
At 12:53 a.m., an officer was dispatched to the 900 block of Fells St for a call for a “mental case breaking up property” inside an apartment. Officers met Hardaway in the front lobby — she was crying and appeared very upset, officers wrote. She said Mario was “throwing and damaging property” in the apartment they share, and had pushed her using his hands and forearms, causing minor pain. When police went up to the apartment, they found a damaged china cabinet and the floor littered with broken glass. A mirror was broken, and there was a large hole in a closet door.
She said it was the second such time he had put his hands on her in recent days — on Sept. 27, she said, they got into an argument in which he pushed her “eight feet into a living room wall, where Ms. Hardaway hit her head on the wall,” police wrote in charging documents.
“When this officer asked the victim if she fears for her life in reference to her son’s actions, the victim replied ‘yes,'” the officer wrote.
There was no immediate word on what sparked either incident.
Here’s a clip from the MTV special:
TJKS:Wow That’s not good bro! it’s 2 things we do not do “one” is HIT A WOMEN “two” is lift your hands to your parents, I don’t care what the circumstances are those two rules always apply…We can’t back you on this one son!! all we can ask is that you get the help you need…..!!
Alicia Keys and new husband Swizz Beatz attended a Keep A Child Alive ball in New York City on Thursday night. They married in August at a private home on the Mediterranean, where they then honeymooned on a boat.
Keys is pregnant with the couple’s first child. Beatz has two sons from previous relationships. If we must say so Alicia is looking very beautiful she wears pregnancy so well. She is looking very fit and happy
Ashanti performed live at Harrah’s Carnaval Court on Saturday, September 25th, in Las Vegas, Nevada. According to fans, Ashanti did a phenomenal job performing some of her classic hits such as well as a freestyle to Drake’s song ‘Fancy’. Hopefully there will be more fan-videos posted, check out photos of Ashanti performing, and a clip of Ashanti singing ‘Baby’ and photos below…..After performing at Harrah’s Carnival Court, Ashanti was spotted at TAO Asian Bistro Restaurant inside The Venetian Hotel and Casino and took the time to smile and pose for photo.
A jury foreman minutes ago told United States judge Jim Moody that they have not been able to reach a verdict in the drug case involving Buju Banton.
The foreman said the 12-member jury was split evenly.
“I don’t know if we will get to a final decision. We don’t feel that we will progress, so could you provide further instructions? Since Thursday we have been reviewing evidence, nobody has changed their minds from their original positions,” the jury foreman told the court.
Moody then instructed the jurors to take their time in coming to a final decision.
“Be as leisurely as the occasion may require,” Moody said.
The judge gave further instructions that none of the jurors should surrender their conscience decision.
Banton’s attorney David Markus then filed a motion for a mistrial but Moody rejected the motion.
Banton appeared in court in a white shirt and a cream coloured pants today. His feet were shackled.
The long wait for a verdict has not been going down well with the artiste’s supporters who all appeared nervous.
She’s got two hot singles riding deep in the charts, so no wonder Rihanna has got such a spring in her step.
Sexy RiRi was pictured today shooting a new music video on the streets of New York where she put on a smiling, energetic display.
Rihanna was dressed in another wacky outfit, consisting of hot pants, cut-off fishnet tights and a zebra print jacket.
She teamed the look with brown heels and her now trademark red wig as she strutted her stuff around the lower east side in New York.
At one point she took up a pair of drumsticks and started thrashing them around, and in another shot she is snapped seductively pressed against a lamppost.
Team Rihanna has topped the iTune chart with her new track Only Girl In The World this week, with a quarter million first week downloads.
Reggae star Buju Banton (born Mark Myrie) is awaiting the verdict in a drugs and firearms trial. Buju Banton was arrested at his Florida home in December 2009 after trying to buy cocaine from undercover police officers. TJKS promises an update as soon as a verdict is verified. We Repeat: Tthe verdict in the Buju Banton trial is now expected on Monday, September 27
Buju Banton is on trial for intent to buy and distribute cocaine, as well as possession of an illegal firearm.
Banton’s co-defendants, Ian Thomas and James Mack, have pled guilty.
Buju Banton: ‘I Had No Intention to Distribute’
Buju Banton, taking the stand during the trial, said that he had no intention of selling cocaine, and was only talking about it to impress a new friend.
Buju Banton, a prosecutor said, “is a spoiled entertainer used to getting his way.”
The description of the four-time Grammy nominee countered the defense portrait given during summations Thursday morning of a reggae artist who “was the heart and soul of Jamaica” and wouldn’t risk everything to participate in a drug deal.
Now a federal jury is deliberating whether Banton, whose real name is Mark Myrie, is guilty of conspiring to distribute 5 kilograms of cocaine and possessing a firearm in the course of drug trafficking. Jurors deliberated three hours Thursday before breaking for the evening. They will reconvene this morning.
Banton, 37, has been in jail since his arrest in December after a sting at a warehouse owned by the Sarasota Police Department. The sting was the culmination of an investigation that began in July 2009 when the singer, returning with his band from a European tour, happened to sit next to an informant on a flight from Madrid to Miami.
The informant, Alexander Johnson, is a convicted cocaine smuggler who avoided a long prison sentence and earned more than $3 million from the government by going to work for law enforcement.
Authorities recorded numerous conversations in which the two men talked about drug trafficking. They met twice soon after the plane trip but then didn’t get together again until Dec. 8.
In the interim, Johnson called Banton several times, but Banton refused to meet with him, often saying he was touring with his band or had other obligations.
The defense maintains Banton was set up by a “master manipulator, a con man” who charmed the musician and tantalized him with promises of helping his career, then tricked him to go to a warehouse where kilos of cocaine were displayed.
Banton testified he wasn’t serious about the drug conversations, saying it was just talk aimed at impressing Johnson.
“Mark Myrie said a lot of stupid things,” defense attorney David Oscar Markus said in his closing argument. “Yes, it was crazy talk. … We need more than words.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney James Preston said Banton knew what he was doing.
Banton didn’t invest any money, but he placed Ian Thomas, his friend and driver, into the conspiracy, vouching for him and guiding him in the deal, Preston said. Banton not only joined the conspiracy but also “caused it, brought it about.”
“Words have a meaning,” Preston said. “And words have a goal to accomplish a plan. Words can be enough.”
Preston played part of a video made Dec. 8 in the warehouse. After Banton tastes the cocaine, he is seen sitting in a chair while Thomas talks on the phone to other conspirators about the deal. Then Thomas negotiates with Johnson about how much he will charge for the cocaine.
TAMPA, Florida – The jury has broken their deliberations for lunch and the courtroom closed in the trial of Reggae singer Buju Banton. The jury will return for their deliberations at 1:00 pm or 12:00 pm Jamaican time.
On the 5th floor of the Gibbons US Court here in Tampa, Buju Banton’s supporters prayed and held hands, while his longterm friend and fellow entertainer Wayne Wonder broke out singing the embattled artiste’s popular hits of the nineties including ‘Serious’ and ‘The Stone Love Anthem’.
“The tension is too thick,” a supporter says.
Buju is being held in a holding area until the verdict is read.
If convicted, the artiste, real name Mark Myrie, could be sentenced to life imprisonment or slapped with millions of dollars in fines for the charges of conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine and illegal possession of a firearm in the furtherance of a crime.
He was arrested at his Tamarac, Florida home on December 10 last year, following the arrest of former co-accused Ian Thomas and James Mack, who had been in possession of the firearm for which Banton was jointly charged.
Thomas and Mack have since pleaded guilty and will be sentenced in November.
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