14 DAY TRIAL // Rapper Ja Rule, real name Jeffrey Atkins, is more or less a free man. The star has been released from prison, where he did time on gun charges and tax evasion, and is now at home with his family, it has emerged.
TMZ reports that Ja Rule will be on home confinement until July 28, when he becomes an entirely free man.
Ja Rule left the Ray Brook Federal Prison in New York at 10 in the morning, and was picked up by his wife, the celebrity publication says. They drove straight for home, because he is still under supervision, as part of the sentence.
“The rapper was hit with the 2-year sentence in 2010 when he pled guilty to attempted criminal possession of a weapon – stemming from a 2007 incident in which cops found a loaded semi-automatic handgun in his sports car. He turned himself in to authorities in June 2011,” TMZ writes.
“In July 2011, Ja Rule was also sentenced to 28 months behind bars for tax evasion, after failing to pay taxes on more than $3 million [€2.29 million] in earnings from 2004-2006. Ja Rule served the tax evasion sentence concurrently with his gun possession sentence,” adds the same media outlet.
In February this year, Ja Rule completed his sentence on gun charges and was moved to another facility to do the remainder of his sentence for tax evasion, as we also reported at the time.
He was supposed to be released in July, but got out early on good behavior.
His publicist Melanie A. Bonvicino tells TMZ that he will be using the time he has to do on home confinement to focus on his work and finish the autobiography he started.
“My client Jeffrey Atkins (aka Ja Rule) was released this morning from the Raybrook Correctional Facility in Upstate New York to serve out his federal time obligation due under the terms set forth in accordance with home confinement which were secured by his attorney Stacy Richman,” Bonvicino says.
“At present, he looks forward to spending some time with his family while he completes his memoir,” adds the publicist.