Flavor Flav headed for trial
Flavor Flav headed for trial
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Entertainer Flavor Flav is facing a trial on felony charges that he threatened his longtime girlfriend’s 17-year-old son with a butcher knife during a family argument.
The 54-year-old former rap and reality TV star, whose legal name is William Jonathan Drayton Jr., didn’t testify during a Wednesday evidence hearing in Las Vegas Justice Court.
But the teen did. He pointed from the witness stand toward Drayton at the defendant’s table, identified him as the man wearing a clock around his neck, and told Justice of the Peace Melanie Andress-Tobiasson that Drayton chased him to a bedroom and stabbed the knife through the door during the argument early Oct. 17.
The teen quoted the obscenity he says Drayton used as the rapper threatened to kill him. Drayton was standing 2 feet away with the knife still in his hand, the boy said.
The Associated Press is not reporting the boy’s name because he is a juvenile.
The argument began when Drayton woke the boy during a 3 a.m. argument with the boy’s mother, Elizabeth Trujillo, with whom he has lived for about eight years. It escalated when the teen, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound high school football and basketball player, wrestled the 5-foot-6 Drayton into a head lock in the kitchen.
“I told him, ‘You’re not going to talk to my mom like that,’” he testified. “He pushed me. … I pushed him.”
Defense attorney Tony Abbatangelo later told the judge he believed Drayton may have been acting in self-defense when he allegedly grabbed the butcher knife, a steak knife and a pizza cutter during the scuffle.
Abbatangelo noted that a police report didn’t include the quote the teen recalled Wednesday.
Andress-Tobiasson said the evidence was enough to bind Drayton over to state court for trial.
She set arraignment for April 18 on felony charges of assault with a weapon and child endangerment that could get Drayton up to 12 years in prison if he’s convicted. Drayton also faces a misdemeanor domestic violence battery charge.
Abbatangelo said he’ll seek to postpone arraignment because Drayton will be out of town April 18 while he and other members of the rap group Public Enemy are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Abbatangelo said Drayton plans to plead not guilty.
Ex-‘Pretty Little Liars’ actor pleads guilty in N.Y.
NEW YORK (AP) — A former actor on ABC’s “Pretty Little Liars” has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor larceny for lifting $7,000 in electronics and jewelry from a friend’s Manhattan apartment.
Parker Bagley took the plea on Monday in Manhattan Criminal Court.
As part of the plea, the 23-year-old agreed to pay half of the $7,000 on Monday. The remainder is due in June.
He had faced 3rd-degree grand larceny, which carries up to seven years in prison.
Bagley quipped outside court: “I’m just glad they didn’t find the bodies. That would have been bad.”
Bagley starred as Jason in the teen mystery drama. He says he’s now focusing on his music.
Adam Levine to receive BMI’s pop President’s Award
NEW YORK (AP) — Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine for president? Sort of.
Broadcast Music Inc. announced Monday that Levine will receive the President’s Award at the 61st annual BMI Pop Awards on May 14.
The event will be held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. It will also honor last year’s top songwriters in pop.
BMI says the 34-year-old Levine was selected for his “outstanding achievements in songwriting and the global impact he has had on pop culture.”
Maroon 5 has released four platinum-plus albums, including last year’s “Overexposed.” The album features hits including “Payphone,” ”One More Night” and “Daylight.”
Levine is also a coach on the hit NBC series “The Voice.”
BMI is a music rights management company that represents more than 500,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers.
Auction includes Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw shoes
NEW YORK (AP) — Sarah Jessica Parker is auctioning three pairs of shoes from her Carrie Bradshaw days to raise money for a New York high school.
Her “Sex and the City” shoes from Prada, Jonathan Kelsey and Dolce Vita will be sold alongside Elvis Presley’s brown leather boots, Shaquille O’Neal basketball shoes — size 22 — and pink platforms that Britney Spears wore on tour.
The auction benefits LaGuardia High School of Music, Art and the Performing Arts, according to statement Wednesday from Gotta Have Rock and Roll, a memorabilia company.
It will also feature Madonna’s leopard-print boots, Sylvester Stallone’s fur ones and Eminem’s white sneakers.
The sale starts on Apr. 24.
‘Judge Judy’ gets 2 more years with new TV deal
NEW YORK (AP) — Judge Judy will be presiding on television for two more years.
Judy Sheindlin and CBS Television Distribution said Monday that the feisty former New York state judge has signed on for two more years of “Judge Judy.” It’s one of the top daytime TV shows, seen by roughly 10 million people each episode.
Her current contract runs through 2015, and the new deal extends her through 2017. That would give her 21 years on the air, which she compared Monday to a winning hand in blackjack. Sheindlin, who is 70, gave no indication that she has plans to retire.
A spokesman had no comment on whether Sheindlin will be getting a raise from her reported $45 million annual salary.
Madonna leaves Malawi after visits to schools
BLANTYRE, Malawi (AP) — Madonna has left Malawi after visiting the projects she has helped support through her Raising Malawi charity.
The pop diva and her four children arrived in the southern African country Monday and left Saturday. Madonna visited the 10 school blocks that her charity has helped build or renovate in collaboration with BuildOn.
The singer also visited a hospital’s pediatric ward and several orphanages, including the Home of Hope, where she adopted David Banda in 2006. She also adopted Mercy James from Malawi in 2009.
Madonna initially planned to build a $15 million 500-bed Raising Malawi Academy for girls, before changing plans to help fund several community schools, which led to some controversy in Malawi. She also closed the Malawi office of Raising Malawi and fired staff for misappropriating funds.