The rapper’s lawyers have been harshly critical of Philadelphia Judge Genece Brinkley, saying she has treated him unfairly. Their latest filing asks the state Supreme Court to replace her with another judge.
Brinkley’s behavior “necessitates her immediate removal from this case,” Mill’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, said Monday.
In November, the judge ordered Mill to spend two to four years in prison for violating probation from an old conviction on drug and weapons charges. He spent five months behind bars before the Supreme Court ordered Brinkley to release him on unsecured bail.
In a filing late Friday, Mill’s lawyers argued that Brinkley has made inappropriate comments about Mill in and out of court, acting more like a prosecutor than an impartial jurist.
They claimed Brinkley violated judicial ethics rules by hiring a lawyer to publicly defend her against accusations of bias, and faulted the judge for her insistence on holding a hearing on Mill’s petition for a new trial even though prosecutors had agreed to it. The lawyers said that’s unheard of in Philadelphia.