EXCLUSIVE: Love & Hip Hop’s Mendeecees Harris Appeal Shut Down, Attempting to Reduce 8 Year Prison Sentence

Mendeecees

Mendeecees Harris Appeal Shuts Down Attempting to Reduce Prison Sentence

theJasmineBRAND exclusively reports, Mendeecees Harris has received a major legal set back.
On February 13, the court came back with their decision and dismissed the Love & Hip Hop star’s appeal, denying his attempt to reduce his prison sentence. Their response states,

We have considered the remainder of Harris’s arguments and find them to be without merit. Accordingly, the order of the district court hereby is AFFIRMED. Each side to bear its own costs.

Here’s the backstory: Harris, who is married to Yandy Smith (who also stars on Love & Hip Hop) struck a plea deal in the criminal case accusing him of running a drug ring in NY. The prosecutors accused the reality star of shipping more than $2.5 million dollars of heroin and cocaine to New York for over a 7 year period.

The deal had Harris plead guilty to drug trafficking charges and he was facing up to 10 years in prison and up to a $5 million dollar fine. He was also ordered to submit all his Love & Hip Hop paychecks, luxury car and money he received from personal appearances. The prosecution said they believed a sentence of 108-121 months (9-10 years) was justified

The judge sentenced him to eight years and one month in prison, plus five years supervised release. The judge gave him 15 months credit for time already served behind bars.

Mendeecees Harris

Last October, Harris’ lawyer attempted to reduce his eight year+ prison sentence. She explained that as a condition of his release on bail, he forfeited all income he earned totaling $170,755.20 and used his celebrity status as a cast member of Love & Hip Hop to reach young people and impose upon them the dangers of the kind of activities he engaged in through presentations to various community organizations, often 2-4 times a week.

The youth sent about 100 letters to him thanking him and relaying how inspirational his presentations were to them. Yandy and a Federal Agent appeared during his sentencing to speak on his behalf. They told the court about his four children that live with him and Yandy, complied with all of his pretrial supervision and explained that was a positive role model in his community.

His lawyer said that once he is released from prison, the court already ordered he must continue speaking to community groups about his experience and to encourage young people to follow a different course of action.

Yandy & Mendeeces

She pointed out that he voluntarily surrender to the Department of Bureau of Prisons, has employment waiting for him when he is released, had no disciplinary issues during his incarceration and successfully participated in programs available in prison including courses on financial management, adult continuing education, public speaking, restaurant management, health and nutrition courses. He is also enrolled in the residential drug addiction program.

The prosecutors in the case demanded the judge deny his request for a reduced sentence, explaining  that there is no justification for such a reduction. They also pointed out that the Presentence Report makes it clear Harris distributed multiple kilogram quantities of cocaine and heroin over a period of years.  Further, they said Harris’ plea agreement should be considered generous in its agreement not to apply an increase to the years recommended for his crimes.

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