Podcaster Taxstone is sitting in jail and has yet to be charged. According to the federal prosecutor, bail is a non-starter because he is a “danger to the community.”
Reports Bossip:
The feds made their case in a letter to Judge Lorna Schofield April 17, arguing that the convicted felon turned popular podcast host shouldn’t be on the streets.
“The nature and seriousness of the danger the defendant presents is clear: He has been convicted of two violent felonies, consistently flouted court orders, proclaimed his willingness to seek out disputes then resolve them with deadly violence, unlawfully obtained a semiautomatic handgun to ensure he could carry out that threat, then opened fire in a public venue, causing death and mayhem,” then-US attorney Preet Bharara wrote to Judge Schofield. “No conditions of pretrial detention can reasonably be expected to protect the community from the defendant.”
Also included in the prosecutor’s letter are assertions that they have a witness who will testify that it was Taxstone who killed Troy Ave’s friend and bodyguard Roland “Banga” McPhatter at Irving Plaza.
Troy Ave, who is currently out on bail, maintains that he wrestled the gun away from an unnamed assailant before he was seen licking off shots in surveillance footage. Prosecutors also plan to use audio from the Tax Season podcast, citing Taxstone allegedlt saying he would shoot Troy Ave if he saw him.
Reportedly, the judge will begin hearing arguments pertaining to the case in May.
Read more of the prosecutor’s letter over at Bossip.
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