
A New York state judge has
ordered rapper Flavor Flav to pay a reported $1.8 million to a neighbor he
allegedly shot at 10 years ago in a Bronx apartment building.
According to the New York Post, Flav plans to appeal the decision this
week, claiming Judge Dianne Renwick shouldn't be allowed to make the call
because she is married to Bronx DA Robert Johnson, who tried to put the rapper
behind bars a decade earlier, but failed.
"Her actions were retaliatory because her husband lost a series of cases to Flav,"
said Flav's attorney Charles Johnson, who has no relation to the Bronx DA.
The former Public Enemy hype man was convicted in 1995 of the crime -- weapons
possession -- after his neighbor, Thelouizs English, claimed Flav shot at him in
the Executive Towers apartment building where they both lived at the time. The
rapper was sentenced to two months in jail and three years probation.
In 1996, English filed an assault-and-battery civil suit against Flav. He was
allegedly notified about the suit when a process server left the papers off with
a doorman of their building, but he claims he never received the papers.
The following year, a default judgment was handed down of $850,000 for civil
assault and battery -- $350,000 in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive
damages.
Never paying, despite his celebrity not being what it was with Public Enemy and
being before his reality star reign, Flav had few assets during the time anyway.
Today with over 10 years of interest racking up, English says the judgment is
now at $1.8 million, although Flav's lawyer estimates the sum to be $1.4
million.