‘Not even the King is above the law’ - Beenie Man slapped with $150,000 fine

Parish Court Judge Horace Mitchell yesterday made it clear to Beenie Man that he is not above the laws of the land, despite him being the King of the Dancehall.

The entertainer, whose given name is Moses Davis, was ordered to pay a fine of $150,000 or serve 30 days behind bars when he appeared before the St Elizabeth Parish Court in Black River.

Beenie Man last month pleaded guilty to breaching the Disaster Risk Management Act (DRMA), the key legislative tool used by the Government to contain the spread of COVID-19.

"I hope when you leave this courtroom today you will let Jamaicans know that not even the King is above the law," the presiding judge said yesterday.

The Grammy award-winning artiste was charged last December for hosting an illegal party in Shrewsbury, St Elizabeth, on November 29.

Earlier in the proceedings, Roderick Gordon, Beenie Man's attorney, pleaded with Judge Mitchell for leniency. He told the judge that when the police visited the location in Shrewsbury district last November, no one was seen with a mic in hand. He said, too, that Beenie Man was doing a charitable deed.

Raise funds for needy children

"Mr Davis was supporting an event to raise funds with which to purchase tablets for needy children in the community, and when the police came, my client, like any other decent law-abiding citizen, introduced himself to the officers and pointed out that he was not having a session," Gordon told the court.

The entertainer was summoned to the Black River Police Station on New Year's Day where he was charged with breaches of the DRMA and the Noise Abatement Act in relation to the event in Shrewsbury. He pleaded not guilty to both charges on his first appearance in February, but then entered a guilty plea to breaches of the DRMA last month. The charge of breaching the Noise Abatement Act was dropped.

Judge Mitchell, in sentencing the entertainer, appeared to have borrowed a phrase from the famous Verzuz clash between Beenie Man and Bounty Killer last May. On that occasion, the police appeared to have interrupted the clash, which was being broadcast worldwide. Beenie Man asked a question that reverberated: 'Do you want to be that guy?'

The judge seemed to have watched the clash.

"Mr Davis, you can either be the King of Dancehall in this case, or you can just be the other guy, and I hope you are not the other guy," the judge said.

The artiste, in turn, told the judge that in this case he was not the other guy, but he was the King of the Dancehall. He thanked the court for not being too harsh on him.