Rapper Kodak Black guilty of violating house arrest

FORT LAUDERDALE – A judge has found rapper Kodak Black guilty on five of six counts of violating the terms of his house arrest.

But any decision as to whether the rapper will face further, if any, jail time will have to wait until another hearing onMay 4.

The 19-year-old Pompano Beach native, whose given name is Dieuson Octave, will remain in custody until at least that hearing.

Judge Michael Lynch found that Octave violated his house arrest by failing to complete a court-mandated anger management program, as well as by going without authorization to Club Lexx, a Miami-Dade strip club, and to a boxing match in Ohio. The judge also found that Octave failed to abide by another condition, that he not violate the law, in connection with the allegations made by a Club Lexx bartender that he assaulted her.

Thecase hasn’t resulted in any charges, and was still open, a Miami-Dade police detective testified Wednesday, adding that the accuser, Jennifer Cunningham, has yet to appear at the police station to meet with her.

But Rollins said it’s not uncommon for accusers in battery cases to be reluctant to cooperate, and, as a result, the case sits dormant.

Cunningham testified in the hearing on April 21. She acknowledged shewas looking at filing a civil suit.

But she said she also wanted justice for what she said was Octave punching and kicking her at the club when he had climbed onto the bar and she had asked him to get down.

But subsequent witnesses, including several employees from the club, say no such assault happened.

Because this was a probation violation hearing, there was no requirement for a jury to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in the assault allegations.

The state wants Octave sent to prison for a maximum eight years. They described his conduct as a “slap in the face” to the justice system that gave him a second chance in the summer of 2016 by resolving charges he was then facing with a year of house arrest and five years of probation.

Hehadbeen facing potentially decades in prison.

“The state’s going to argue that he’s been given chance after chance,” Hough said.

“This was a gift to him,” she said of his house arrest. “This was his alternative to jail.”

Files fromstaff writerRafael Olmeda supplemented this report.