Just over one year ago, Freddie Gray was arrested in Baltimore, ostensibly for the illegal possession of a switchblade, although the cause for arrest has been disputed for multiple reasons. During his time in the Baltimore Police Department’s custody Freddie Gray’s spinal cord was severed. He died a week later in a Baltimore hospital. Since then all six officers involved in the arrest have been charged with crimes relating to the arrest and death of Gray.

Today, the first of the six cases reached its conclusion. Officer Edward M. Nero was acquitted on all counts by Judge Barry G. Williams (no jury was used in this case). He was charged with second-degree assault and two counts of misconduct in office, reckless endangerment, which amounted to a maximum sentence of 15 years.

The argument that anchored the case seemed to be whether a wrongful arrest should result in a crime, barring the special circumstances (ie. the death of someone who has been arrested). “People get jacked up in the city all the time,” argued Janice Bledsoe, a deputy state’s attorney. The judge’s response? “That’s a separate issue.”

Five more officers have yet to be tried for their crimes, including one officer whose first time in court was thrown out due to a mistrial. We hope protests remain peaceful in Baltimore for everyone’s safety.

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Kenneth Petty, Nicki Minaj‘s husband and a convicted sex offender, is currently working to have his upcoming trial delayed, which was set to begin this month.

Upon moving in with Nicki, the controversial man was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender in the state of California. He has since registered but, as he awaits the commencement of his trial, Petty says that the coronavirus has made things difficult in terms of kicking off on time. He is looking to have it moved from June to September. 

According to Bossip, Kenneth Petty’s lawyers filed documents last week to officially delay the beginning of his sex offender trial. They say that the pandemic has frustrated Petty’s efforts to gather evidence, requiring more time to sift through the 700 pages of documents, photographs, and recordings provided by the judge. 

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Petty’s attorneys are also working on other trials, which include one facing the death penalty, that take precedence and, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, they are taking those matters more seriously than Petty’s.

Andrew Stein and Joseph Markus, Petty’s legal defense, say that the government is alright with pushing back the trial to September. However, a judge has yet to confirm the delay.

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Nipsey Hussle tragically lost his life after a shooting in Los Angeles last year and his alleged shooter, Eric Holder, has been in police custody since then. Holder was expected to go on trial last month for the murder but, because of COVID-19 related delays, it has been pushed back.

According to Vibe, the trial has officially been moved to next month after stay-at-home orders were placed in the city of Los Angeles. His next hearing is set to take place on June 8.

The 30-year-old was previously informed by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert Perry that he would retain his right to a speedy trial but, because of unforeseen circumstances, things have been delayed. Of course, everything has pretty much been placed on hold for the time being as we fight to slow the spread of the coronavirus. 

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The report notes that all courtrooms in Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, and other cities in Southern California, have been temporarily closed since March. California’s shelter-in-place order is expected to be lifted this month though, so the trial should be good to continue in June.

Holder is facing one count of murder, two counts of attempted murder, and assault with a deadly weapon. He previously entered a plea of not guilty to all charges. 

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As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the world, every single nation is rushing to figure out how we can protect ourselves, vaccine or otherwise. Vaccines are currently being created and quickly launching into a testing phase, faster than ever before. Among those vaccines, there is one that was developed by the University of Oxford, and is showing promising signs after being tested on monkeys.

The vaccine was reportedly tested on six monkeys in late March, by government scientists at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory in Hamilton, Montana. The six monkeys– of the rhesus macaque variety– were given the vaccine that was originally produced by the Jenner Institute and the Oxford Vaccine Group. These monkeys were then exposed to the Coronavirus, mingling with other monkeys who did have the virus and were known to have infected other monkeys previously. Yet, the six monkeys reportedly suffered no ill effects after being exposed to the Coronavirus. The monkeys remained healthy for 28 days following the vaccine, as originally reported by the New York Times. 

The head of the Virus Ecology Unity at the Rocky Mountain Laboratory said that “The rhesus macaque is pretty much the closest thing we have to humans.” We reportedly share 93% DNA similarities with the macaque, thus this undoubtedly promising but still cannot be cause for celebration just yet.

This particular vaccine is called hAdOx1 nCoV-19 and it’s just begun human trials on Thursday, April 23rd and the human trials will only wrap up in September.

This is just one of 80 Coronavirus vaccines in the works right now.

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Megan Thee Stallion continues to secure wins in her legal battle against her former label, 1501 Certified Entertainment. This time, the Hot Girl’s case against the label for fraud has been ruled to head to trial, after the judge denied 1501 CEO Carl Crawford’s request to settle the lawsuit in private arbitration. Crawford initially filed the motion arguing that Megan had forfeited her right to settle any legal dispute that may arise between herself and the label when she signed her record contract. However, Megan is arguing for the “unconscionable” nature of the contract in the first place, claiming that the language in the document is too vague to be enforced in any manner. The judge agreed and denied Crawford’s motion, as well as his separate motion to stay the case. Their legal battle will now be heading to pubic trial.

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Megan initially filed the lawsuit against 1501 for allegedly coercing her into signing the aforementioned contract, and subsequently threatening and harassing her after she signed a management deal with Roc Nation. She also accused them of intentionally preventing her from releasing new music and sabotaging her budding rap career. Megan was granted a temporary restraining order that was later extended, allowing her to release her most recent project, SUGA, in March. We’ll keep you posted on any new developments in this case.

R. Kelly was expected to be on trial in New York in July but, because of the current state of the world, he will need to wait a few extra months.

As reported by Page Six, the disgraced singer’s trial for sex trafficking and racketeering charges has been pushed back until September 2020. As of right now, he is scheduled to be in court on September 29, but if the coronavirus outbreak does not improve before then and lockdown measures are still in place, his trial will obviously be delayed again.

Although the date was co-signed by Brooklyn Judge Ann Donnelly, one of Kelly’s legal representatives believes there is no chance that the trial actually begins that soon.

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“It’s impossible that that date is going to happen,” said Douglas Anton, a New Jersey-based attorney working with the singer. 

The reason for keeping the new date so soon was strategic, as the Judge would like to see Kelly before he goes on trial in Chicago. In that trial, he is being charged with creating and owning several pieces of child pornography, as well as more.

R. Kelly has been filing motions to be granted an early release from prison during the COVID-19 pandemic, citing the fact that his age puts in in an at-risk category. He was previously denied release.

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Chris Brown will be not be showing up to court anytime soon in his alleged rape case, as the judge has ordered for his initial trial date to be postponed in an effort to maintain social distancing measures amid the coronavirus pandemic. The trial was initially scheduled to take place on April 27th, 2020, but, according to court documents, a Los Angeles judge has removed the date from the calendar. The order states that, “the court finds good cause to advance and vacate the final status conference and trial dates in this matter.” The trial date has yet to be rescheduled.

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Chris, along with his friend, Lowell Grissom Jr., is being sued by a Jane Doe for allegedly raping her in Chris’ Tarzana home in February 2017. The woman claims she had attended an after-party at his house, where the two men allegedly confiscated her phone and tried to give her cocaine, molly, and marijuana before assaulting her. Chris and Lowell have denied any wrongdoing and have requested for the case to be dismissed.

The singer has faced a myriad of issues in this legal battle. His legal representation withdrew from the case back in February, as a result of his inability to meet his obligations under their contract. “Over the past several months,” his lawyer, Blair Berk, explained, “Mr. Brown has not met his material obligations under the terms of our engagement letter, and has rendered it unreasonably difficult for Tarlow & Berk to carry out the representation effectively. Our relationship with Mr. Brown has come to a point where Tarlow & Brown and I can no longer adequately defend or represent him.” After Jane Doe demanded he be grilled under oath, Chris was also ordered to sit for a deposition and pay $2,500 to his alleged victim.

When Amber Heard first came forward with serious abuse allegations against her ex-husband Johnny Depp, many were quick to presume that the Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindlewald actor guilty until proven innocent. As the saga progressed and new developments began to surface, the narrative steadily transitioned in Depp’s favor. Leaked audio calls painted him as a victim of verbal and sometimes even physical abuse, including a fight that ultimately left one of his fingers severed.

Now, Depp’s retaliatory $50 million defamation case is in full swing, on the alleged basis that Heard falsified evidence and even went so far as to fake injuries that ultimately led to her obtainment of a temporary restraining order. Should a judge end up coming to such a conclusion, Heard may very well find herself facing up to three years of jail time for tampering with evidence.

As IBT points out, one of the main incidents being examined stems from 2015, when Heard claimed to have received a pair of black eyes from her then-husband. Yet her stylist Samantha McMillen, who happened to see Heard on the same day she alleged to have been bruised, denied the claims entirely. “Throughout the day of December 16, 2015, I could see clearly that Amber Heard did not have any visible marks, bruises, cuts, or injuries to her face or any other part of her body,” stated McMillen, adding fuel to Depp’s cause. 

Given that it’s becoming increasingly evident that Heard was indeed moving to stack the deck in her favor to some degree, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a judge move to make an example out of the Aquaman actress — on that note, it’s surprising to see her name remain officially attached to the DC franchise, given the severity of some of these allegations. In any case, look for this ongoing legal battle to continue, and stay tuned for more developments as they occur. 

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Though 6ix9ine could be released sometime in the near future, R. Kelly, on the other hand, continues his fight to get out of jail. According to The Blast, R. Kelly has filed documents in court refuting the prosecutors’ claim that he’s a threat to society. He even went to say that there’s “clear and concise” evidence proving that he wouldn’t pose danger to the community. 

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Many would argue that the long list of allegations against him is also “clear and concise evidence” proving otherwise but his lawyer made it clear that Kellz isn’t a “violent” criminal. His lawyer defines violent as someone accused of a crime involving a weapon or guns. “The question of whether the Defendant had met his burden to establish by clear and convincing evidence that he did not pose a danger to the community was a close one at the March 6 hearing,” the letter reads. “Defense counsel presented ample evidence at that hearing that aside from the arrest from which the alleged violation of supervised release arises, the Defendant does not have a violent background: no prior convictions involved violent conduct or gun charges.”

Kelly’s lawyer argued that because of the current climate in the U.S., it would be near impossible for him to practice social distancing right now. “To suggest that the jail is a safe environment against this disease is foolish, as well as baseless. The purported protective measures being taken by the BOP, and cited by the government, are and will be completely inadequate. First, the idea that, just because more soap has become available, the conditions have miraculously become sanitary, is nonsensical. The inmate still has no protection from those things he must touch.”

The first human participant in a clinical trial for a vaccine to protect against the new coronavirus will receive an experimental dose on Monday the AP reports. The trial, which is being funded by the National Institutes of Health, will take 45 young, healthy volunteers whom will receive different doses of shots co-developed by the NIH and the Massachusetts-based biotech firm Moderna Inc.

The vaccine study will not infect patients with the virus itself though. Rather, it will be “similar to investigational mRNA vaccines developed for the Zika virus and human metapneumovirus that have been tested in humans.” In other words, the goal is to determine whether the vaccine comes with any problematic side effects, eventually setting the stage for larger, more expansive testing down the road.