The eighth day of testimony continues today (May 29) in the federal cocaine distribution trial of James “Jimmy Henchman” Rosemond.
Today, a former Czar Entertainment employee named Tony Martin took the stand to testify for prosecutors. Martin, who folded his hands to pray during testimony, claimed that Rosemond admitted to various illegal activities during his association with Czar Entertainment. According to Martin’s testimony, he was sucked into the drug ring, without knowing what was actually inside of the music cases, which contained pounds of cocaine, in addition to millions in drug money.
“Truthfully, since I didn’t have access to the cases or the keys, I thought nothing would ever happened to me,” Tony Martin told the jurors. “I didn’t think I would be prosecuted.”
Martin claimed that after years of shipping or picking up cases, that it wasn’t until August 2010, that he finally saw what was actually being shipped. He recounted an alleged meeting at an apartment Rosemond owned in Harlem, where he saw the mogul stuffing large amounts of cash into a backpack.
“There was a bunch of money out. He kept putting money in backpacks. He asked me to take it to the London hotel. I kept my cool and said, ‘Damn, this is a lot of money.’ He told me to drop it off to Khalil [Abdullah], so I did.”
Today, the government focused on Rosemond’s business relationships with the Reverend Al Sharpton, Queen Latifah, Shakim Compere, and Mike Tyson.
Tony Martin testified that Jimmy Rosemond became close with Rev. Al Sharpton shortly after a 2007 incident in which an associate of 50 Cent and Tony Yayo struck Rosemond’s son. The incident occurred at the height of Game and Rosemond’s feud with 50 Cent and G-Unit.
“His son was harmed, so Jimmy was a space in his life where he didn’t want to get in trouble. So he took the political route to protect his son,” Tony Martin said.
According to Martin, Rosemond was an executive producer on an unreleased show for Rev. Sharpton that would have featured the political commentator/activist as a judge on his own TV show.
Rosemond allegedly paid for a number of Rev. Sharpton’s expenses, including plane fare, hotel bills and other costs associated with producing the show, which was never released.
Rosemond also invested money into two Fatburgers with Queen Latifah in 2007. Martin claimed that Rosemond, who invested hundreds-of-thousands into both projects, lost money on the deals.
Like the other witnesses the prosecution has produced, on cross-examination, Martin admitted to meeting with prosecutors at least 11 times, in preparation for testimony.
Rosemond’s attorney, Gerald Shargel, raised a number of questions about Martin’s credibility, in addition to his motives for testifying against Rosemond.
Despite presenting himself as an innocent, unknowing participant, Martin is facing 20 years in prison for his role in drug distribution operation.
He has also assigned a cooperation agreement as well, which could possibly help him get a drastically reduced sentence. But Shargel noted that Tony Martin was not a credible witness. Shargel revealed that he also lied to prosecutors after he signed his Proffer Agreement and gave information to the government. Shargel noted that Martin actually lied to a judge when he was under oath, and embellished his educational credentials.
Despite being caught in a lie under oath as recent as last Thursday, Martin, who managed Game, Trillville, and Mario Winans for Czar Entertainment, still has his agreement in place.
Courtesy All Hip Hop
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