DMX's crimes: A look at past legal issues including theft, drug abuse and animal cruelty charges following OD
DMX is in the hospital on life support after suffering a heart attack. The rapper's lawyer, Murray Richman, said on Saturday, April 3, evening that DMX was admitted to New York's White Plains Hospital and that "he's quite ill." Soon, after the news came to light some organizations reported that the rapper allegedly fell ill due to a drug overdose. Looking back at DMX's history, this won't be the first time when he made headlines for having "drugs."
“He had a heart attack. He’s quite ill,” Richman said. He said he could not confirm reports that DMX, 50, overdosed on drugs and was not sure what caused the heart attack. “I’m very sad about it, extremely sad. He’s like my son,” Richman said. “He’s just a tremendous person, tremendous entertainer, tremendous human being. And so much to offer, so much to say. Not the run-of-the-mill rapper. A person of great depth.”
A representative for the rapper told TMZ that the rapper “remains in ICU in critical condition. Earl has been a warrior his entire life. This situation represents yet another road he must conquer … the Simmons family appreciates the overwhelming outpouring of heartfelt love, encouragement, support and prayers for Earl.”
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DMX, whose real name is Earl Simmons, has had five US No 1 albums, featuring hip-hop anthems such as 'Party Up (Up in Here)', 'What’s My Name' and 'X Gon’ Give It to Ya'. His first two records were released months apart in 1998, each going multi-platinum and drawing critical acclaim for bringing gothic darkness to an increasingly glitzy rap scene. He has released seven albums in all and has also earned three Grammy nominations.
DMX began an acting career in 1998 in the crime drama 'Belly', alongside hip-hop stars including Nas and Method Man. Specializing in crime thrillers, he took a lead role alongside 'Steven Seagal in Exit Wounds' (2000) and another with Jet Li for 'Cradle 2 the Grave' (2003). According to a news story by GQ, DMX has been jailed some 30 times in his life. Charges against him vary—from drug possession to robbery to probation violation and everything in between.
DMX's past crimes
DMX was first jailed in 1986 for stealing a dog from a junkyard. For two years he was in a juvenile correctional facility in New York. A few weeks after he began his sentence he escaped. When he got home, his mother urged him to turn himself in and he agreed. He finished his sentence at the McCormick Juvenile Detention in New York.
After two years, he was in prison again for carjacking and after he extorted another inmate, they moved him to a higher security jail from which he was released in the summer of 1988. After getting worldwide fame for rapping, his convictions started increasing. He’s been arrested several times for animal cruelty, reckless and unlicensed driving, drug possession and identity falsification.
In 1999, the Fort Lee Police Department had a search warrant in DMX’s home and he surrendered himself on the account of weapon possession charges. The same year, he was charged with animal cruelty because he kept a dozen pit bulls at his New Jersey home. Once he agreed to accept responsibility and make public service announcements for an animal rights group, the charges were dropped.
From 2000 and 2001, he served time for possession of marijuana, driving without a license and assault for hurling objects at prison guards. In 2002, after a failed effort in rehab, he pleaded guilty to 13 counts of animal cruelty, 2 counts of maintaining a nuisance and one count each of disruptive conduct and possession of drugs. Eventually, he was discharged on probation and had to pay fines and do community service and also star in PSAs against the dangers of guns and animal abuse.
In 2004, he was again arrested for cocaine possession, criminal impersonation, possession of a weapon, criminal mischief, menacing and driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol. He claimed to be a federal agent to carjack a vehicle. At the end of the year, he was given a limited discharge, but pleaded guilty on October 25, 2005, for violating parole and was sentenced to spend seventy days in jail. After 3 years, in 2008 he was charged for drug possession and animal cruelty again because he barricaded himself inside his Arizona home. At the end of the year, he pleaded guilty to charges of drug possession, theft, and animal cruelty and spent ninety days behind bars.
He entered a plea agreement for attempted aggravated assault on May 22, 2009. In 2010, he served four months for violating probation and was released on July 6, 2010. After he was released, he got offered a TV pilot that would follow his recovery. After the filming began, DMX once again got arrested three weeks later and the development of the series got canceled.
On July 27, 2010, he turned himself in to the Los Angeles Metropolitan Court for reckless driving he committed in 2002. After he served another ninety days in prison, it didn’t take him long to get arrested again for violating probation due to alcohol consumption at a concert performance. He was moved to the Mental Health Unit of the Arizona State Prison and spent seven months there. From 2011 to 2013, he didn’t seem to care about driving a car without a license or under the influence of alcohol and drugs. He got caught multiple times in South Carolina.
DMX, who is the father of fifteen children from several women also got arrested on June 26, 2015, for committing a robbery in Newark and $400,000 of outstanding child support that he failed to pay to his ex-wife Tashera Simmons. In July 2015 he was sentenced to spend six months in jail for those charges.
In 2017, he had to face charges of fourteen counts by federal prosecutors after he failed to file his income tax returns from 2002 to 2005 and from 2010 to 2015. According to Forbes, in that period, he earned over $2.3 million, but instead of filing tax returns, he came up with a fraud scheme to avoid paying his liabilities. He stopped using his personal bank accounts and asked his business managers to use their accounts to cover his expenses or use cash whenever required. Later, he attempted to file a false bankruptcy that listed his income as “unknown” for 2011 and 2012. In 2013, he claimed that he only made $10,000, but in actuality earned in hundreds of thousands of dollars of income in each of those years. Between 2011 and 2012, he earned $125,000 for starring in a TV show titled 'Celebrity Couples Therapy'. Eventually, he pleaded guilty to one count of tax fraud and was sentenced to one year in prison with a condition that after his release, three years of supervised probation will follow. On January 25, 2019, he had been officially released from jail.
In an interview with GQ he said, "Before I really had a life, jail was a playground. I'd be like, “I'm going to jail and have fun.” You know what I'm saying? People were sneaking weed in. I was sneaking into different cellblocks and battling rappers and shit. Jail used to be fun."