Law&Crime Sidebar - Rapper NBA YoungBoy Dragged Out of Mansion to Face New Fraud Charges

Episode Date: April 18, 2024

Musical artist NBA YoungBoy, real name Kentrell Gaulden, was on house arrest in Utah as he awaited trial on gun charges, but now he’s been sent to the Cache County Jail on multiple new counts of identity fraud, forgery, and attempting to procure a drug or prescription. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber discusses the rapper’s ongoing legal trouble and possible connection to a Supreme Court ruling on guns with trial attorney Afi Patterson.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: Blueland has a special offer for Sidebar’s audience! Right now, get 15% off your first order by going to www.Blueland.com/SIDEBARHOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokeVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. View Shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Rapper NBA Young Boy is not in a great place right now after just being arrested on a slew of new charges, including identity fraud, all while he's on house arrest in Utah on other charges. We're going to talk about what is going on here with attorney and hip-hop legal expert Offie Patterson. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. We have been focusing on a lot of hip-hop stories here on Sidebar, and now we got another one for you that actually might have a connection to one of our bigger trials that we covered.

I'm talking about rapper Young Boy, Never Broke Again, or NBA Young Boy. Well, he has just found himself in a lot of hot water after he was arrested out in Utah. The artist, whose real name is Contrell Galden, has been booked into the Cash County Jail on a number of charges. In fact, according to jail records, the listed charges are pattern of unlawful activity, procuring or attempting to procure drug prescriptions, identity fraud, forgery, possession of other controlled substances, possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person. Now, KUTV 2 News out in Utah, remember Brian Schnee, talked a lot with him and his associates during the Ruby Frankie case. Well, they have reported that young boy is actually looking at potentially 63 formal charges, this according to an arrest affidavit.

And according to this arrest affidavit, this is pursuant to, quote, a large-scale prescription fraud ring in which people would call in fraudulent prescriptions under the names of actual real doctor. but then they would use fake patient names with fake information. There's an allegation that when it became known, this investigation was happening into this scheme, that someone apparently called law enforcement pretending to be a, quote, Gwendolyn Cox, who wanted to speak with a deputy, but really wouldn't provide a lot of information. According to the affidavit, quote,

Gwendolyn sounded as though she was a much younger male from the southern states. Gwendolyn made a statement, well, I asked her too, and she said that she'll have you call me, this statement was a response to a request that was made to have Gwendolyn contact dispatch and have them transfer a call back through. I've lived in the southern United States. The terminology in replacing the word ask with acts or other variations is considered with a southern dialect in states such as Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, and other southern states.

Now, according to KUTV, what apparently happened in the end was multiple people were arrested when allegedly young boy's car was being used to pick up one of these fraudulent prescriptions. It was pulled over. Marijuana, a weapon, multiple prescription bottles were found in the car. The arrest affidavit says, quote, according to the FBI, Contrell is the known leader of a violent gang from the Louisiana area. Based on Cantrell's history, it is apparent that he's prone to violence. Based on the totality of the circumstances, a no-bail hold is requested to be placed on Cantrell pending a detainer to be obtained by federal prosecution for his current case. Now, that in it of itself would be concerning, but here is the problem for young boy as well. He was on house arrest.

He is waiting to go on trial on separate federal firearms charges after allegedly illegally having guns back in September of 2020 in Louisiana during a music video shoot when multiple people were arrested on gun and narcotics charges. For a young boy, it is currently illegal for him to possess firearms because he is a convicted felon. He was convicted of aggravated assault back in 2017. However, little interesting side note, young boys' legal team, they're actually awaiting a big Supreme Court decision on the Second Amendment that may rule it unconstitutional to bar felons from possessing handguns or possessing guns. His trial appears to have been paused for now until we get a

decision from the Supreme Court. But by the way, for our sidebar listeners, you might be saying, why does NBA young boy sound so familiar? Well, That could be because he was brought up during an interview we did regarding the YNW Melly case. Remember we interviewed Melly's ex-girlfriend, Mariah Hamilton, and her mother, Felicia Holmes? You might recall that Melly is charged with the murders of his friends, YNW Juv Juv and YNW Sack Chaser. The prosecution alleged that Mellie and his associate, YNW Bortland shot and killed the men and staged the scene to look like a drive-by. Melly's first trial ended in a mistrial. He's awaiting a new trial.

We actually learned that the death penalty has been taken on. off the table for now. But anyway, we interviewed Hamilton and Holmes and whether there was another explanation for what happened here, while they brought up this alleged altercation between Melly and NBA young boy. Take a look. I think that somebody pissed on my own. I think he, I think Meli would have gotten shot too. I think he maybe was a target as well. And probably still is. Any reason to think that other than any? Well, I said my daughter was just in, they just got jumped. They had just gotten junked in Atlantic Records, I think, in L.A. was Atlanta records by NBA young boy and a whole bunch of guys. That just happened. And my daughter has a scar

across her back about this long, the scuffle from the fight, you know. What was that like, Mariah? I was terrified. I thought I was going to lose my life that way, honestly. It happened so quickly. Yeah, it happened so quickly. Like, within a blink of an eye, we had just got to the studio, And they all just started arguing and fighting. And next thing, you know, we're getting jumped by so many, so many guys. And I'm trying to shield and protect Melly. And the guys are not trying to hit me, but I'm literally in the middle. Trying to lay on top of him just to, like, guard him.

And I don't know. When was this? How soon before the shooting was this? I think this was like in August of 2018, August. About a month or so. So before the murders. Yeah. It was like August or September of 2018.

Someone took his chain or something. They took his chain. Yeah, his chain fell and they took it. Like what, what started that? We were outside and we were pulling up to the studio. And his friend, Melis, Zach was like, they're going to be a young boy. So we all like, oh, yeah, that is NBA young boys. So you're like, I feel like we're going to get into it with him.

So I'm just praying like, God, please, I'm going to. is getting to these people, like, I hope not. So as we walk into the studio, like, he sighed, like, give Melly a look, like, he sighs them. So, Sack, like, what's up? Like, you straight or whatever? And he's like, he was like, yeah, I'm good or whatever. Then he just started saying stuff.

And then Sack ended up saying something back to him. And then Melly was like, what's up? And they just, he swung on Melly, they fall. And then the guys started jumping in. Everybody just started jumping in. I tried to jump on top of Melly to, like, guard him. It was just a big scuffle, honestly. Like, it was bad.

It was horrible. Did police ever look into this? No. But now, young boy is arrested on these new charges out in Utah while on house arrest. Again, don't know a ton of more details about this, but let me bring on Offie Patterson, trial attorney, rap, hip-hop legal expert to talk about this. Offie, good to see you. So first, let's start off.

Do you have some sort of connection to a young boy or am I completely off base there? You are spot on. I'm a Baton Rouge girl. Born and raised in Louisiana, living in L.A. right now. And I was talking with my husband last night about it because I remember we had mentioned him before when we were talking about his music. And he said, I think he was at the same school that I taught with because, you know, my husband and I originally met in Baton Rouge when he was, you know, doing his Teach for America days. So we kikied about that a while ago and again last night. But yeah, you know, the connection is Baton Rouge.

I'm a Baton Rouge girl through and through and proud, love it. And yeah. Well, what can you tell us, before we begin to the legal details, what can you tell us about young boys' reputation in the industry? I think he's got a reputation for making music that goes viral. He's really popular with, I think, probably age groups beginning in middle school, maybe a little bit younger, you know, up through 45, 47, 48, 49. He's got, so he's got just a wide swath of people that enjoy his music.

And he's just really layered, if you can imagine that, layered and rich in his music. So, yeah. Hey, I just want to take a sidebar from sidebar for a second to talk about something completely different. We are in this whole new culture right now where we are finally recognizing how important it is to eat clean, to use clean products. because it's like every day we learn these new studies and analysis that are finding out some very alarming things. Like, apparently we're eating and drinking roughly a credit card's worth of plastic a week, microplastics, that most cleaning formulas are 90% water and lead to excessive carbon emissions

and they're often filled with nasty ingredients like chlorine and ammonia. Yeah. Well, that is why I am so excited to talk to you about Blue Land. Now, here's the thing. I was actually using Blue Land even before they became a sponsor. how much I believe in what they're doing, how much I love what they're doing. Their goal is to eliminate single-use plastics, and their containers and their bottles have this really cool, sleek design, looks great on my counter.

In fact, I have their hand soap, pods for the laundry, toilet, dishwasher. I have their bathroom cleaners, glass cleaners. My whole house is filled with Blue Land stuff, and it's all made with clean ingredients. I got to tell you, I love the idea that I'm using something that's not only better for me and my family and the planet, but it takes care of the job. I'm not sacrificing quality or efficiency. You just fill up the container with water. You drop in the tablet, ready to go, does a fantastic job.

I don't have to go out and buy bulky cleaning supplies anymore. And it is so easily refillable, by the way. Refills, they start at just 225. I am saving so much money on this. You can even set up a subscription or buy in bulk for additional savings. Maybe not that surprising that Blue Land is in over $1 million. homes, including mine. So right now, Blue Land has a special offer for Sidebar's audience. Right now, you can get 15% off of your first order by going to Blueland.com slash

sidebar. You won't want to miss this. Blueland.com slash sidebar for 15% off. That's blu land.com slash sidebar to get 15% off. Hope you check it out. When I talked about these charges that he's now facing, when I've talked a little bit about, is criminal history. When I've talked about the fact that, I mean, let's give everybody an idea here, pattern of unlawful activity, that charge, it consists of engaging in conduct, which constitutes the commission of at least three episodes of unlawful activity, which episodes are not isolated, but have the same or similar purposes, results, participants, victims, or methods of commission, or otherwise

interrelated by distinguishing characteristics. They talked about this as an ongoing major fraudulent scheme. Does this consistent with the image, the persona that he's put forward? I would say no. So I think that, you know, when I looked at the charges and how about this, yesterday I spoke with his attorney and some things that we talked about basically were procedurally what he's been facing. And he just basically told me how he's kind of been railroaded.

And when I went back to look at the charges, these are just, I think, one of the meal charges that I would see every day and they'd be related to smaller things like guns, you know, incidents, incidents when he'd be with other people. And basically how it goes is when you're with a lot of people and let's say there's some drugs in the area or there are. Are you talking, are you talking about the new charges he's facing? Are you talking about the old charges, the firearms charges? Everything. But I'm starting with the old and I was going to the new charges. Okay, okay. I just want to be clear, yeah. Yeah, but if you want me to stick to the new charges, you know, there's, I don't know very much about the new charges, but what I do know is just looking at his history and being in Utah and being in isolation, I think he said a lot about, he's talked a lot about his mental health and I think he's talked about, you know, a possible addiction. So I don't necessarily look at this as from a criminal point or aspect. I think that, you know, this country over the last 12 years, we've looked at people who have addictions with a lot of sympathy and we've looked at them as people who need help and not to be criminalized.

So I think that's the approach and the lens that I'm looking at it with right now. But these are serious charges, right? Well, yeah, they're serious charges. Everything sounds serious when it's written down and before you've had an opportunity to refute it or defend yourself. So, you know, the first thing I heard you mentioned earlier, he's supposedly leading a violent gang. How do you do that from Utah? How do you lead a violent gang in Baton Rouge from Utah? That just seems fantastical and like a super impossibility.

Well, their argument would be we've just charged him with operating this kind of prescription fraud scheme. And if he's able to do it under house arrest, who knows what he might be able to do from the confines of a home. That's their argument, I would imagine. Is it a prescription fraud scheme or is it an attempt by someone who has a mental health issue to acquire something to help himself Medicaid? And let's talk about that because it really, I think, comes back to the house arrest. And let's talk about the house arrest. So he actually agreed to this house arrest in Utah where he's under the constant surveillance of this security team. But it reportedly hasn't been that great for him.

The reason I say that is he apparently posted on his cat, whose name is Neon, his cat Neon's Instagram page back in July of 2023, it said, quote, it's me, neon, I've been seeing a lot my dad so unhealthy, it's scary, even his mental, he blows his money, making people smile who don't care to see the signs that's literally in their face. I think it's 20 Xanax a day, please hashtag help. His lawyer then filed papers suggesting that young boy had been suffering from anxiety, depression, weight, and sleep loss. A federal judge ended up loosening some of those restrictions on his house arrest, allowing him to get mental health treatment, but wouldn't allow him to spend more time at the recording studio, even though his team had argued that this is significantly hurting his career and sales of his music.

But then two months ago, prosecutors accused him of violating the terms of his house arrest, specifically the prohibition on using or unlawfully possessing a narcotic drug or other controlled substance. So that's kind of a basic framework of what we're talking about with his house arrest. What are your thoughts on that? Well, I think, you know, you just read the message from Neon, the cat, who said his dad needs help. Do you think it was the cat? Do you think it was the cat that wrote it? Because I have my suspicions.

But if you think it was the cat, you think it's the cat. I mean, well, you told me it was the cat. I did say it was the cat's Instagram. The cat said his dad needs help. You know, the cat said his dad's on 20s and X a day. I have some questions for that cat, but yes. What does the cat know? But also, he's not able to go to the studio like he wants to.

You know, Jesse, you're a creative. I'm a creative. You know, creatives need an outlet. They need stimulation. If you're on house arrest, you're in a gilded cage, you don't have a regimen. You don't have regular interaction. You don't have a creative outlet. I think he's been crying out for a long time that he's been to

and he needs help and he doesn't have the tools or the capacity to handle that. Well, let's also talk about this from a legal point of view. He just was hit with all of these charges, or he's about to be formally indicted on these charges. I imagine house arrest is now going to be out of the question. Would I be crazy to think that? No. I think, again, his attorney, James Vanessa, is fantastic.

He's got a rich history. I've known him for a while. he's argued before the United States Supreme Court and I think he's on his way out there to figure out what's going on and I think that house arrest is definitely not out of the question I think that you can always

You think he's going to get house arrest after now being hit with all these charges I have that possible I think it's not out of the question and again he's got a fantastic legal team so you know anything is possible but one of the main conditions of a house arrest is don't commit crimes while you're on house arrest

or don't be, you know, charge or arrested while you're on house arrest. I mean, that's a problem, I would imagine. As his attorney said, don't worry about these charges. This is nothing. This is chalked up. We're going to get him back in Utah on house arrest out in his home. Nothing to worry about. Did he say anything like that?

No, he's not revealed that to me. But me just looking at the charges and looking at what Neon, again, has said about his dad, to me, this looks like an opportunity for the feds to come in. get a conviction and can I say get their lickback from the vend his I guess his jury trial in LA where he was found not guilty for another federal charge and I find another fire arms charge yeah yeah I think I think they've had I think they've been looking for him to do something and they've been looking to get him on something and this is their opportunity is there anything you can share with what his attorney told you about his current legal status about

what we should be thinking about it is there anything he told you about what we should how we might be fighting back against this or what a defense could be not anything that i'm willing to reveal but i think that it's important it's important to um you know they're thinking about the supreme court case that's coming out where um as you mentioned earlier let's talk about that let's talk about that because this is very significant um the supreme court um and this decision could basically affect whether or not those federal charges he's facing stick, they could potentially be thrown out. The reason I say that is because the Supreme Court is going to be hearing the case or deciding a case about whether people, and this is my understanding, with domestic violence protection orders, should be barred from having guns. Well, NBI young boy has expanded that argument to say that a firearms ban for convicted felons in general is unconstitutional, that convicted felons have a Second Amendment right to bear arms.

and he cites a major Supreme Court decision from 2022 that struck down a New York handgun licensing law that created all these special requirements to possess a handgun outside of the home. That was a big win for Second Amendment advocates. Now prosecutors in Young Boys case say not so fast that the ban on convicted felons carrying guns that has been in place.

That has been utilized dozens and dozens of times. In fact, since that 2022 Supreme Court decision and then a majority of courts across the country have enforced this prohibition. So you tell me what we can expect from the Supreme Court there and whether or not it's going to have an effect on young boys' federal charges. You know, I'm just glad that the Supreme Court has taken this up and is looking into it because a lot of times I would have, I remember I had, you know, an elderly man.

He had a felony conviction, you know, something he pled guilty to. I thought was pretty minor. But, you know, a lot of times people take a felony. please to avoid prison time and he could not he couldn't possess a gun and a lot of times you know especially in Louisiana you know we it's a hunting and fishing state so just you know the opportunity to not even be able to hunt like you usually would because you're a felon in possession of a hand so I'm glad it's it's an issue also a lot of these felonies are nonviolent

felonies so I don't understand how you can remove the right to possess a gun from somebody just because they are convicted of a felony, but we're going to just only address the issue with domestic violence, which is a crime of violence. It's in the name. So I just, I just, I'm glad they're taking it up. I wonder if they keep it very narrow and say we're just going to, I think that's probably what the Supreme Court will do. We'll decide the issue with domestic violence orders and maybe not generalize it over or expand it to convicted felons. That's my guess. guest, but we'll wait and see. Offie Patterson, really interesting case. We'll continue to follow

it, see what develops, but appreciate your insight. Thanks for coming on. Thank you for having me. And that is all we have for you here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. As always, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.