Fat Joe’s attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, spoke exclusively to HipHopDX.com late today and expressed outrage over several media reports suggesting that his client is attempting to avoid questioning by the Miami Beach Police Department. This is in regards to Joe‘s possible witnessing of 24-year-old Jermaine “Wufgang” Chamberline fire four shots at a group of people near a Cadillac Escalade parked in front of a popular Cuban eatery in the early morning hours of Memorial Day, killing 25-year-old Lessli Paz and 26 year-old Joey Navarro.
“I don’t know where this [story] comes from that Joe doesn’t wanna help,” says Lichtman, who also represents The Game. “We’re not looking to hide anything.”
Miami Beach Police made no independent attempts to contact Joe. Instead, after discovering from associates of Joe’s who had been questioned after the shooting that police wished to speak with his client, Lichtman reached out to the department. Lichtman explains to HipHopDX.com, “They said, ‘We don’t even know that we wanna speak to him. We’ve already made an arrest. The guy’s already confessed. If we wanna speak to him we’ll call you back.’ The guy doesn’t call me back. I mean, we’re not gonna storm the Miami police station and demand that they take a statement from Fat Joe.”
Lichtman has yet to speak with his client, and thus cannot confirm or deny reports claiming that Joe was in the Escalade with the victims just before the shooting. But if Joe was indeed an immediate witness to this crime, his attorney has already been informed that Joe’s testimony may be needed. “The cop expressed some frustration,”Lichtman stated. “Because although they got a confession [from Chamberline] they wanted more evidence and a murder conviction as opposed to a manslaughter [conviction].”
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If the Miami Beach Police do in fact wish to speak with Joe, they’ll have to wait at least a few more days. The Terror Squad leader left the country Tuesday for a pre-planned performance overseas. He will be returning stateside this coming Monday, June 4th. “He didn’t flee the country,” scoffs Lichtman in response to reports that have suggested such. “He had a prior engagement in Russia. And let me tell you, if he’s gonna flee the county he’s not gonna go to Russia.”
Per Lichtman, his client has done nothing wrong and therefore has nothing to fear by speaking to the police. But following the murder last year of Busta Rhymes’ bodyguard Israel Ramirez, which sparked a public debate on when, if ever, it is allowable to speak with law enforcement, Joe’s cooperation with authorities may be unfairly viewed as a treasonous act. “This is a completely different situation,” says Lichtman. “That was a close friend of [Busta’s] that got killed. And supposedly he had information and wouldn’t help. And this is a situation where some people that Joe doesn’t even know got killed. And he’s willing to help any way he can.”
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