G-Unit rapper Tony Yayo plead guilty last month to harassing the 14-year-old son of Czar Entertainment CEO Jimmy “Henchmen” Rosemond.
According to Allhiphop, as part of his sentence, the rapper, born Marvin Bernard, signed on to promote literacy in a campaign by Glen Toby’s Book Bank Foundation.
However, Cynthia Reed, the mother of the 14-year-old harassed by the rapper, feels that Yayo is being presented as a role model for teens – which, she believes, is clearly not the case. “Shame on you Glenn Toby for letting Marvin Bernard’s punishment look
like willful charity,” said Reed said in a statement. “Crimes against children should never be
legitimized just because a person is an entertainer. A public apology
is appropriate at this time, not only from Tony Yayo but from 50 Cent
for denying this event ever happened.”
In March of 2007, Yayo and his crew surrounded the boy, and slapped the boy. Yayo associate Lowell Fletcher admitted that he he “saw a young boy wearing a Czar Entertainment T-shirt” and then slapped the boy and grabbed at his shirt.
Yayo was sentenced to 150 hours of community service; Fletcher plead guilty to misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child, and was sentenced to nine months in prison.
