Editorial Photo Credit: Michael A Walker Jr

Rapper Tory Lanez whose legal name is Daystar Peterson, has pleaded not guilty in the high profile case dating back to July 2020. Yesterday, (Tuesday, April 5) he appeared in court wearing a black tuxedo jacket over a black turtleneck and was accompanied by his father and several friends.

But according to Rolling Stone, Tory was handcuffed and taken into custody. Judge David Herriford revoked his prior bail of $250,000 and raised it to $350,000 after hearing nearly an hour of argument and finding that Tory had violated court orders prohibiting him from contacting or harassing Megan or discussing any discovery in the case with outside parties.

Tory’s lawyer, Shawn Holley, argued that his client did not provide DJ Akademiks (a YouTube personality) with any discovery in the case before Akademiks tweeted Feb. 23 that “Tory Lanez DNA was not found on the weapon in the Meg Thee Stallion case.”

“What he said is incorrect,” Holley told the court Tuesday, referring to the now-deleted tweet that caused a social media firestorm. “What (DJ Akademiks) said is that the DNA was not found on the weapon. And in fact, the swab of the gun indicates ‘inconclusive,’ that there were four contributors.”

Rolling Stone also reported that Tory’s lawyer “argued that Megan also has used her sizable social media presence to talk about the case, and some of her comments have been “damaging” to Peterson. But Deputy District Attorney Kathy Ta argued that Peterson’s purported endorsement of the DJ Akademiks DNA tweets was “his way of getting ahead and manipulating the narrative.” She said Megan has “been getting death threats” and has been “harassed constantly” due to Peterson’s “course of conduct.”

Judge Herriford remanded Peterson to sheriff’s custody pending his payment of his new bond after saying prosecutors’ request to lock the musician up with no bail was “extreme.” The judge added a new “crystal clear” condition of release, stating that Peterson “cannot mention the complaining witness in this case in any social media.”

Tory Lanez did post bail and the case has a tentative Sept. 14 trial after a prior judge decided at a preliminary hearing in December that prosecutors had enough evidence to warrant calling a jury.

Source: Rolling Stone