BOMBS, MUG SHOTS-N-FELONY
Rapper Flesh-N-Bone faces jail time for fireworks and firearms
07.08.99

When all is said and done, detonating a few illegal M-80s to celebrate the Fourth of July may be the least of Flesh-N-Bone's problems. The sometime member of Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, whose real name is Stan Howse, was released yesterday on bail in a Los Angeles court after being arraigned on charges of possession of an illegal explosive (an M-80) and recklessly firing a weapon -- a 12-gauge shotgun -- within city limits. The rapper will face a preliminary hearing later this month.

\\Flesh's rap sheet may get even longer, pending investigation into charges of animal cruelty and assault. "I expect he's gonna serve time," says L.A.P.D. detective Tom King. "I can't tell for sure, because this is L.A., but he's facing some serious charges."

\\At 1:30 a.m. on July 4, L.A. police responded to a call about a possible shooting at Flesh's residence in Chadsworth in the San Fernando Valley. There, officers discovered shell fragments from a 12-gauge shotgun and an undetonated M-80. According to King, Flesh admitted to having set off several M-80s.

\\"So, they confiscated four M-80s and then they proceeded to throw them [Flesh and his brother-in-law Jamartarik Cole] on the ground," says Flesh's attorney, John K. Pierson. "After they arrested them, they woke up his wife and two kids, ransacked his home, tore his house upside-down and seized several firearms."

\\And, just when police thought it was safe to leave Chadsworth, Flesh-N-Bone's saga continued. Upon the rapper's return home yesterday, he allegedly went to the front of his house and started screaming at his neighbors, "I'm back, I'm back" during a profanity-laced tirade. One neighbor is filing a civil suit and obtaining a restraining order against the rapper.

\\Another potential charge may stem from a report by another neighbor claiming Flesh beat a dog to death at his home days prior to the rapper's arrest. Flesh, who is featured on six songs on the forthcoming Bone Thugs release, "Art of War," faces between two to six years in prison stemming from the explosives charge and is already on probation from spousal battery three years earlier.

\\"This is a completely trumped-up charge," Pierson says. "We are talking about fireworks on the Fourth of July. What we used to do as kids is put [M-80s] in dead fish and blow up the fish."

\\In other hip-hop-related legal news, rapper Tariq Trotter Blackthought of the Roots has a hearing tomorrow after getting arrested July 5 on a firearms charge just before a Long Island, N.Y., Smokin' Grooves concert. According to a spokesperson for the group's label, Geffen, Blackthought has a license for the weapon but fell afoul of the venue's rules about guns. Blackthought missed the Long Island and Camden, N.J., Smokin' Grooves shows.

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