Grammy-winning rapper Lil’ Kim has lied to a grand jury about a shootout at famed radio station Hot 97 to protect others, said a federal prosecutor at her perjury trial.
Kimberly Jones (aka Lil’ Kim) and her assistant “flat-out lied” by testifying that her manager, Damion Butler (who has pleaded guilty to gun charges), was not at the station during the fight, in which one man was wounded.
The rapper’s defense attorney suggested that she was too traumatized by the gun fight to remember every detail, arguing “a person can be incorrect and not intentionally lie.”
The 2001 gunfight occurred as Lil’ Kim’s entourage was leaving Hot 97, and the entourage of rap group Capone-N-Noreaga was arriving. More than two dozens bullets were fired. One man was struck in the back but survived.
In an unrelated incident, a man was shot in the leg outside the same radio station earlier this week.
Lil’ Kim and her assistant, Monique Dopwell, are charged with perjury and conspiracy. If convicted, they could get 30 years in prison.