After gracing the precincts of the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court in 2003 for using indecent language during his performance at the 2003 staging of the annual Sumfest music festival, it was almost déjàvu for controversial deejay, Rodney ‘Bounty Killer’ Price, who made his second appearance before the court under similar circumstances yesterday.
The 36-year-old deejay pleaded guilty to two counts of using indecent language and was find $5,000 or 30 days. In addition, Resident Magistrate Winsome Henry gave him advice to keep his performances clean as she hopes this would be his final appearance before the court.
“I hope so too,” Bounty Killer responded.
RM Henry also reminded him that he is a role model to many and should therefore set an example.
“You are a role model like our athletes in Beijing so you need to set an example,” RM Henry said.
The Killer, who is also called the Grung God, was summoned to court after his July 17 performance on dancehall night at the festival, held at the Catherine Hall Entertainment Complex. In his 20-minute set, he used expletives to vent his frustrations at the crime situation, homosexuality and other issues.
Defence attorney George Thomas said his client committed the offence as he made ‘social commentary’ and thought using bad words would be an effective way of getting his point across. He said, however, that Bounty was not trying to be disrespectful and was sorry for his behaviour as he acknowledges there are other ways of venting his frustrations. He added that the artiste did not commit the offence to gain publicity or further his career and asked that the court exercise lenience.
Source: JamaicaStar
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