#Roommates, after serving a 9-year prison sentence, former Bad Boy rapper Loon (real name Chauncey Hawkins) is officially a free man. Loon entered prison back in 2008 due to drug charges and had been trying for years to get released—and the time has finally come!
Loon’s case was picked up by former music producer and criminal justice advocate Weldon Angelos in 2018 through his criminal justice platform The Weldon Project. From there several letters were written on Loon’s behalf championing his prison release from a host of celebrities, including Faith Evans, Kevin Garnett, Freeway, Baby Bash, Jeremy Meeks, and recent clemency recipient Alice Johnson, whose sentence was commuted by President Trump at the request of Kim Kardashian West.
However, Loon was not released via presidential clemency despite his case being approved by Trump’s informal clemency committee last February. Instead, Weldon wrote and filed a court motion for compassionate release under the First Step Act after the COVID-19 outbreak in the prison system. The court then granted that motion on July 29, 2020 and ordered Loon’s immediate release—even though he had 13 months remaining on his prison sentence.
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Following his release, Loon issued a statement:
“It is only through the overwhelming push by extraordinary group of individuals such as Weldon Angelos, Jason Flom, Faith Evans, Kevin Garnett, Jessica Jackson Sloan at #cut50 and so many others who are not only advocated on my behalf but seek to support broader change for a broken and unjust system. It is through my own desire for change and the support of so many that I am returning back to society as an asset to my community, a loving husband and father, and an advocate in our battle for real criminal justice reform.”
Loon was one of Bad Boy’s artists during the early 2000s, appearing on such hit songs as “I Need A Girl” (Part 1 & 2) with Diddy, Usher and Ginuwine before launching his solo career.
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