Things heat up in the courtroom as the trial for the music mogul continues.
Day 5 – Eastern District Court Brooklyn —The federal drug trial of Jimmy Rosemond continued today at the Eastern District court in Brooklyn where media flocked to report on one of the biggest trials involving a Hip-Hop executive. Day 5 began with the prosecution’s first witness of the day, California Highway Patrol (CHIP) officer Scott W. Smith who testified that on Nov 3, 2009, he assisted another officer in stopping a reckless driver, who happened to be Jimmy Rosemond’s brother Mario Rosemond, on the highway. Smith had Mario exit the vehicle to conduct a sobriety test, which he passed. However, an exterior sniff search was conducted with a K9 dog, who reacted aggressively to the trunk of the car. After the trunk was searched, police discovered a large black bag of money, as well as a hidden compartment. Due to the large amount of currency, Mario was arrested. But during cross-examination, defense attorney Gerald Shargel got Smith to admit that he wrongly identified Jimmy Rosemond as his brother Mario Rosemond while on the stand.
Another witness who took the stand today was John P. Dash, a former business manager for Rosemond’s CZAR Entertainment, who testified he received checks, money orders and cash from Rosemond, as part of his job handling the day to day billing, banking and invoicing for Czar. Dash, who was also the business manager for The Game and other artists, testified that in 2007, $100,000 checks would show up at the Czar offices with no invoices or sender information attached. He also stated that even Rosemond’s income started decreasing after 2007, he was still able to make payments for his client’s expenses.
On cross-examination, however, Shargel exposed that Dash falsified mortgage and loan applications for several clients. Dash, who admitted to the crime of “structuring,” was asked whether Rosemond instructed him to do so, to which he replied, “No, he did not.”
But things took a turn for the worse for Dash when he was forced to come clean about not completing college, not being a certified CPA, or having the right credentials to even practice accounting and finance.
Dash is yet another witness with a cooperation agreement with the government. Dash pleaded guilty to aiding and assisting with falsifying corporate tax returns and faces 0-3 years in prison.
