We admit, LI has a few weaknesses. One of them is Li’l Kim, who is just the kind of sex goddess for whom we would do all kinds of things, those both fitting and unfitting a man, things that would stretch our capacities and permanently injure our character. We fell in love with Kimberly Jones a long time ago. It was one of those things – we were innocently strolling down a street in New Haven. The sun was shining – which was nice, since our Southern heart was still carrying refugee baggage from winter’s abysmal solar absence. Our first year in the North. So, we passed a poster. Just another music poster, nothing to stop for – but stop we did. This poster was for a Li’l Kim CD, and the woman was posed as she poses – those gorgeous legs parted, that sexy scowl on her face. Little clothing. It was fatum – this woman was the very ideogram of our libido, first traced, long ago, by an old flame, D., with whom we worked at a hardware store back when we were 20.

Unfortunately, as it turns out, Li’l Kim has a poet’s inability to distinguish those occasions in which fiction will serve our larger visionary purposes from those where it will get you thrown in the slammer – thus, her apparent misprisions to a grand jury.

According to the NYT story:“Ms. Jones faces a difficult challenge in the staid decorum of the court.

Two key defendants, both gunmen, have pleaded guilty in the case. Suif Jackson, 34, a rap music producer and manager, pleaded guilty on June 18 to illegal weapons possession and to participating in the shooting melee. He was sentenced to 12 years in jail.
Damion Butler, who ran a security service for rap musicians, pleaded guilty on Jan. 28 to similar weapons charges and to using a false passport. He faces up to 15 years in prison when he is sentenced.

Ms. Jones, who was indicted in April 2004, was never accused of any role in the shooting. But according to the indictment, she repeatedly told the grand jury that she did not know Mr. Jackson, did not recognize Mr. Butler and did not see either of them on the street outside the radio station during the shootout. According to the indictment, Mr. Jackson was a frequent visitor to Ms. Jones's home in Englewood, N.J., and Mr. Butler ran his security business out of an office in that home.”

Now some interested soul should have advised Li’l Kim that you don’t make easy to verify claims in front of a grand jury when the claims happen to be true only in an alternative universe. So on the face of it, if you hold narrowly to certain narrow legal doctrines, things look bad for our idol. But we have a great belief in the power of forgiveness. And we do completely buy Li’l Kim’s lawyer’s story: the poor woman was, obviously, not completely in her right state of mind when she misspoke herself, out of loyalty. We think Li'l Kim has learned from this experience, and we really think she will stay away from shooters in the future.