Saturday, June 21, 2014

Prop Heroin; Prop Handgun; Real Jail Time

Via Facebook, Chicago music video producer and aspiring filmmaker Joseph Gatheright kept family and friends updated.

On June 14th, he wrote:
Can't wait for this nightmare to be over. Three more days, some faith, and God in my corner. I'm going to have a testimony that will blow your mind.


And on June 18th, he followed with:
Thanks for the prayers those who knew my situation. God took care of it.

Indeed. On Wednesday, a Cook County judge dismissed all charges against Gatheright after tests confirmed that white powder found in the trunk of his car was not heroin. The 22-year-old Gatheright was stopped last month in Chicago's Gresham neighborhood for failing to use his turn signal; from there, things quickly escalated. From a report by DNAinfo:

Believing the white powder to be heroin — which, based on its weight, would have a street value of nearly $3 million — police arrested Gatheright for the manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance, prosecutors said.
But attorneys representing the young man argued that Gatheright was a budding film director and said the suspected drugs and weapon in his trunk were fake and to be used in the filming of a video.

Gatheright spent some time in jail because of this mix-up. These types of experiences can have a profound impact on a creative person's work, so it will be interesting to see if-when-how Gatheright taps into these events for narrative and-or music video inspiration.

[Joseph Gatheright]

Update (July 7th):
In an interview with student newspaper Northern Star,  Gatheright, currently enrolled at Northern Illinois University, detailed some further repercussions:

"The incident affected me tremendously because I’ve always had a car since I was 16. I have to go back to court to get my car back. They’re charging me $5,000 to get the car out... As for now, I’m trying to get this situation expunged off my record. My parents, at the moment, are trying to keep me close to home. So, I might have to miss a semester in the fall."

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