Florida judge sends rapper Kodak Black to rehab; attorney questions drug test’s accuracy
Kodak Black’s attorney said Tuesday in a Broward County court that the rapper may have tested positive for fentanyl because of a lab mixup, and a judge ordered him to stay at a South Florida rehabilitation facility for 30 days starting next week.
Authorities say the performer, whose legal name is Bill Kahan Kapri, 25, violated his pretrial release conditions by failing to submit to a drug test on Feb. 3 before finally going to the lab on Feb. 8, testing positive for fentanyl. As a result, a warrant for his arrest was issued Thursday.
The Florida native, who has a long criminal history across several states, went back to county jail last year after he was arrested on drug possession and trafficking charges.
READ MORE: Arrest warrant issued against rapper Kodak Black in Broward County, court records show
Bradford Cohen, Kapri’s lawyer, told Judge Barbara Duffy that a “star-struck” private lab technician may have mixed up his client’s paperwork or urine sample with another person’s. And the man who collected the sample testified in court that it’s possible the lab made a mistake.
READ MORE: Arrest warrant issued for Kodak Black in South Florida follows rapper’s long rap sheet
“I think to rely on that, to take somebody into custody, it would be a great miscarriage of justice,” Cohen said.
But when Duffy said the rapper could take a hair drug test, which is used to detect a pattern of repeated drug use over the past 90 days, the defense didn’t take up the offer. (A urine test generally detects drug use for the previous few days.) On Instagram, Cohen said that the Pretrial Services Program of the Broward Sheriff’s Office doesn’t provide hair-testing services.
Kapri also told the judge he shouldn’t end up behind bars because of the drug-test results.
“All the good deeds I do, all the good things I do, it never goes as viral,” Kapri said. “I don’t know why [they] are so hungry to see me in jail.”
Following the nearly hour-long court hearing, Duffy agreed with the defense’s request to allow the rapper to begin rehab on March 7 so he could travel over the weekend to California to perform at the Rolling Loud music festival.
“You better get it together,” Duffy told Kapri.
This story was originally published February 28, 2023 at 3:32 PM.
