DMX Back to Jail: A Not-So-Brief History of the Rapper's Legal Troubles

(Dec. 16) -- It's enough to make a man lose his mind. (Up in here, up in here.)

Rapper DMX was sentenced to a year in prison today for violating the terms of his probation. The troubled hip-hop star, whose real name is Earl Simmons, was arrested last month for allegedly using cocaine and abusing prescription drugs, The Associated Press reported, but ABC News and Billboard reported that DMX simply admitted to drinking alcohol.

These charges are the latest in a string of run-ins with the law for DMX, who has reportedly been arrested in every year since 1999. The highlights from the rapper's long history of legal troubles:

1994
DMX's rap sheet began in a relatively mundane fashion in 1994, with drug possession charges.

1998-1999
But by the end of the decade, he was arrested for a series of violent crimes. From 1998 to 1999, the rapper was accused of raping a stripper in the Bronx; arrested in connection with a stabbing in Massachusetts; charged with assault in Yonkers; and arrested alongside his wife for animal cruelty, drug possession and gun charges at his home in New Jersey. All but the New Jersey drug and gun charges, for which got off with a fine, were eventually dropped. DNA evidence cleared him in the rape.

2000
In 2000, the rapper returned to more everyday violations. After a concert in Buffalo he was arrested for driving without a license and marijuana possession and was sentenced to 15 days in jail.

2002
In 2002, DMX pleaded guilty to more animal cruelty charges after 13 abused pitbulls were found in his home.

2003
In the most innocent of all of DMX's run-ins with the law, the rapper was arrested in 2003 on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts for using foul language during a performance. He was released on bail and demanded an apology. That same year, DMX stated he was giving up rap to become a preacher.

2004
The following year's by-now-habitual criminal charges take a bizarre turn as DMX is arrested after attempting to steal a car from the parking lot of New York's John F. Kennedy airport and then crashing another car through the parking lot gate. He was charged with attempted carjacking, possession of cocaine, possession of a weapon, criminal mischief, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol and impersonating a federal agent. (The rapper had claimed to police that he was an FBI agent.) He was sentenced to 70 days in jail, served concurrently with a sentence for a previous DUI charge. He was released after a month on good behavior.

2006
More charges came in 2006, when DMX reportedly refused to buckle his seat belt for landing while on an American Airlines flight to London, before launching verbal abuse at the flight crew.

2008
DMX's legal troubles peaked in May 2008, with a standoff at his Arizona home, during which the rapper barricaded himself in his bedroom. The raid came on the heels of a 2007 investigation of the home, during which a dozen mistreated pitbulls were found on the property but which led to no charges. Authorities in the second raid found more evidence of animal cruelty, alongside drugs and a weapons cache. The rapper was put up on seven misdemeanor animal cruelty charges and four felony drug possession charges, and served 90 days in jail.

The animal cruelty arrest led to an investigation of possible fraud committed by the rapper earlier in 2008. In April of that year, DMX checked into the Mayo Clinic to be treated for pneumonia under the name "Troy Jones" and left without paying for his treatment. Representatives insisted this was an accident.

2010
After violating the terms of his probation, DMX is sentenced to a year behind bars. That probation period began earlier this year, when he served two separate stints in jail for drug charges and a 2002 reckless driving conviction, respectively.


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