Free Meek (2019–…): Season 1, Episode 4 - Episode #1.4 - full transcript

(eerie music)

(police siren wailing)

- Who is it?
- We'll see later.

- All right.

I just had them today to
take them to the prison,

and he enjoyed himself
seeing his dad,

he was so happy and excited.

Saying, asking him when was
he comin' home and stuff.

- We talk, I get snacks,

and I have a leftover
in my pocket.

- When Rihmeek sees his
son and Papi sees his dad,



it's so much joy to both of 'em.

He just sits there and smile,

both of 'em sits there
and smile at each other.

There was kids in there,
visitin' they dad

that had 10, 20 years,

or might not even
be gettin' out.

And I felt sorry for them.

So I can't imagine what
they going through.

- What do you wanna
do with that picture?

- Hang it up in my room.

Where my bed is at.

- It started out with 11,

the 23 months, then
almost 10 to 12 years.

You never know with this judge.



I never thought it
would go this far.

- I hear people say,
"Free Meek Mill,

"Free Meek Mill,
free Meek Mill, free Meek Mill."

Free Meek Mill,
free Meek Mill.

- Free Meek Mill,
free Meek Mill, free Meek Mill

free Meek Mill,
free Meek Mill,

free Meek Mill, free Meek Mill!

(gentle music)

- Looks like
the Eagles will be picking

Dreams and Nightmares
as their intro

for 2018 Super Bowl, so,
I would love to see that--

- You hear that
Philly, you hear that?

Meek Mill Dreams and
Nightmares gonna be

Philly's theme song
for the Super Bowl.

♪ Hold up wait a minute ♪

♪ Y'all thought I was finished ♪

♪ When I bought
that Aston Martin ♪

♪ Y'all thought it was rented ♪

- I've been an Eagle
fan since I was about

four or five years old.

It was inspiring to
me that those athletes

took that opportunity to
send that message to him.

That he wasn't forgotten.

♪ A million cash then
grind like I'm broke ♪

♪ That Lambo, my new bitch,
she'll ride like my ghost ♪

- It was an amazing
day for all of us.

♪ They gon' remember
me, I say remember me ♪

♪ So much money have ya
friends turn into enemies ♪

- Free Meek Mill, free
Meek Mill, free Meek Mill!

- Free Meek Mill!
- Free Meek!

- Free Meek.
- (crowd screaming)

♪ Something 'bout that Rollie
when it first touched my wrist ♪

♪ Had me feeling
like that dope boy ♪

♪ When he first
touched that brick ♪

♪ I'm gone ♪

(tense music)

- At this point, there's
a real sense of urgency.

Because every
single day we don't

find the evidence we need,
Meek is still in prison.

Meek has a lot of
friends, and all of them

are saying if Meek's not free,

you're not working hard enough.

And we take that seriously.

- Right here's Jackson.

And here's at
December, it was 22nd.

- This is one of the
biggest investigations

our firm has ever done.

We're committed to
putting as many resources

as we can into this case.

So if I'm looking
at this correctly,

this is roughly
where the house was?

- Yeah, this is the
neighborhood where

Meek and his cousins were--
- Right.

We realized that to help Meek,

we need to look much
broader and much deeper.

We need to go all the way back

to the original arrest,
the very beginning

of the proceeding,
to January 2007.

(dramatic orchestral music)

- On the evening of
January 24th, 2007,

Meek was arrested during
a so-called drug raid

on 2204 South Hemberger Street.

The arresting officer
claimed that Meek--

- Hands up!

- Drew down on
seven heavily-armed

tactical unit cops.

- Drop the weapon!

- And was subdued
without a shot

being fired either way.

The basis for the raid
was a search warrant

obtained by the arresting
officer, Reggie Graham.

Reggie Graham was part of
the Narcotics Field Unit,

which was built to
do these long-term,

broad-ranging investigations

of drug dealers in Philadelphia.

Graham's request for
a warrant was based

on a probable cause affidavit,

in which Graham claims
to have seen Meek

selling crack on a
corner in South Philly,

22nd and Jackson.

This is the most crucial
document in Meek Mill's case,

because it is the key
that unlocks the door

to the original search warrant,

the raid the following night,

and the charges that
stem from that raid.

- So we're on South 22nd now.

We're approaching the
corner of 22nd and Jackson.

This corner here is where

the alleged drug
sales took place.

In investigations like this,

it's critical to go to
the specific location

where the police
activity occurred.

We wanted to see if what
the officers claimed

in their court papers
and on the stand

could really have
taken place that way.

So what we're lookin'
at now is the probable
cause affidavit,

which is what Reggie Graham,

the officer in
charge of this investigation

had to complete so that
he could get a warrant

to search Hemberger Street.

- Graham observed
quote, a black male,

approximately 21 years old.

He gets on a bike, and rode down

to the corner of
22nd and Jackson.

There is an alleged
drug sale by Meek.

And then the male,
Meek of course,

was observed riding
his bike back down

to 2204 South Hemberger,
and entering the property.

Roughly an hour later, the
officers Graham and Jones

send their
confidential informant

out back to the same
spot, because they notice

that Meek allegedly was there.

- They send the
confidential informant out,

they say, "Here's 20 bucks,"
they note the number,

of the serial number
on the 20 dollar bill.

They send the CI to make
the purchase, right?

- The CI returned
to the officers

and turned over what they
later determined to be crack,

and they used those incidence

to draft the search
warrant which is used

for this search and the
ultimate arrest of Meek

the next day at around
6 p.m. at the house.

- So the first
incident is a surveillance

of a drug purchase
on that corner.

It appears from
the search warrant,

that Officer Graham
and Officer Jones

are sitting in their
stationary location

the entire time, and that
they're able to somehow

keep a visual contact
with the front door

of the residence, and
see behind them 200 feet

and observe a
transaction take place

with enough of a
visual line of sight

that they can see clear
plastic packets changing hands.

- The problem with
that account of events,

is that when Reggie Graham
testified in court, he said...

- I got out of the
vehicle and walked.

- But Meek was riding on a bike,

so he's either walking fast.

- Or sprinting.

Or sprinting.

And that he's within 20
to 30 feet of the corner

when he witnesses the buy.

It doesn't make
any sense because

it's likely Meek
would've noticed them.

- These guys are
narcotics officers,

they're involved in sweeps
and raids and arrests

all the time,
they're well known

to the people in the community
as police officers, right?

- This is in the middle
of the day, again, so--

- It doesn't seem plausible.
- It doesn't seem plausible.

- But the other twist
in this whole scenario

is that there was no property
receipt for the crack cocaine

entered into evidence
during the trial.

The absence of that
particular piece of evidence

from the record is striking.

And it's just
the officer's word.

There's one more detail
that doesn't look right.

The description
here doesn't match

Meek's physical description.

- Medium complexion,
approximately five eight,

wearing a black ski hat.

- First of all, that Meek
is at least six feet tall.

Right, even the
arrest record show

when they booked him,
that he's six feet tall.

And the description
which medium complexion

doesn't match Meek.

And if you notice in
the search warrant,

there's no mention of the
defendant having braids,

which is, you know,
it's a distinctive detail.

You'd think if it
really were him,

that would be in
the search warrant.

- Yeah good point.

So already, we
have three possible

false statements in
official records.

The first is, we dispute
that Reggie Graham

could've actually seen Meek
make the first drug sale

in the way that he
stated that he saw it.

Another thing that
we found was that

there was no evidence at trial.

They had recovered
drugs from the scene.

And also, there
was no consistency

in the description of Meek.

- All of this certainly
raises a doubt to me

that feels very reasonable about

whether the surveillance
played out in real life

the way the officers
claimed it played out.

- And so we start
putting together

all these pieces,
and figuring out

whether or not Meek
should've been arrested

in the first place.

Reggie Graham is the
arresting officer.

He's the one who
wrote up the paperwork

that justified the
arrest of Meek.

And so, we have an
obligation as investigators

to ask Reggie what he
thought about all this.

So we went down to Florida
and knocked on his door.

- I fly down to Florida, and
go to Reggie Graham's house.

I knock on the door.

Reggie Graham opens up.

He's a little bit
anxious, like he's kinda

breathing a little heavily.

I tell him my name, I say
I'm here to talk to you

about the Meek Mill case.

And he says,
"I've got nothing to say

"about the Meek Mill case."

And he starts to turn to
try to go back inside,

and I say, well,
was there any time,

that you have any
doubt about an arrest,

maybe where the
warrant wasn't as tight

as you wanted it to be,

or you didn't have a warrant
when you did the search

and then had to get
one after the fact.

And he said, no, there's
not a single arrest

that he had any
doubts about, right.

We spoke for about 90 minutes,

but it was really like one
10-minute conversation,

just repeated nine
different times.

It's him basically saying
I did nothing wrong,

I've got nothing to say,
I was a good cop.

He says that
he's right with God.

He's in a ministry and
that what he's doing

is trying to spread God's
word to people in Florida.

And eventually I just had
to say, you know what,

I'm not gonna be able
to crack this bubble

that he's constructed
around himself.

And so I decide
to just, to leave.

(eerie music)

(cars honking)

(organ sounding)

- Good
morning, everyone.

- Good morning.

- We've come
this morning to give God

the glory, the honor,
and the praise.

- Amen.

- Excuse me, I didn't
get my hug today.

- Oh, I'm sorry
darling, you know me,

I'm all right, how you doin.'

- Fine, how you doing?
- Yeah let me...

(organ music)

(clapping)

- When Meek was
young, he used to come

to church with me sometime here.

I think it's still
deep down in his heart.

He always gave me
money for the church.

So a lotta people
do know him here.

I pray for Meek
because he's a father,

and he loves his son
and his son love him.

A boy needs his father,
that's all been in my mind

since he been locked up.

Two to four years?

He needs to be out!

We're thinking, what can
we do to really help him.

Because it's not right.

- Officer Jones, Officer Graham.

Reggie Graham was the
arresting officer of Meek.

He told us that
never once was there

anything about his conduct
as a police officer

that he felt wasn't
completely by the book.

- We're wondering, what is
Reggie Graham's background,

what is his credibility?

We want to speak with people
who used to work with him.

From official records,
we learned that

Reggie Graham was
part of what's called

the Narcotics Field Unit,
which is kinda like

the Navy SEALS of the
Philadelphia Police Department.

(dramatic orchestral music)

- Now, the unit
had a lofty mission.

The mission was to have
a group of officers

who could go city-wide and
chase drugs and drug dealers,

wherever they
needed to go, right.

And they got a
lotta good publicity

when they would do a big raid

and they would put all
the drugs on the table.

We have to find
someone who can take us

into the unit, who knows how
the Narcotics Field Unit works,

and someone who
knows specifically

about Reggie Graham's activity

as a police officer
within this unit.

- We tracked down every
single police officer

who worked with Reggie Graham.

It's very hard to get cops
to talk about each other.

Many cops refused
to speak to us.

After many, many attempts,
we find one police officer

who is willing to talk to us.

His name is Jeffrey Walker.

- Six Philadelphia
narcotics cops busted

for alleged corruption.

- Today's
bust was triggered

by last year's arrest

of veteran narcotics
cop Jeffrey Walker,

who immediately began
cooperating with the government,

flipping on the half
dozen busted today.

- Jeffrey Walker
spent three 1/2 years

in federal prison.

And now, he's trying
to live a better life

and trying to correct injustice

that he might've perpetrated.

- I can tell you things,

that people can't talk about.

'Cause they're afraid, they're
not gonna tell you things

that people need to know.

I have participated in
overturning at least

1,400 cases in count.

All this comes
from the beginning,

of me realizing I was part of
something that was not right.

And it took for my
sister to remind me

when I was incarcerated.

She was a police officer also.

When she died, it was like a
piece of me was taken from me.

And her last thing to me,

was clean up your mess.

She didn't say
mess, she said shit.
You know what I mean?

And you involved in something
that needs to be changed,

do somethin' about it.

And I'm, that's where
I'm at today with it.

- Free Meek Mill, free
Meek Mill, free Meek Mill!

- While watching TV,
I happened to see

the situation with Meek Mill.

And when Meek Mill's
team reached out,

I told them I had information

regarding his
arrest 11 years ago,

that they need to know.

At that time, myself
and Reggie Graham

were part of the
Narcotics Field Unit.

And corruption in Narcotics
Field Unit was rampant.

It was a group of people
that had a common goal,

and the common goal
was to rob and steal.

There was thousands
of dollars of money

that was taken from drug
dealers in people's houses

that they did warrants on.

And not just people's money.

I witnessed my coworkers
eating people's food,

drinking people's alcohol,
coming to the door

with people's clothing on
where the supervisor comes in

and they just be laughin,'
saying, "You guys are crazy."

And we had a lot of
important people around us

that supported
what we were doin'

because we were pullin'
a lot of good numbers,

and we're takin' a lot
of guns off the street,

lot of bad people
was goin' to jail.

No one cares if
you're robbing a guy

that they believe that
is destroying the community.

At that time, Reggie Graham

is one of the ones, in my squad.

I've stole along
with Reggie Graham.

And everything starts with
fabrication of paperwork.

The best way that you
can cover your tracks,

is to create probable cause
to establish a warrant

to go to this house.

When Meek Mill was
arrested, I was not there,

but I've looked at
Reggie Graham's paperwork,

and in Meek Mill's case,

Reggie falsified evidence.

I strongly believe
because I can see

the exact same story lines
that I've used numerous times.

I have worked
South Philadelphia
for numerous years,

and it's very close-knitted.

It's impossible for
Meek Mill, at 20, 30 feet,

not to recognize you
as a police officer

working the area that you have
been doing numerous times.

Another thing about
the paperwork.

Watching Meek go
back into the house.

That means that Meek Mill's
a truly bad drug dealer.

They don't come out of
a stash house to sell

a little bit of drugs, and
go back into a stash house.

That doesn't happen,
especially I know

for a fact, in South Philly.

I believe Reggie knew there
was drug activity in the house.

Reggie's ultimate goal was,
if there was money

involved in that house,
large amounts of money,

'cause I've stole with
Reggie Graham, to steal,

if there was anything
available for him

to steal in the house.

(ominous music)

- I'm walkin' out
to go to the store.

I seen some big guys with
guns out, screaming, "Police."

- Police!

- Hands up, put your hands up!

- I put the gun
down on the ground.

Pointing a gun at a police
officer is completely false.

- I was lookin'
out the front door

and just commenced
kicking him, punching him.

But the real beating
didn't take place

until they was in the house.

- On the fucking ground.
On the ground!

- Shut up!
- Get the fuck off me!

- Back to the wall!

- Blood in my eyes,
my body hurt.

I'm in it, but I'm
not really in this.

I be lyin' if I tell you
exactly what they was doin,'

it's like a blur to
me at this point.

- You had
cops that go upstairs,

you had a cop that
go in the basement.

- Damn, man,
what's wrong with you, bro?

- From downstairs,
you hear the cop upstairs
saying, "Bingo."

- Yeah, bingo.
- What you sayin' bingo to?

We don't got no bingo boards.
- Yeah.

- That's
when he found money.

- They got my money, bro,
they got my money.

- Yo, turn
the fuck around!

You think I'm playing?
- No, man, chill.

- He got
what he came for.
- Yep.

- How
much money did he get?

- Like 30 grand was missing.

- Yeah, about 30
grand was missing.

- They was takin' the
money out of our pockets.

Puttin' it in their pockets.

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

- Straight in they
pockets, boom, boom.

Boom, boom.

- Wasn't reported.

- These kinds of cops
were known to steal

everything of value.

Vouchers, some small
portion of the cash.

Keep everything
else for themselves,

and split it up in the car.

(solemn piano music)

- When we
came out the house,

that side of the street
was just filled with people.

- The whole South Philly
knew what happened

on Hemberger Street that day.

By the time I got there, I was
breakin' through the crowd.

Tryin' to get to
the site of the house.

There was so many people out
there, it was unbelievable.

By the time I got
to the front door,

they was takin' Rihmeek
to the hospital.

- I remembered I went
and picked up my mom

and we ran down to the house.

When we got in there, it
was like blood all over.

The house was, like, mangled.

Someone runs up and say,
"Hey, we heard that they

"took Meek to
Graduate Hospital."

Somehow, me and my mom
broke in this hospital.

And when we got in the back,

we was able to find
Meek in the room.

And the cops was
like stoppin' us.

- They cuffed me to the chair,
face still bleeding crazy.

And my mom and them
rushed to the hospital,

they screamin' at the cops.

She like, "What the hell
happened to his face?"

- I asked the cops,
can I talk to my son,

they was like no.

So somebody went into the door,

and I had called him by his name

and he looked up and
that's when I start goin'

close to him and start
snappin' pictures.

The cops tried to take
my camera from me,

but I didn't let
them take the camera.

- I was aware of
Meek Mill's arrest,

'cause Reggie Graham
bragged about his arrest.

He bragged about ripping
his braids out of his head.

- I just felt it when it ripped,

I don't know when it
was, but he ripped it,

and it was still like
a, it was still hanging

by a few hairs and I had to just

rip the last few pieces of hair.

- When it came down
I was using excessive force,

you have to justify what
you have done to him

and the best way
you can do that

is say your life
was in danger.

Those injuries that are done
are justified by that person

pointing the gun at you.

But if that was
a true statement of him

having that gun pointed
at a group of cops,

I know these people
who I'm workin' with.

And I know what
I've been through.

And if that happened,
he would be dead right now,

or at least shot.

- After we left the hospital,

we were fed up with the cops.

Just like, anger.

Now we want justice, so we
went up to the police station

and asked to speak
to internal affairs,

because why are these cops
beatin' my brother that way?

This is the complaint
that I put in,

on January 24th, 2007.

When narcotic cops beat
up Robert Williams badly,

he doesn't even
look like himself.

Jyriek said Robert
through his hands up

and the cops stomped
his head outside of

2204 South Hemberger Street.

They then dragged
him into the house

and continued to
beat him in his head.

The house was raided,

and is very bloody
from Robert's blood.

Something must be done,
is what I ended my complaint.

- After Nasheema filed an
internal affairs complaint,

an investigation was conducted.

- We want to pretend that every
cop is a saint or superhero.

No, these are people,

and people will do dirt
that they can get away with.

- Here in Pennsylvania,
when the cops

are accused of misconduct,

they basically
appoint the referee

slash arbitrator to decide
whether they're liable.

- And arbitrators,
most of them are lawyers.

It seems to me like
they lean in favor

of the police officer.

And so it creates
super predator cops.

Ya know, because they
know that there's

nothing that can
be done to them.

And I've heard
them with my own ear,

say when people say,
I'm gonna sue you,
I'm gonna do this.

And they say, I don't
give a fuck, ya know.

'Cause they know,
nothing's gonna happen.

(ominous music)

- Six months after
Meek's beating and arrest,

internal affairs'
report comes out.

All the officers
were exonerated.

The multiple injuries
Meek suffered

were justified
based upon the claim

that Meek pointed
a loaded weapon at cops

arriving to serve a warrant.

However, what was really
crucial about the report,

was what it left out.

- That's what I said,
I said roughly two dozen.

So in total...

- 18 names here.

So this is a list of
every officer that the

Philadelphia Police
Department interviewed

when they were
investigating Meek's

police brutality claim, right?

A lot of these officers
had a minimal role,

and some of them
were just driving

a paddy wagon, for example.

If you look at this
list, which is what

the police did their
investigation based on,

there's 18 names on
the official list.

But, we went through
the police report

written at the
time, you see that

there were 19 officers.

One of the arresting officers,

one who's actually credited
with putting handcuffs

on one of the defendants, is
missing from this official list.

And that is police
officer Jerold Gibson.

This is not
a small discrepancy.

What do they not want
that officer to say,

what do they want to
keep out of the file?

- This is a huge find.

(tense music)

- He was right there,
and he was outside the house

when the major
incident and the arrest

which was whether
Meek pointed a gun

at the police officers,
whether that occurred.

- So, that's
a pretty significant role

in the actual take
down of this house.

- And eventually, we're
able to find Jerold Gibson.

(tense music)

- The culture in the
Narcotics Field Unit

is very tight-knit.

You would have your two
to maybe even five-man team.

You guys work together,
you guys ate together,

you guys socialize,
it's like a family.

I have your back,
you have my back.

Your life depends on this
person doin' their job.

- Just like Jeffrey Walker,
Gibson had a history

of criminal behavior himself.

He had been arrested
and convicted of crimes

including stealing
from drug dealers,

spent time in prison.

- Police caught
Gibson carrying 140 dollars

in marked bills during
his sting operation.

- Gibson we knew had
problems of his own.

That didn't mean we didn't
still find him to be

a useful witness
to reach out to

to talk about Graham.

- Meek's investigators
reached out to me

as soon as we hung up,
I turned to my wife

and I said, "Leah, these
guys just called me

"and apparently,

I was involved in
the arrest of Meek Mill."

And she just looks
at me, she goes,

"Why'd you lock up
Meek Mill?" (laughs)

I didn't know
he was Meek Mill!

I didn't work with
Reggie Graham a lot.

We were in the same unit,
but I had my own team.

We were just
associates who worked

in the same line of business,

and occasionally overlapped
during a search warrant.

When any team gets
a warrant approved,

all the teams
will come together

and if you're the
lead investigator,

you're definitely
the quarterback

and you're determining
who goes where,

and what position you're
gonna play in the warrant.

Reggie Graham on
that day told me

that he had a target location,

and it was we all
went down to the area.

I wasn't familiar with
what the house looked like,

I wasn't familiar with
who his targets were.

I found out we were
doin' the warrant

on January 24th,
on January 24th.

So, we're about to come up

to the 2200 block of
South Hemberger Street.

This is where
the search warrant

for 2204 Hemberger
took place.

When we went down to the area,

you staged within two blocks
of the target location.

At that time,
Reggie determined that

one of his targets was outside.

I pulled up just south
of the target location

to be behind him in
case the target ran,

he would be sandwiched between
the two sets of officers.

I observed Meek
comin' off the stairs.

I retrieved my weapon.

I'm seeing Graham and Johnson,

their weapons out,
my weapon is out.

The target is looking
in their direction,

going to his waistband.

I can't tell that
the target is armed,

until the target
discards a weapon.

I never saw the
target point a weapon

at the police officers.

I never felt like
the target or Meek

was going to fire the weapon
at the other officers.

If I had, for an instant,
believed that that was the case,

I woulda shot him.
Without a hesitation.

♪ I know, I know,
I know, I know, know ♪

♪ I know, I know, I know,
I know, know ♪

- Gibson tells us,
not only on the record

but in an affidavit, that
Graham was not a credible cop.

♪ I know, I know,
I know, I know, know ♪

- The version of events
that Jerold Gibson told us

did not match what
the police report says,

did not match what Officer
Graham said at trial.

This is not a small
discrepancy, right?

This is one of the key
facts of the entire case

which is, did Meek point
a gun at these officers?

And that didn't happen.

(ambient music)

Simultaneously as we
were trying to reach out

to the former officers,
we realized that

this sort of niche
within the unit

that was engaged in
corruption and misconduct,

that that cancer
might have spread.

- I had spent a lot of
time in Philadelphia.

It has been riven
by landmark scandal

after landmark scandal.

(tense music)

There's a reason people
call this town Filthadelphia.

- The sentence is
the maximum for

former Philadelphia
DA Seth Williams.

- The two-term
district attorney

pled guilty this summer to
one of 29 corruption charges

that involved accepting
bribes for official favors.

- I guess that says a lot
about criminal justice

in Philadelphia, you know,
even the top prosecutor

was corrupt and
he's locked up now.

- Now, there is a new
district attorney in town.

- The district
attorney's campaign was modeled

on the reform of a long broken
criminal justice system.

- A movement was sworn in today.

A movement for
criminal justice reform

that has swept Philadelphia.

- And in just the
last couple of months,

we have been learning from
the district attorney's office

about a list of dirty
and dishonest cops.

- A court order forces
the Philadelphia

district attorney to make
public, a list of officers

so troubled, prosecutors
will not call them

to testify about their cases.

Assault, drug dealing,
mishandling evidence,

lying to authorities.

And that's just a partial
list of what's on there.

- The DA's office
generated a specific list

that has 66 names of
police officers on it.

There have been findings
by the police department

that the officers have
lied to internal affairs,

to other police
officers or in court.

And as a result, we're going
to have to look through

every single case,
every single conviction

involving officers
that were on the list

and file petitions
to reopen those cases,

and there are probably
many thousands of cases

that'll be brought, based
upon this acknowledgement

by the district
attorney's office,

that there's serious
questions about

the credibility
of these officers.

- First of all,
I look on the news,

I think I seen it on the
news, like a secret list.

And then I'm like,
well okay, all right.

Then next day is like, well,

the cop that
testified against Meek

was one of the guys
on the list.

Oh shit!

(tense music)

- Reggie Graham was brought up

on disciplinary
charges before

the Police Board
of Inquiry, the PBI.

All three of the board
members found Reggie Graham

guilty of engaging
in criminal conduct,

stealing, and most
damningly, in my opinion,

failing a polygraph exam that
was administered by the FBI.

He lied to the FBI,
which is a crime.

It's unclear to me why
he wasn't prosecuted.

The Police Board of Inquiry
unanimously recommended

his dismissal, but he resigned
before it could take effect.

If Meek had known
that the only officer

who testified
against him at trial

had serious
credibility problems,

it's very likely
it would've resulted

in a different verdict.

- It's a huge break
for us because

it's not only proof of what
we've been investigating,

but proof of what the government
now admits to be true.

That Graham is a bad cop.

With this point, we
think that we have found

the kind of evidence
that will lead directly

to Meek's release, and we're
putting it all together,

we're packaging it up,
and we're providing it

to our client, Meek's lawyers.

- We got two affidavits,
one from Gibson

and one from Walker, and the
district attorney's office

revealed that Graham had
appeared on the so-called

Do Not Call list 'cause his
credibility was in question.

So we filed a PCRA petition,

Post-Conviction
Relief Act petition

saying that based
on the fact that

Meek appears to
have been convicted

due to perjured testimony,

he is entitled to have
that conviction vacated.

- So we are scheduled
for what we believe

is a status hearing in
front of Judge Brinkley

on the status of the PCRA.

- Other people aren't
getting new trials.

Meek's case shouldn't
be treated differently,

it should be
treated the same.

- So all of this new evidence,

all of these public disclosures,

give him and his
lawyers fresh hope

that this 11 year ordeal

through the criminal
justice system

could be expunged, wiped away
as if it had never happened.

- Lot of buzz goin' on,
lot of good, good buzz.

Now all of this
shit is comin' out,

it's 10, 11 years later,

but we seein' something,
we getting somewhere.

And then, on top of
that was the article

in the Rolling
Stone that came out.

- I set out to write a story

about the
post-conviction system.

That's not the story I wrote.

The story I wrote was the story

of Meek Mill's
disenfranchisement.

There was this
crystallizing effect

that that story had for
this growing awareness

that there is this
other justice system

that nobody is
paying attention to.

- I can't tell you how many,
probably 50 or 60 people

that I have texted
that article to,

that got back
and was like, damn.

I didn't know
it was that deep.

- And we is biased by us
saying, that's my nephew,

free Meek Mill, of course
you won't say that.

You're his uncle.
- Right.

- You know what I mean.
- And that's--

- But what about him
filing this parole,

what about him doin' this,
what about him doin' that.

Listen, it's not about that.

It's about the broken system.

- So the article comes out,

and then I talk
to his mom, Kathy.

- Hello, hey.

- She felt that
someone had gotten it right,

and had seen and heard
what that whole family

stepped up to tell me.

- There he is, this our boy.

- And now, with the possibility
of post-conviction relief,

something like hope
is flickering again.

- Like as a family, we've
been fighting this injustice

for 10 years, man.

I'm ecstatic 'cause
I'm just waiting

to see what's gonna happen,
you know what I mean?

Genece Brinkley,

she just need
to stop playin'

and just throw
that shit out.

- Throw herself in.
- Sign the goddamn paper!

Sign the--

- Throw that shit
out, throw that shit out,

throw that shit out,
throw that shit out!

- ♪ You let me count ♪
- To the good life, baby

♪ Now there's a lot of bad
bitches in the building ♪

♪ Amen, a couple real niggas
in the building ♪

♪ Amen, I'm finna kill niggas
in the building ♪

♪ Amen, I tell the waiter
50 bottles and she
tell me say when ♪

- ♪ And I say church ♪
- ♪ Preach ♪

- ♪ We make it light
up like a church ♪
- ♪ Preach ♪

- ♪ She wanna fuck
and I say church ♪
- ♪ Preach ♪

- ♪ Do Liv on Sunday
like a church ♪
- ♪ Preach ♪

♪ Bottle after bottle ♪

- Things are
lookin' good for me.

You'll be home soon, bro.

- We still got
this judge, so...

It's comin',
it's comin' to a head.

(slow music)

- On April 16th, Judge
Brinkley is going to hear

Meek's appeal for
post-conviction relief.

- We praying
for him every day,

every night,
that he gets out here,

to see his son again.

And my heart, all our
hearts, I gotta feel

April 16th is gonna
be the turning point.

So, we prayin' for that.

(dramatic music)