Very good read about 2Pac's 1994 shooting

It's a long read but worth it:

http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.9639/title.james-sabatino-speaks-publicly-for-first-time-supplies-documents

With representatives of James Sabatino first contacting HipHopDX in early February, the 33 year-old Hip Hop industry veteran has written DX by mail six times since. Corresponding exclusively by handwritten letters from Sabatino’s Federal Max Penitentiary 23 hour cell in Colorado, the onetime teenage Hip Hop manager, promoter and Sandstorm Entertainment founder has been imprisoned since 1997, shortly after Bad Boy Records' No Way Out Tour. Sabtino is presently serving the last two years of a 14-year racketeering sentence.

The Brooklyn native may be most known as an implied orchestrator of Tupac Shakur's 1994 shooting in New York's Quad Studios, as stated in a 2008 Los Angeles Times story that was later retracted. That is a reputation that Sabatino today says, was cast upon him as part of an elaborate conspiracy to protect several reputations.

In the first time he’s ever spoken publicly, Sabatino has written over 30 pages of correspondence and supplied numerous court documents asserting both his innocence, and that The Smoking Gun's March 2008 story [click here] and Chuck Philips' Los Angeles Times story are based on false information. Sabatino has also revealed information and documents to HipHopDX that allege well-known Hip Hop manager and executive, Jimmy "Henchman" Rosemond as a prison official and government cooperative.

“If you think about it, nothing made sense,” Sabatino wrote in a letter dated June 17 of this year. “Clearly, The Smoking Gun had an agenda – 90% of the [things] they said was flat out lies or just misrepresentation.” Specifically, Sabatino defended claims that he was not actually involved in the music industry by pointing to the fact that main charge in his present indictment is for “sending illegally gained computers and cell phones to Murder Inc.” Sabatino’s co-defendant, who he stated has subsequently become a witness/federal cooperative, Kate Beauchamp, was a onetime personal assistant to Chris “Gotti” Lorenzo, brother to The Inc. head Irv Gotti. Outside of indictments, Sabatino also pointed to his associastions with The Lords Of The Underground, Diddy, and points to Power, Mook and Ghostface Killah, all Wu-Tang Clan operatives. “Those were-are my peoples,” wrote James, who added that he was there when the nine-man outfit first pressed “Protect Ya Neck” as a 1993 single.

In the same June letter, Sabatino took umbrage with the “mafia” labels made on his father and family. “As far as I’m concerned, my father is a legitimate businessman. The government is the one who accuses him of being part of the ‘mafia’ or whatever. I got my sentence enhanced because of it. So I would love for the government to step up and stop saying that…I have fought the government every time they’ve made this allegation. I am the last person to promote people into believing that I or my family is involved in organized crime.”

Next, Sabatino reminded readers that no one has yet to speak out against him. In reference to the Quad Studio shootings, Jimmy affirms that Diddy, The Trackmasters, Andre Harrell all have never spoken out against the imprisoned manager. “When Puff responded to the [The Los Angeles Times] story, it was to deny the allegations. As you can see in his letter, he actually defended me. That denial was for both of us.”

Sabatino wrote he has denied interview requests with Rolling Stone, 60 Minutes, NBC Dateline, New York Times and an A&E production company. The veteran opted to speak with HipHopDX after our interview with Chuck Philips [click to read], which closely analyzed the merit of the piece, but also Sabatino's alleged guilt at the time.

Philips’ March 17, 2008 Los Angeles Times story is something that James Sabatino largely refutes. The imprisoned Brooklyn native told HipHopDX that he denied the opportunity to speak with Philips, and documented the then-L.A. Times writer’s January 2008 post-marked questions for interview request. Sabatino asserts that his decision not to reply to Philips’ mailings were printed as “declined to comment” rather than the actual decline to be interviewed, hinting at perceived guilt. “If I was so [very] hungry for attention why didn’t I just grant an interview? It [doesn’t] add up,” Sabatino wrote in mid June, seemingly referring to both the stories by Chuck Philips and character-questioning piece published by The Smoking Gun.

Despite the fact that James Sabatino never accepted an interview by The Los Angeles Times, the implications of the story affected the inmate. “After the original story came out, I was taken by [Allenwood Prison] staff and placed in confinement. A few days later I was told I was being transferred to the Counter Terrorism Unit. I was blindfolded, placed on a private plane and sent to a unit in Marion, Illinois. I was told that I was just pending placement in ADX Super Max. On December 29, [2008], I received notice that I was accepted into the Super Max Counter Terrorism Unit.” Sabatino wrote this as an assertion to his innocence and the conspiracy involved in his incarceration. The Smoking Gun reported that Sabatino made phonecall death threats on President Clinton from England, but those reports were dated over a decade before Sabatino's transfer.

Having been in the Colorado prison unit since the closing days of 2008, Sabatino also stressed his wrongful placement. “Most of the guys [in the Counter Terrorism Unit] are Arabs on [9/11-related charges], African Embassy bombers, [1994 World Trade] Center bombers, and then me,” he said, noting that he’s serving a three-year racketeering sentence. Sabatino also mailed HipHopDX U.S. Department of Justice’s criteria for Counter Terrorism Unit assignments, of which, James conclused that he's been neither charged nor convicted of none. “I am NOT a terrorist. I’m from Brooklyn…However, this a connection to this somehow.”

Confined to his cell 23 hours a day, with only strongly pre-arranged human contact, James Sabatino, in addition to refuting Chuck Philips’ entire story, repeatedly has stated that James “Henchman” Rosemond, another onetime suspect in Tupac Shakur’s 1994 shooting at Quad Studios, is “a rat.”

“First and foremost – Jimmy Henchman is a rat,” began Sabatino in the second paragraph of his June 15, 2009 letter to HipHopDX. “[I have] come to find out this coward has been a longtime police informant – this from the guy VIBE magazine called ‘the most feared player in Hip-Hop’ and manages The Game, Too Short, Pleasure P, Gucci Mane, Shyne and others. This is not just a rumor or theory, this is 100% fact that can be proved right by going to the Federal Court House.”

After pointing to US case trials U.S.A. V. James J. Rosemond, Case No. 7:94-CR-36-1-BR in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of North Carolina and U.S.A. V. James J. Rosemond, Case No. CR - 98-0550 DT BR in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California, Sabatino alleges Rosemond's plot to ruin him. Collectively, the documents supplied to HipHopDX from both cases allude to three instances of Rosemond cooperating with prison, state and federal authorities in both states.

Sabatino stated, “I was housed in USP Allenwood, a federal prison about three hours from New York [City]. It was good ‘cause I was close to the house for the first time… [sic] not to mention a lot of the homies from [the city were] there. Anyway, shortly after I arrived, I got a letter from this dude Chuck Philips saying that he had information that Jimmy Henchman was a federal informant and would like to share with me the contents.

I didn’t want to deal with dude, so I declined to talk with him, but said he was free to forward any documentation about Henchman/Rosemond. Soon after, I got transcripts and motions filed in two of Henchman’s cases (he had two federal cases: one in North Carolina and the other in California) and the paperwork showed that Henchman has been working with the cops [reportedly since] as early as 1996 when he broke up a jail escape in North Carolina. He went on to debrief federal agents in [New York] in ’98 and in ’97, he cooperated with state cops even making pre-recorded phone calls for the cops!”

After writing about his own surprises from the documents, Sabatino alleges, “When Henchman got a downward departure, his lawyers had to file a motion asking the judge for a reduction in his sentence in return for his cooperation. Then, at sentencing, they talked about it in open court because everything is recorded in court, the transcripts are available to the public as well.”

Sabatino then wrote about his intentions to clear the air. He continued telling his own predicament. “There were three people at USP Allenwood with me who were close with Henchman. The first I did was share this with them. The way I was raised I was honor-bound to notify them.”

James asserted that he shared these facts not in pursuit of money – citing his wealth, but he says that money may have swayed those three men’s reaction. “Two of the dudes decided to let Henchman know what I found out in return for getting in his good favor and getting money from him. So now [these three inmates and I] are meeting every day, deciding how we were going to expose Henchman [and] I’m not realizing everything I discuss is getting reported back to Henchman.”

According to Sabatino, a week later began the "302’s" in associating him with the 1994 Tupac Shakur shooting. “I was at Quad that night with [Notorious] B.I.G.; I knew nothing of what was going on.” He continued, “However, during my criminal federal case, a lot of paperwork came out accusing me of doing certain illegal things that Puffy’s name came up in. I had my lawyer send him copies of everything, so he would be aware.”

Further defending himself, Sabatino wrote, “Soon after, I got another letter from Chuck Philips saying that he believes I was the one who ordered ‘Pac shot along with Henchman. He goes on in this letter to NAME the three shooters that he identified. What is important to remember is that when Philips’ story finally came out – he admits that he was in contact with two of the shooters, who admitted to the crime [and in interviews], he admits they were his sources.” Sabatino pointed out that while those other shooters were never named in the story, Sabatino was – despite that Philips published those names (Dexter Isaac, Roland Campbell and Spencer Bowens) in his letter to James (re-printed with stationary, business card and signatures for HipHopDX).

Sabatino wrote no further information about those names to DX, but did confirm that all three were also imprisoned at Allenwood at the time. “What is [sic] the chances of four guys involved in a crime 14 years prior, all get SEPARATE, unrelated federal cases 14 years later and end up in the same federal prison?”

In the letter, Sabatino continued: “It was all a set up, as far as The Smoking Gun goes. They were fed this story by Henchman to bring me and Philips down – the two people who could expose him as a rat and destroy his career.”

Sabatino says that The Smoking Gun theory was largely based on his having a typewriter in his cell, and manufacturing fraudulent court documents. He wrote, “Had they known that Philips was in contact with three OTHER people at Allenwood, the whole theory falls apart. Besides, the FBI has never said [those documents] were in fact fake. My lawyer [Robin C. Smith, Esq.] has checked over and over and the government says they won’t comment.” Those documents were sent to HipHopDX, but the site opted not to publish at this time.

Reminding inquiring minds to look into the two aforementioned cases, Sabatino closed, “[The] bottom line is that Rosemond’s lawyers made a mistake by not sealing these documents. The only reason it has never come out before is that no one knew to look. In that VIBE feature story they did on [Jimmy “Henchman” Rosemond], they said the small amount of [federal] time he got was due to his great, ‘high powered’ attorneys,’ you now know better. This should shock the Hip Hop world when published.”

U.S.A. V. James J. Rosemond, Case No. 7:94-CR-36-1-BR in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of North Carolina and U.S.A. V. James J. Rosemond, Case No. CR - 98-0550 DT BR in the U.S. District Court, Central District of California are both reportedly available to the public.

At last report, James "Jimmy" Sabatino is subject to release in 2011.

More information can be found at JamesSabatino.com [click here].