Meek Mill took the stand yesterday to testify in his civil lawsuit against the city of Philadelphia’s local police department after a 2012 incident. On the night of Halloween 2012, Mill was stopped by police officers in Philadelphia and detained for over 10 hours. He was pulled over because of the “very heavily tinted windows” on his Range Rover.

When stopped, Mill and one of his three passengers, Dimitri Jacques, an off duty narcotics cop from Ft. Lauderdale, FL, were asked to step out of the vehicle after Jacques informed them he was in possession of a weapon that he was legally allowed to have.

The police then claimed that they smelled marijuana and brought in a narcotics dog to confirmed the scent. All of the passengers were then taken to a police station and detained  for up to 10 hours even though no charges were filed.

That night, Oct. 31, 2012, was the night that Meek Mill’s debut album, Dreams & Nightmares, had been released. The group had originally planned to fly to a celebratory show in Atlanta from New York but drove to Philadelphia instead because Hurricane Sandy had ceased flights in the New York area.

Mill implied that the entire situation was a result of him being stopped because of his race which led to him missing his chartered flights and the show in Atlanta that cost him at least $39,000 for the missed performance and $22,500 to cancel the flight. He also feared that he could lose endorsement deals.

“my life could be potentially over for something I didn’t do,” said Mill “. . . . I could lose all my endorsements. . . . I missed the show. . . . My state of mind was just a lot of fans were waiting to see me. They won’t really pay for you again.”

[via]