Judge to rapper: See you in September

PHILLY-BORN rapper Meek Mill suffered a setback in his quest to get out of jail after a judge rejected his lawyers' request for an emergency hearing yesterday.

He has been jailed since July 11 for violating terms of his probation stemming from a 2009 drug and gun conviction.

His lawyers filed a petition Thursday asking for the hearing within three days, in hopes of freeing the 27-year-old rapper - whose real name is Robert Williams.

But Common Pleas Judge Genece Brinkley - who sentenced Mill to three to six months behind bars - said her court schedule would not allow her to hold such a hearing until September. She also rejected a request to allow another judge to hear the case, according to defense attorney Christopher Warren, who, along with Dennis Cogan, is representing Mills.

"All I'm asking for is a hearing to learn why [his jailing] is constitutional and they won't even give me that," a frustrated Warren said yesterday.

He said Mill spent his first three days in solitary confinement - likely for safety reasons - before being moved to a housing pod with about 20 other inmates.

Warren said the next legal move will come Monday when he and Cogan file what is known as a writ of mandamus, which is an order asking a higher court to compel Brinkley to hold an emergency hearing.

Such orders are so rare that Warren said he is still researching which court to petition to - the state Supreme Court, Superior Court or Commonwealth Court.

"The last thing I want to do is go running to another judge to tell another judge what to do. But we have no choice," said Warren.

He and Cogan contended in their Thursday court filing that nothing Mill did warranted having his probation revoked. They also said Brinkley's jail sentence was unconstitutional because she did not hold two hearings and give Mill written notice of his violations before she jailed him.

In revoking his bail, Brinkley said the rapper failed to provide his probation officer with a working phone number, used his Twitter account to disparage the officer and the prosecutor assigned to the case, booked out-of-town concerts without court permission, was "combative" and "disrespectful" to probation-office staffers and posed for a picture posted on Instagram holding a gun.