Eminem‘s first big courtroom showdown passed without incident yesterday (August 31) when the rapper sidestepped a preliminary hearing moving the trial against him to September 25.
The chart-topping star was due to face the hearing in the District Court in Warren, Michigan in order to see if there was enough evidence against him to justify a full trial. Observers have suggested he avoided the preliminary showdown so that witnesses against him would not have the opportunity to air their evidence before the main trial.
Eminem faces one assault charge and another of carrying a concealed weapon. The charges stem from an incident in the car park of a nightclub in Warren on June 4 when he alleged used an unloaded gun to pistol-whip a man he saw kissing his now estranged wife Kim Mathers. The incident is thought to be the catalyst that ended his stormy marriage. Only this week, Eminem agreed to award his wife full custody of their daughter in an amicable settlement of initial divorce proceedings.
Yesterday, Judge Sherman Faunce also removed the bar on Eminem leaving the US. It was this that had prevented him from performing at last weekend’s Reading/Leeds Carling Weekend festival.
The original judge, Dawn M. Gruenburg, removed herself when it emerged yesterday that someone who formerly worked in her office had been hired to work for Eminem’s mother Debbie. His mother is filing two separate defamation suits against her son.
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