City gets threat on Eminem's charges

Rapper Eminem in court this month

By BY KIM NORTH SHINE

June 15, 2000 Web posted at: 9:53 AM EDT (1353 GMT)

DETROIT, Michigan (Detroit Free Press) -- An anonymous letter mailed to Warren City Attorney George Constance promises to avenge rap star Eminem by burning down the city if criminal charges against him aren't dropped.

The profanity-laced, two-page note does not directly threaten Constance, but the implication of harm was strong enough to persuade him to move his wife and two children out of their Warren home Monday. Constance is staying.

"The letter struck me as being written by an adult, just by the knowledge in it," Constance said. "That's why this is being taken so seriously, but I won't be intimidated."

Warren police are investigating and considering posting a guard outside Constance's home. The letter was mailed to his office.

"Not only do I consider this person to be a coward, but a bottom-feeder and a wanna-be," Constance said. "If I find who did this, I will prosecute them."

The sloppily scrawled letter says that by defending Eminem, "we become his new heroes."

"We're coming uptown with 20-oz. Mountain Dew bottles full of gasoline and charcoal lighting fluid and matches," the letter states, unless Constance reverses the charges against the hip-hop superstar hailed as Warren's hometown boy. Eminem, 27, who lyricizes his rough upbringing, has also lived in Detroit and most recently in Sterling Heights.

The demand from the letter-writers who say Eminem, a.k.a. Slim Shady, is "our Christ" comes just as the hype was dying down after a week of bad-boy-rapper-breaks-the-law headlines.

Eminem's attorney, Howard Hertz, said the musician would be disappointed by the fans' behavior. "I'm confident he had nothing to do with any such letter, and he would not condone it," Hertz said.

What the tough-talking scribes apparently don't understand is that a decision on charges is not Constance's to make. Macomb and Oakland county prosecutors filed the charges last week and don't plan to change their minds.

The South Warren Street Kids, as they call themselves in the correspondence, blame Constance for forcing Macomb County Prosecutor Carl Marlinga to file charges against the current best-selling rap star born Marshall Mathers III.

In TV news appearances, Constance characterized Eminem's behavior outside a south Warren bar on June 4 as thuggish and intolerable. He said if Marlinga didn't charge, then he would.

The letter mentions Constance's TV cameos, calling him a media star.

"We party in his name so you'll be dropping the charges."

Warren police say Eminem assaulted a man with an unloaded handgun just after closing time at the Hot Rocks Cafe. Eminem allegedly followed his wife, Kimberly Mathers, there to spy on her and then saw her kissing a man in the parking lot, police say.

Last Tuesday, Marlinga charged Eminem with felonious assault and carrying a concealed weapon.

A day later, Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca charged the rapper with two weapons charges, one felony and one misdemeanor, for allegedly pulling an unloaded gun June 3 on a rival rapper for Insane Clown Posse. Police say Eminem threatened the man outside a Royal Oak stereo shop.

The charges came the same week that Eminem's May 23 release, "The Marshall Mathers LP," took the top Billboard spot by selling 1.76 million copies. The album held the No. 1 spot this week on the Billboard 200, R&B/Hip Hop and Internet slots on the Billboard charts. Amid predictions that the publicity could be good for his career, Eminem's prior work, "The Real Slim Shady," moved from seventh to sixth place this week.

Warren Deputy Mayor Mike Greiner said the city did not see the letter as a threat to public safety.

"I think you could take it either way, but there definitely were fears for George when we saw it," Greiner said.

Marlinga said he hadn't received so much as a suspicious phone hang-up, and he plans to proceed with the prosecution. Gorcyca also plans to go ahead.

"I guess I don't know if I should be insulted that they didn't send me a letter," Gorcyca said. "This is nothing new. Threats come with the job."

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