Snoop Dogg escapes jail term
Hip-hop star Snoop Dogg has escaped a jail term after he pleaded no contest to charges of sale or transportation of marijuana and possession of a gun.
The rapper, real name Calvin Broadus, was given a three years suspended sentence and handed five years of probation by a Californian court yesterday. He will also perform 900 hours of community service - although he can serve half of the hours working with the youth American football team that he owns.
Broadbus was arrested last year after police found a gun and marijuana in his car after it parked too long in a passenger loading area at Burbank airport.
His lawyer Donald Etra says: "He recognizes the severity of this. He recognizes he got a great a deal and he fully intends to make sure nothing prohibits him from keeping his part of the bargain."
This isn't the first time the rapper has faced the wrong end of the law - he already has a 1990 felony conviction for possession of drugs for sale.
Last November, Broadus was charged with possession of a deadly weapon after he was caught carrying a collapsible baton through airport security, and in March he was arrested in Stockholm, Sweden for suspected narcotics use.
