Camera-bugged Kanye West is unlikely to face felony rap

BY NANCY DILLON
DAILY NEWS WEST COAST BUREAU CHIEF

Friday, September 12th 2008, 11:55 PM

LOS ANGELES - Kanye West may have snapped on the paparazzi, but his bad boy behavior may not rise to the level of felony, a law enforcement source said.

"The thing Kanye had was a detachable flash. It's not of felony value. It wasn't worth $400," the source said.

A video posted on TMZ.com shows West, 31, and his road manager Don Crowley wrestling a camera away from a celebrity photographer inside Terminal 4 of Los Angeles International Airport early Thursday.

Crowley then smashed the body of the camera on the ground while West shattered the lighting unit on the airport floor with a roundhouse blast.

The nine-time Grammy winning rapper was booked on suspicion of felony vandalism and released on $20,000 bail a few hours later. Crowley may have a tougher time ditching his felony charge, the source said, because the tape shows him breaking the photog's costly camera body and taking a swipe at the TMZ.com video camera.

"We have not been presented a case. We have nothing before us, so we don't even know if it's going to be presented to us or will be a misdemeanor and routed to the city attorney," said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney.

Under California law, vandalism rises to a felony when damage exceeds $400.

West has promised to "rant" about the incident on his blog at kanyeuniversecity.com.

"We back in the lab!!! I'm cool with the paparazzi. This guy wasn't cool. I gotta work now.... I'll rant later!" the hip-hop star wrote Friday.

a felony charge for destoying some annoying guy's camera? of course he shouldn't be charged for that, it wasn't like he took the camera and beat the guy with it. That would have deserved a felony charge.

missfee said:

Yeah from what I saw he didn't even touch the guy, he just tried to get the camera off of him.