Thanksgiving was such a happy day for legendary pop singer songwriter Carly Simon that she had to lie down. She was wiped out. For eight years she’d campaigned for a new trial for, if not the release of, musician John Forte.

This week, President Bush came through with the pardon. Forte, who’s served seven years of a 14-year sentence, will be released on Dec. 22.

Often identified in the press as a member of the Fugees, Forte in fact is a versatile musician-producer who had won the respect of his colleagues when he was arrested in July 2000 at Newark airport, arriving from Houston.

Forte was charged with accepting a briefcase full of liquid cocaine in part of a DEA sting. At trial, held in Houston, the jury was presented with damning evidence that made it seem like he was involved in drug trafficking in the U.S.


Co-defendants who had turned state’s evidence fingered Forte and got off with little penalty. Forte maintained his innocence, but bad lawyering and judging helped do him in.

He stood trial in Houston, not exactly the most sympathetic place for a dreadlocked black hip hop musician, and received a mandatory 14-year sentence even though it was his first offense.

The musician didn’t squander his time in jail. Over the last several years he’s studied for and received a couple of advanced degrees. He’s become an articulate advocate for prisoners in his situation, and has been a popular and dedicate teacher of other inmates. Ironically, though he was convicted for drug trafficking, he’s not a drug user, has never sold drugs and had no prior connections to them.

He’d already met Carly Simon before his arrest in July 2008 through her musician son, Ben Taylor, whom he’d met through Simon’s cousin.

Forte was a regular around the Simons’ Martha Vineyard compound, participating in studio sessions with Carly and others. Simon immediately posted his bail when Forte called after his arrest.

From them on, because of her celebrity and access to the media, she was catalyzed into being his advocate. She and everyone he worked with knew he was innocent.

But even Simon’s media contacts didn’t always help. The very good writer Peter Wilkinson wrote a piece about Forte in Rolling Stone in 2002. But since then, sources say, Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner has ignored pleas from Forte’s friends for a follow-up. In the 1970s, Rolling Stone would have been all over this sort of case, declaring Forte’s innocence.

The tale of how Forte got his pardon will be one for a book, maybe Simon’s memoir when she writes it. It took action on several fronts, with Simon campaigning among many different elected officials over the years.

Here’s one twist: After being spurned by everyone in the Clinton administration, Simon finally turned to Republicans for help. Among them was Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, himself a musician. With the enthusiasm of Hatch and others, Simon kept pushing, hoping this day would come.

When Forte is released, a few days before Christmas, he will probably go straight to the Vineyard where scads of supporters will be waiting to welcome him home. He shouldn’t have any trouble getting music and book contracts, which means by the end of 2009, we should be hearing an enthralling saga.

If I were Mario Van Peebles or Terrence Howard, I’d be picking up the rights to the movie right now.

My manager also manages Pras so knows John well and is happy that he's getting out. Hopefully he's not messed up from jail. His contributions to 'The Score' amongst other things, are pretty underrated.

I just hope he's still cute

his first solo release was fairly decent but his 2nd release was not that great

japanrocks said:

"advocate for prisoners in his situation"

People who carrying large quantities of drugs

CalhounSq said:

I don't even remember what this dude looks like...

I always did like his rap on the refugee camp remix of MJ's "2Bad"
Good for him.

Vanilli said:

What's the source for this? Is this article from a newspaper or a magazine? If it is, I weep at the state of journalism these days. Aside from everything I highlighted, among other things, it doesn't even present a case for his innocence.

missfee said:

CalhounSq said:

I didn't know Carly Simon was his woman??

Cinnie said:

I think she just thinks of him as like one of her kids.
As for the article, it is from Roger at Fox News.
Here is the link:

http://www.foxnews.com/st...66,00.html

CalhounSq said:

Girl, my cousin and I hung out with him in Philly one night years ago. He was SOOOO sweet. I distinctly remember that he wouldn't drink any alcohol.

This is the first I'm hearing about this. I'm glad he's getting out and SHOCKED that the Bush administration pardoned him. But really. . . a briefcase full of liquid cocaine???
[Edited 11/29/08 18:08pm]

Well, I'll be...Bush pardoned John Forte? Nope...didn't see that one coming!

Vanilli said:

I thought there must be a huge age difference

SCNDLS said:

I'm glad you had a good experience with him.

missfee said:

I went to the Greek, I believe in 98 or 99 and we went to a show where John, Peter Gunz and Lord Tariq, and Tatyana Ali performed (I'm offically older than a muthafucka ) Afterwards, him and Peter Gunz invited me and my girls to kick it with them at a restaurant. Lawd, we had a great time and all those guys were cooler than a fan, no drugs, excessive drinking, didn't expect anybody to sleep with 'em. They were mad