The director of the acclaimed movie “Precious” offered to back a $1 million bail to spring his brother-in-law from prison – but a federal judge was not impressed.
Lee Daniels agreed to sign a million-dollar bond backed by his New York condo as collateral for his sister’s husband, Henry (Black) Butler.
Butler is accused of shipping kilos of cocaine from the West Coast to New York.
Defense lawyer Jason Russo had to school the judge on the Oscar-nominated filmmaker, whose movie snagged an Academy Award this year for one of the stars, Mo’Nique.
“His income is approximately, I’m probably understating it, $1 million a year,” Russo said, according to a transcript of the bail hearing held last week.
“I don’t know if the court is aware of who Mr. Daniels is,” Russo gushed. “He was the producer and director of the movie ‘Precious’ that won some awards over the last couple of years.”
Federal Judge John Gleeson replied: “Oh, okay. No, I wasn’t. Now I am.”
The act of brotherly-in-law love was not enough to win Butler his freedom.
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