Felony charges against Lil Wayne dropped

A Fulton County judge has dismissed felony drug charges brought nearly three years ago against rapper Lil Wayne.

The multiple Grammy-winner (real name: Dwayne Michael Carter) was arrested in August 2006 at the Twelve Hotel at Atlantic Station. Atlanta police said they found unmarked bottles containing hydrocodone and a generic form of Xanax along with two marijuana joints.

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Lynne Sladky/AP

Rapper Lil Wayne was all smiles at last week’s NBA basketball game between the Miami Heat and Detroit Pistons in Miami. The court ruling gave him more to smile about.

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Superior Court Judge Michael Johnson granted the defendant’s request to suppress on the basis of an illegal search.

“The testimony by the State’s witnesses had numerous inconsistencies in material evidence provided at this hearing, especially when compared to the written police reports that had been created … by two of the three officers who entered the hotel rooms at the Twelve Hotel,” Johnson wrote in a document filed Tuesday.

Carter’s attorney, William “Bubba” Head, said his client wasn’t staying in the room where the arrest was made.

“It was a changing room,” he said.

The Georgia case had its share of twists and turns. Carter was arrested on a fugitive warrant in October 2007 for failing to appear at a court date in Fulton County. But Head said his client never received the summons because it was sent to his former home in New Orleans, which had been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.

“He didn’t even know there were charges pending,” his Atlanta-based attorney said.

Fulton County prosecutors could not be reached for comment.

Lil Wayne still faces legal trouble. He has a court date upcoming on a weapons charge in New York and also faces multiple felony drug charges in Arizona. Carter was arrested, along with four others, after Border Patrol agents stopped his tour bus near Yuma.

Police canines reportedly recovered 3.7 ounces of marijuana, 29 grams of cocaine and 41 grams of ecstasy on the bus.