Kanye West Might Escape Felony Charges

09/15/08 12:03pm

by Kate Harper (CHARTattack)

Kanye West may be able to beat the felony charges stemming from an incident with paparazzi at Los Angeles International Airport last week.

West and his road manager, Don Crowley, had a confrontation with a photographer and a TMZ cameraman who started taking their pictures at LAX's terminal four on Thursday. A camera valued at more than $1,400 was broken in the incident, and a video camera valued at more than $7,000 was also damaged. Both West and Crowley were charged with felony vandalism and released on $20,000 bail.

Though California law stipulates that someone can be charged with felony vandalism if they damage property worth more than $400, West only damaged "a fistful of one shooter's lighting rig," valued at only $100, according to MTV.com. This means he may only be charged with a misdemeanor. But since Crowley allegedly damaged both cameras, he may still be charged with felony vandalism.

In the meantime, Los Angeles Times reports that two Los Angeles city councillors have asked LAX officials to examine how they deal with public safety when "high-profile passengers" pass through the airport and have to deal with paparazzi.

West has been pretty mum on the incident, aside from this short message he posted on his blog on Friday:

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

Though West hasn't yet announced when his fourth album will hit stores, it's posted on Amazon.com as 808's & Heartbreak and is due out Dec. 16. West debuted a new song called "Love Lockdown" at the MTV Video Music Awards last week, but a source close to West told SOHH.com that West hasn't finished the album and there's no way it will come out in December.

West reportedly flew from Los Angeles to Hawaii via private jet to continue working on the album over the weekend.