Flavor Flav pleads guilty in domestic battery case

Flavor Flav avoided a possible 12-year prison sentence Monday through a plea deal in a case in which the rapper allegedly threatened his girlfriend's 17-year-old son with knives.

Flav -- born William Jonathan Drayton Jr. in Roosevelt and raised from a young age in Freeport -- pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of attempted battery and domestic violence in exchange for prosecutors dropping felony charges, The Associated Press said. The rapper and former reality-TV star, 55, must complete a year of probation and domestic violence classes. His next court date is Aug. 18.

Flav's record label, Executive Music Group, did not respond to a Newsday request for comment.

The charges came from an incident at Flav's Las Vegas home at 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 17, 2012. Police at the time said that during an argument between Flav and his fiancee of eight years, Elizabeth Trujillo, the 5-foot, 6-inch, 131-pound Flav grabbed two kitchen knives to chase her 6-foot-tall, 175-pound son, Gibran, threatening to kill the teen. When Gibran locked himself in a bedroom with his sister, Flav reportedly kicked open the door and made additional threats.

Police said Flav also threw Trujillo to the ground twice and ripped out one of her earrings.

The argument had started, police added, over Flav's alleged infidelity. Flav "confirmed the stories told by Gibran and Trujillo," but denied having chased or threatened to kill the youth, according to the police report.

Flav, a founding member of 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Public Enemy, also pleaded not guilty in Mineola on Jan. 28 to charges -- including aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle and marijuana possession -- stemming from his speeding arrest earlier that month on the Meadowbrook State Parkway. On March 25, the case was adjourned until May.

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