John Forte's life was forever changed in July of 2000. He agreed to transport a package that he believed held money, and in turn was arrested on a drug trafficking charge. He did not accept the plea bargain offered him, as he maintained that he was innocent of the charges against him. In 2001, John Forté stood trial in a Texas court and was convicted of this non-violent crime. It was his first offense. Due to the outdated mandatory minimum sentencing laws currently in place, he received the only prison term available for the judge to hand down - 14 years in a federal penitentiary. John is not eligible to be released until he is at least 38 years old. Much of the awareness surrounding the Former Fugees case is related to his surrogate mother, singer Carly Simon.
When John turned 13, he won a full scholarship to the prestigious Exeter academy. After graduation, he was introduced by a mutual friend to Simons son Ben Taylor. From there, the Brooklyn native became a part of the family. As family, Simon defends Forte pa**ionately and now fights for a repeal of the mandatory minimum drug laws that remove a judges discretion in a case. "I'm prepared to fight this until the last possibility is exercised. Judges have lost a lot of their power because of mandatory minimums. I think the judge in John's case was extremely frustrated by having to go by them and likely would have given John a much lesser sentence if it wasn't for the mandatory minimums.", Simon said. Many judges (both liberal and conservative) agree. They say the rules leave them unable to use their own discretion in evaluating individual cases. Even Justice Anthony Kennedy of the Supreme Court calls them "harsh and unjust."
