Rapper Shakur Posts Bail After Arrest for Violation of Probation

A judge ordered rapper Tupac Shakur taken into custody Monday for violating his probation by failing to fulfill a work crew assignment, but Shakur was freed after posting bail an hour later, his attorney said.

Shakur was on probation for a 1993 concealed weapons conviction and an assault and battery conviction in 1994, both in Los Angeles, said Mike Qualls, spokesman for the city attorney’s office.

Los Angeles Municipal Judge Gregory Alarcon had given Shakur until Monday to spend 15 days on a Caltrans crew. Shakur had not started the work, said Shawn Chapman, his lawyer. “But he is planning to report to Caltrans to begin work immediately,” she said.

Bail was set at $52,000. A hearing is set for Feb. 14 to determine whether he further violated probation by being arrested in Hollywood on suspicion of possessing a concealed pistol April 29, 1994, and being convicted Oct. 31, 1994, of misdemeanor assault and battery in Michigan, Qualls said.

A pretrial hearing for the Hollywood weapons charges is set for today.

Death Row Records posted $1.4-million bail last October to free Shakur from a New York penitentiary, where he was serving up to 4 1/2 years for two counts of first-degree sexual abuse for offensive touching without consent. He and an associate were accused, but not convicted, of holding a female fan down while a third man sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan hotel.