50 Cent Not Yet Innocent

50 Cent says he’s been cleared in the suspicious fire that burned down his $1.4 million Dix Hills, N.Y., home last May. A detective with the arson squad says that’s not exactly true as the investigation is still ongoing.

The house was in the middle of dispute between the rapper and his ex-girlfriend, Shaniqua Tompkins. Tompkins claimed 50 Cent bought the house for her and their 11-year-old son, Marquise, after promising her a house more than 10 years ago. Fiddy said the house was his.

Fifty Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, doesn’t live in the home and wasn’t there at the time of the fire, which was reported at 4:59 a.m. May 30. An attorney for Jackson said the rapper was in Louisiana filming a movie. Tompkins, the couple’s son and four other people were at the house. They were rescued from an elevated deck in the house’s back yard and then taken to a hospital after suffering smoke inhalation, according to Newsday.

Here’s what Jackson posted on his Web site, Thisis50.com, last Friday:

“50 Cent has just been officially cleared of the house fire. The police department and insurance investigators ruled that there is absolutely no proof or evidence suggesting that Curtis Jackson or any affiliated parties were involved. Curtis Jackson has just been cleared of all the accusations. The investigation will continue until the guilty party is found.”

Photo: AP Photo
MTV’s "Total Request Live", New York, N.Y.

MTV.com reported that Detective Lieutenant James Rooney, the commanding office of the arson squad for the Suffolk County Police Department, said he had read Jackson’s blog post but couldn’t confirm that it was accurate.

“The investigation is still ongoing,” Rooney said, according to MTV.com. “I don’t know where they got that information, but our case is still open and ongoing.”

Tompkins claimed that Jackson was involved in the blaze because a day before the fire, she had presented evidence in court to support her claim to the house, according to Newsday. In April 2008, a Suffolk housing court judge ordered Tompkins evicted, but after Tompkins sued Jackson for breach of contract the following month, a judge stayed her eviction.

“Now mysteriously, the house gets burned down to the ground,” Tompkins told the paper. “I know this came from 50 Cent. I know he did it.”

Jackson denied that he had anything to do with the fire and last June he filed a $20 million defamation suit against Tompkins.

Read the MTV.com article here.

Read the Newsday article here.

Click here to check out 50 Cent’s Web site.