Flavor Flav jailed in Las Vegas on felony charges

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Entertainer Flavor Flav was jailed Wednesday on felony and misdemeanor charges after arguing with his fiancee and threatening to attack her teenage son with a knife, police said.

The 53-year-old former rapper, hip-hop and reality television star, whose legal name is William Jonathan Drayton Jr., was arrested about 3:30 a.m. Wednesday at a home several miles southwest of the Las Vegas Strip, Las Vegas police Officer Bill Cassell said.

Patrol officers did not report that anyone was injured.

Drayton faces a felony assault with a deadly weapon charge carrying a possible penalty of up to six years in prison and a misdemeanor battery-domestic violence charge that could get him six months in county jail, according to jail records.

He was being held on $23,000 bail at Clark County jail pending an initial court appearance on Thursday. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer.

Drayton, whose public persona includes wearing a big clock on his chest, was an original member of the politically and socially militant rap group Public Enemy in the 1980s and `90s.

In recent years he has starred in several reality TV series and lent his name and recipes to short-lived chicken and soul food restaurants in Clinton, Iowa, and Las Vegas.

He has a criminal history that includes arrests and convictions on traffic infractions, a month in jail for assaulting his then-girlfriend in 1991, and three months in prison for shooting at a neighbor in 1993.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.