Marion Knight

Someone is gunning for Marion "Suge" Knight. The head of Death Row Records grew famous glamorizing gang violence. He called his artists "inmates." His company logo depicted a hooded convict strapped into an electric chair. His producers grafted violent lyrics onto driving rhythms, punctuated by shotgun blasts and wailing sirens. That was make-believe mayhem. Now, Knight is being stalked by the real thing.

The party at the Playboy Mansion was over hours earlier, and as the clock ticked toward 4 a.m., Marion "Suge" Knight was back in his darkened office and puffing on a Cuban cigar. Over his shoulder, the framed platinum albums glinted like chrome rims in a low fog. It was then, as so often happens with the rap music mogul, that the topic turned to murder.

Why did Steve Cantrock, a partner in a prestigious Los Angeles accounting firm, sign a document admitting that he stole $4.5 million from Death Row Records owner Marion "Suge" Knight? Knight has a simple, if implausible, explanation for the unusual, handwritten IOU, which is now in the hands of federal investigators. "It was Steve's idea," he said.

Seeking to further curb criminal activities, Compton has asked a judge to ban individuals identified as members of the Mob Piru street gang -- including rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight -- from congregating in a northeast neighborhood. Using a strategy employed by other crime-ridden communities, the court order would be the first gang injunction in a city with a long history of battling street gangs.

Veteran attorney David Kenner, embroiled in the latest controversy involving Death Row Records owner Marion "Suge" Knight, is known as a very aggressive, well-prepared criminal defense lawyer who establishes strong rapport with his clients. Over the last two decades, those clients have included alleged murderers, drug dealers and stock swindlers. In recent years, Knight, his record company and the firm's artists, including rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg, have become the centerpieces of his practice.

There's no doubt that Michael "Harry O" Harris has entrepreneurial instincts. Growing up in a Los Angeles neighborhood he calls "the low bottom," he became one of the region's most notorious crack dealers before he was arrested and sent to prison in 1987. Since being in prison, he has decided that his real talents lie in the entertainment business.

In an investigation that centers on the crumbling rap music empire of Marion "Suge" Knight, Los Angeles authorities arrested three of his associates Thursday on suspicion of conspiring to murder a gang rival. The three -- a former Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy and two alleged gang members -- are accused of plotting to kill the rival in revenge for the death of another Knight associate who was gunned down in April.

Seven years after the killing of rap star Notorious B.I.G., the FBI is investigating allegations that a rogue Los Angeles police officer orchestrated the slaying with rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight, according to court documents and law enforcement sources. The FBI is pursuing a 6-year-old theory that then-Officer David A.

An associate of rap music mogul Marion "Suge" Knight was charged Tuesday with the attempted murder of a reputed gang rival, prosecutors said. Timothy "Tim Roo" McDonald, 34, was accused of trying to kill a member of a rival gang last month as revenge for the unsolved murder of another Knight associate, who was shot to death in South Los Angeles six days before. Sheriff's deputies alleged that they saw McDonald, who was at large Tuesday, prepare to shoot a suspected gang member in Compton on Oct.

With Marion "Suge" Knight's freedom and perhaps the fate of Death Row Records at stake, prosecutors pushed Thursday to revoke Knight's probation and send him to state prison for nine years because of an assault in a Las Vegas hotel. But the victim of the assault, a Lakewood man with reputed gang ties, said Thursday in court that Knight did not assault him but instead acted as a peacemaker in the Sept. 7 fight at the MGM Grand Hotel.

Seeking to further curb criminal activities, Compton has asked a judge to ban individuals identified as members of the Mob Piru street gang -- including rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight -- from congregating in a northeast neighborhood. Using a strategy employed by other crime-ridden communities, the court order would be the first gang injunction in a city with a long history of battling street gangs.

Music entrepreneur Marion "Suge" Knight and Death Row Records, which shaped the rise of gansta rap music, sought federal bankruptcy protection Tuesday as a shield against a legal judgment. The last-minute maneuver in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles allowed the music executive to fend off an order by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald M. Sohigian that would have forced the label into receivership.

Rap music mogul Marion "Suge" Knight failed to appear at a court-ordered debtor hearing Saturday, triggering legal actions which a judge had warned would place his Death Row Records in receivership. In addition, lawyers suing him plan to ask that he be held in contempt and jailed until he participates in the debtor hearing, which requires him to disclose all of his assets.

A judge said Thursday that Death Row Records would be placed in receivership unless label founder Marion "Suge" Knight appeared at a debtor hearing next month. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald M. Sohigian ruled in a lawsuit by an imprisoned drug dealer seeking half of a $107-million award to the inmate's ex-wife, who said that she helped start the rap record empire and that Knight owed her the money.

Miami Beach police detectives still have "no new leads and no new information" on the shooting of Marion "Suge" Knight, the rap mogul who suffered a leg injury in a hotel's crowded night club in the coastal city on Aug. 28, a police spokesman said this week. Knight was released from the hospital last week after undergoing surgery for the wound he suffered at a party for rapper Kanye West at the Shore Club Hotel.

Rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight, whose name is synonymous with the music genre's violent history, underwent surgery Sunday for a gunshot injury he suffered in a Miami Beach nightclub, police said. Knight, 40, who was expected to recover from the bullet wound in his upper leg, was being treated at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Police officers were posted outside his room, said Miami Beach police spokesman Bob- by Hernandez. Police said they had no suspects.

A woman who said she and Marion "Suge" Knight started Death Row Records nearly two decades ago has been awarded $107 million in damages, after four years of legal wrangling over profits she said the rap music mogul owes her. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald M. Sohigian earlier this month ordered Knight and his companies, Death Row Records and Tha Row Inc., to pay Lydia Harris $45 million in economic damages, $2 million in noneconomic damages and $60 million in punitive damages.

Rap producer Marion "Suge" Knight was arrested on suspicion of violating his parole after police stopped him for making an illegal turn Saturday night and discovered a small amount of marijuana in his pickup truck, authorities said. Police also booked an 18-year-old passenger, Alexis Wilkenson of Las Vegas, on suspicion of providing false information to an officer. She was later released, said police Sgt. Andy Espinoza.

Police are investigating allegations that rap producer Marion "Suge" Knight was involved in an assault on onetime partner Dr. Dre, law enforcement sources said Tuesday. Knight has denied any involvement in the incident in which a man struck Dre twice at the Vibe Awards show at Santa Monica airport, triggering a melee in which the attacker was stabbed and seriously injured. Dre, whose real name is Andre Young, met with officials late Monday at the Santa Monica police station.

A jury has ordered Death Row Records to pay $162,000 in damages to a Los Angeles man who had accused label owner Marion "Suge" Knight and his security team of attacking him at a local recording studio. Dwayne H. Baudy, who had surgery for a ruptured disc after the altercation and now walks with a cane, won the judgment in Los Angeles Superior Court. The jury did not find Knight personally liable.