Rap's Suge Knight Jailed on Parole Violation
REUTERS — BY REUTERS
Posted to rec.music.hip-hop on (publication date not stated in the post)
Rap's Suge Knight Jailed on Parole Violation By REUTERS
Filed at 6:59 p.m. ET
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rap mogul Suge Knight, founder of Death Row Records, will spend the next month or more in a Los Angeles jail for allegedly violating his parole by spending time with gang members, said officials on Tuesday.
Knight, 37, was arrested Monday afternoon by parole agents from the California Department of Corrections, said Fernando Rios, deputy regional administrator of the state parole board.
Knight, who had been convicted of assault for a 1996 fight in a casino, allegedly violated his parole by failing to inform officials that he had moved to the affluent beach community of Malibu and by hiring drivers and bodyguards who had not been vetted by state authorities, said Rios.
The burly, bearded Knight was also allegedly photographed with gang members on two occasions even though terms of his parole require him to stay away from anyone associated with a gang, Rios said.
``He is authorized to have security personnel around him because he is a celebrity,'' Rios said. ``We had to know who they were to make sure they weren't gang members. He has always had a very large number of people around him and sometimes those people are wanted for (crimes) or have gang associations.''
Knight's attorney David Chesnoff said Knight may not be able to avoid associating with ``people they don't approve of.''
``That might be hard to avoid in the hip-hop industry,'' he said.
``Since he has been out they haven't given him the room to breathe, that he needs to be a success,'' Chesnoff told Reuters. ``He is being treated worse than average guy and worse than most celebrities.''
In 1992, Knight was convicted of assault and weapons violations, but sentenced to probation.
In 1996, he was arrested for violating his probation in connection with a fight in a Las Vegas casino that preceded the shooting death of rap legend Tupac Shakur. Those violations resulted in a five-year prison sentence that ended last year.
The rap mogul was held without bail, and likely will remain in jail until a parole violation hearing in 30 to 45 days, Rios said.
If a parole commissioner determines that Knight violated parole, he could go back to prison for up to a year, Rios said. Knight also is on parole on a federal weapons charge, he said.