LEGAL FILE

Petitioning the Judge: Rap group N.W.A. has asked an Alabama judge to reconsider his $16-million judgment against the group in a paternity lawsuit brought by a woman who claimed she had a daughter after being raped by N.W.A. member Lorenzo (M.C. Ren) Patterson following a 1989 concert in Birmingham. No criminal charges were filed in the case, but the woman, then 16, sued Patterson, fellow rappers Eric Wright, Antoine Carraby and Andre Young, and four businesses associated with Wright. Lawyers settled the case for $350,000 last August, but N.W.A. members gave sworn statements saying they never approved the settlement. When the group didn’t pay, the judge ordered the rappers and businesses to pay $2 million each, for a total of $16 million.