‘Suge’ Knight Judge Puts Heat on Both Sides

With Marion “Suge” Knight watching silently in jail blues and handcuffs, a judge Monday issued a bench warrant for Knight’s attorney and strongly suggested that the state attorney general’s office take over the rap mogul’s case from the district attorney’s office.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John W. Ouderkirk issued the warrant for the arrest of attorney David Kenner after the lawyer did not appear Monday in court.

Ouderkirk also gave the district attorney’s office until Wednesday to decide whether to give up the case voluntarily in the wake of reports in The Times about a potential conflict of interest involving prosecutor Lawrence M. Longo--reports, the judge noted sharply, that he learned about not from the district attorney’s office but by reading the newspaper last Friday.

Longo’s daughter was signed to a Death Row Records deal while Longo was monitoring Knight’s probation from a 1992 assault case, and Knight lived this summer in a home leased from the Longo family in the exclusive Malibu Colony--and nobody from the district attorney’s office, Ouderkirk said, “brought any information to the attention of the court.”

Longo’s newly hired attorney, meanwhile, contended that the plea bargain that resolved the 1992 case was forced on the veteran prosecutor by higher-ups in the district attorney’s office.

A top aide to Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti did sign off on the deal, which led to five years probation and a suspended prison term, said a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office. But sources familiar with the plea negotiations said it was ultimately approved by all involved, including Longo.

Outside court, the Knight case blossomed into a campaign issue, with challenger John Lynch charging that Garcetti tried to keep the office’s investigation of Longo quiet until after the Nov. 5 election.

“The more I think about the Knight case, the madder I get,” Lynch said.

But Lynch’s campaign manager, Rick Taylor, confirmed Monday that Longo had contributed $90 on June 12 to the challenger’s campaign. The money was returned late last week, Taylor said Monday, adding: “We wanted to take away any perceived conflict of interest.”

Garcetti again declined to comment, referring calls to aides, who said he was not trying to hide anything. Campaign manager Matt Middlebrook said Garcetti “is taking this matter very seriously. He’s going to get to the bottom of it.”

Kenner said he was surprised at Monday’s developments. “I’ve never known a situation like this. . . . I have two co-counsels who were there. It’s not like he [Knight] was left unrepresented,” he said.

Kenner said he feared that if he had come to the hearing it would have fueled the furor precipitated by the relationship between him, Knight and prosecutor Longo.

“Believe me, I wanted to be there. I don’t walk away from a legal battle,” Kenner said.

Ouderkirk said that Kenner had no excuse for being absent. The judge said Kenner is “critical to the fair and orderly progress of the case.”

After issuing the warrant, he said he fully expected Kenner to appear Wednesday, adding that the warrant would be recalled if the lawyer appeared.

Knight, who was sent to jail last Tuesday for alleged probation violations, appeared Monday in court with his hands shackled in front of him, wearing blue jail garb and new white Nike basketball shoes. His attorneys protested that the handcuffs were unnecessary for the record executive, who they said had frequently shown respect for the court by appearing in suits and ties.

Ouderkirk said the sheriff’s deputies who provide courtroom security decided to keep Knight in handcuffs. Knight made no statements in court.

Longo, who was asked by his superiors to stay home Monday, declined to comment.

In an interview Sunday night, Westwood attorney Donald Wager, representing Longo, said the prosecutor “didn’t do anything unlawful or unethical.”

Wager added: “When the district attorney’s office administration took Mr. Longo off the case, they created a problem for themselves and for Mr. Longo that never needed to be created.”

Longo was taken off the case Sept. 17 after having handled it since 1992. Knight, 31, was charged in connection with an assault July 13, 1992, against Lynwood and George Stanley, two brothers and would-be rappers.

According to a search warrant affidavit filed in 1992, the brothers were attacked in a Hollywood recording studio after Knight told Lynwood Stanley not to use a company phone. Knight pulled a gun and ordered him to hang it up, saying, “I should kill you, Blood.”

Knight ordered both brothers to their knees and fired one shot near them. Knight then beat Lynwood Stanley with the gun, then ordered both brothers to take off their pants.

Knight then took Lynwood Stanley’s wallet from his pants pocket and said, according to the affidavit: “I don’t know if I should let you go or kill you. I don’t want you to go to the police so I’m going to take your wallet. That way I will know where you live. If you talk, I’ll have my people kill you and your family.”

On April 8, 1994, the brothers signed a $1-million recording contract with Death Row--part of the settlement of a civil suit the brothers had brought after the 1992 attack. The settlement also required the brothers to provide testimonials in the criminal case confirming that they had resolved their differences with Knight.

In June 1994, Knight’s attorneys filed a thick report prepared by a criminologist detailing his contributions to the African American community since his arrest.

After a series of meetings attended by Kenner, other defense attorneys and prosecutors, including Deputy Dist. Atty. Frank Sundstedt, a plea bargain was struck.

On Feb. 9, 1995, Knight pleaded no contest to two counts of assault. Ouderkirk imposed a nine-year suspended sentence and five years of probation. Among the terms of probation were that Knight undergo regular drug tests and report any foreign travel to the Probation Department.

It remains unclear who proposed the deal. Wager, Longo’s attorney, contended that the plea was pushed on Longo by top aides to Garcetti. Wager said Longo was “ready to take Mr. Knight to trial, convict him and have him sentenced to prison.”

Within the district attorney’s office, the deal was approved by Sundstedt, the No. 3 ranking official.

Sundstedt said late Monday that the contention that the deal was forced on Longo “is absolutely untrue and laughable.” Another source familiar with the plea bargain negotiations said no one opposed the deal once the particulars were hammered out.

“To my knowledge, there is no reason to think that any supervisor in the D.A.’s office objected to it. In fact, all the evidence indicated just the contrary. Longo did not object to it, to my knowledge. The judge did not object to it. The defendant certainly did not object to it. His counsel did not object to it.”

Ordinarily, plea bargains are approved by senior prosecutors but at a management level one or two below Sundstedt.

Sundstedt handled the Knight case because it “did involve a prominent individual” and because Bill Hodgman--who oversees all cases downtown, who reports directly to Sundstedt and who otherwise would have signed off on the deal--was assigned to the O.J. Simpson murder case, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.

Garcetti was not involved in the negotiations, Gibbons said.

After the plea bargain, a probation officer was assigned to supervise Knight and Longo remained as the prosecutor monitoring the case. Longo appeared in connection with the case as recently as Sept. 16 when he asked in federal court for the results of drug tests conducted by federal probation authorities. Knight is on three years probation in a separate federal weapons case, and state authorities had been relying on the federal drug tests.

On Sept. 17, after the district attorney’s office received a tip about Knight living in the Malibu home, Longo was removed from the state case.

The record deal with Gina Longo was signed Jan. 2, 1996, several months after she turned 18. Her work has never been put out on a record and she is believed to be the only white singer on Death Row’s artist roster.

Longo said last week that his son, Frank, also an attorney, negotiated and signed the record deal and the deal for the house. Longo also said that the house was rented to Kenner, who let Knight live there.

Wager, Longo’s attorney, said that both the record contract and the lease agreement were signed after the plea agreement was “etched in stone.” Wager noted that under the plea agreement, a violation would send Knight to prison for nine years--regardless of business dealings between Knight and Longo’s family.

Last week, Ouderkirk sent Knight to jail pending a hearing Nov. 15 to decide whether Knight should remain on probation or be sent to state prison.

In court Monday, however, Ouderkirk said there are “obvious issues relating to the possible recusal of the district attorney’s office” from that Nov. 15 hearing and anything else that may happen in the case.

The judge added: “The district attorney and the attorney general may agree that the district attorney should not proceed as counsel for the people.”

Carol Pollack, who heads the attorney general’s criminal division in Los Angeles, declined to comment Monday after the hearing.

The judge also told Knight on Monday in court that he should consider consulting with another lawyer--to see if he wanted to keep Kenner as his lead defense attorney. He set another hearing for Wednesday.