D.A. Can Keep Record Executive’s Case

Declaring, “The stink is already out there,” a judge ruled Friday that the district attorney’s office can stay on Marion “Suge” Knight’s probation case--for now, at least.

“Pressure’s on,” Los Angeles Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Czuleger said in court to Deputy Dist. Atty. Bill Hodgman, who had assured him that the entire 1,000-lawyer office was not tainted despite allegations of a possible conflict of interest involving Deputy Dist. Atty. Lawrence M. Longo.

The judge had called the hearing to explore whether the state attorney general’s office should take over the case.

Longo, a prosecutor for 26 years, is under investigation by the district attorney’s office because of financial ties that developed while he monitored Knight’s probation.

Longo’s daughter was signed in January to a deal with Knight’s Death Row Records. In addition, the music executive, who built Death Row into the nation’s top rap label, lived this summer in the Longo family home in the exclusive Malibu Colony.

Knight, 31, was placed on five years’ probation Feb. 9, 1995, after pleading no contest to two counts of assault in connection with a 1992 attack on two would-be rappers in a recording studio.

Knight has been in jail since Oct. 22 pending a Nov. 15 hearing on possible probation violations. Proof of those allegations--including the charge he tested positive for marijuana--could send him to state prison for nine years.

With the record executive listening silently Friday in court, Hodgman said prosecutors have learned of a possible new violation. He said they do not relate to Longo.

Longo had prosecuted Knight since 1992. But when the district attorney’s office learned Sept. 17 that Knight was living in the Malibu home, Longo was removed from the case and an investigation was launched.

Longo has said that the home was leased to Knight’s chief defense lawyer, David Kenner, who put Knight in it. Longo and Kenner had recommended the 1995 plea bargain that put Knight on probation.

Hodgman took over for Longo last month. Czuleger took over Wednesday for Judge John Ouderkirk, who stepped down after defense attorneys suggested that he may be called as a witness in the Nov. 15 probation hearing.

The entire swirl, Czuleger said, “just has a scent about it.” He asked Hodgman for his “gut” feeling: Should the district attorney’s office stay on the case?

Hodgman said that the investigation of Longo is a personnel matter, not a criminal probe, and should be wrapped up next week. He emphasized that the investigation had turned up “no reason whatsoever” to disqualify the district attorney’s office.

Czuleger posed the same question to Carol Pollack, who heads the state attorney general’s criminal division in Los Angeles.

“All you have . . . is the mere appearance of conflict,” she replied. If Czuleger was to take the district attorney’s office off the case, it would be “not just unwarranted but an abuse” of his authority, she said.

Hodgman added: “To quote former [UCLA basketball] coach John Wooden, ‘The softest pillow is a clear conscience.’ I will fairly, evenhandedly and vigorously prosecute this case.”

At that, Czuleger made his ruling. But he said that if other allegations of impropriety surface, he won’t hesitate to revisit the issue.