Judge Orders Bodyguard of Snoop Doggy Dogg Jailed

A judge ordered a bodyguard for rap artist Snoop Doggy Dogg jailed in lieu of $150,000 bail in a stalking case Tuesday after hearing answering machine tapes of the defendant talking to a woman he had been ordered to avoid.

McKinley Malik Lee, 27, pleaded no contest in January to a felony charge that he stalked the 25-year-old San Fernando Valley woman for the purpose of harassing her. He had been scheduled to receive a 16-month suspended sentence and probation.

Instead, in a surprise development, Judge Sandy Kriegler ordered Lee taken into custody.

Lee met the woman last year, during his murder trial in downtown Los Angeles with Death Row Records rap artist Snoop Doggy Dogg, whose given name is Calvin Broadus. Lee admitted that he shot a 20-year-old reputed gang member, but claimed he fired in self-defense. He and Broadus were acquitted.

Lee apparently dated the woman for several months but was arrested Dec. 24 when he showed up at her home uninvited after she had tried to end the relationship.

He agreed to a plea bargain Jan. 15 and was released immediately from jail. Among the terms of his release were that he have no contact with the woman who filed the charge against him.

“Just stay away. Just stay away. You understand the order not to have contact? Do you understand?” Municipal Judge Jessica Perrin Silvers asked.

“Oh, fully,” Lee responded, according to a transcript.

Yet on the tape, Lee can be heard offering to buy the woman a townhouse, telling her he loves her, complaining that he “carried the heat” in the murder case, and talking about the business and legal problems plaguing the record label, declaring at one point, “Death Row never stops. It goes on through all this s---.”

Kriegler said he found the stalking plea “quite odd,” indicating he probably would have rejected it, as is his prerogative, and sent the case back to Municipal Court for a preliminary hearing.

Defense attorney Mark Kamerman questioned whether all the calls on the tape were placed by his client.

He added that Lee, most concerned with winning release from jail, had entered the stalking plea against his lawyers’ advice.

The case returns to court March 11.