Los Angeles’ NBC affiliate reports that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Sotelo has reaffirmed the 2005 $107 million judgement against Suge Knight that says the former rap impresario must pay to former employees of his Death Row Records label.
Suge was sentenced to 28 years in prison in October 2018 after pleading “no contest” to voluntary manslaughter after killing former rap music label owner Terry Carter in 2015 on the Straight Outta Compton set in a hit-and-run. Former Death Row vice president Lydia Harris, who invested in the company at the time of its launch with her husband, was the one who obtained the initial judgement. She sued in 2005 claiming that Knight pushed her out of the company when it started making money, but later agreed with Knight that the decision should be voided after winning.
Sotelo, however, disagreed. “This is a very old case with big names and big numbers,” the judge said, reaffirming his December decision to reinstate the order. This was after initially voiding the judgement at Harris’ request when Harris raised issues with how her lawyers won her case against Death Row. However, the law firm, Wasserman, Comden & Casselman, filed court papers asking for the judgment to be reinstated, claiming that Harris had already collected more than $1 million.
Harris’ current attorney, Dermot Givens, denied that Harris received any money and argued in an October press conference that the judgement needed to be voided because Wasserman, Comden & Casselman conspired with Knight’s bankruptcy trustee to wrongfully obtain the judgment. However, Sotelo noted that Wasserman, Comden & Casselman had sued Givens in 2005, accusing Givens of brokering a secret settlement between Knight and Harris that would have cut the law firm out of its 40% of the judgment.
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