Marion "Suge" Knight and comedian Katt Williams should stand trial on charges they robbed a celebrity photographer of her camera last year, a judge ruled today.
Los Angeles Superior Court Ronald Coen said there was enough evidence to support the robbery charges and a separate charge of felony criminal threats filed against Knight over comments he made to the photographer before she was attacked in Beverly Hills in September 2014.
Attorneys for Williams and Knight said their clients were trying to prevent the photographer from shooting images of Knight's young son.
Knight's lawyer Thomas Mesereau denied his client was actively involved in taking the camera, saying the photographer's testimony and surveillance footage supported his contention that the Death Row Records co-founder never touched the photographer or took her camera.
He said Knight was upset because Leslie Redden and another photographer were shooting images of son just says after Knight was wounded in a nightclub shooting.
"The only evidence that exists is he didn't want his son photographed," Mesereau said. "Any father would have acted as he did."
Williams' attorney, Shawn Holley, acknowledged the comedian briefly took the camera after it was taken by an unidentified woman in Knight and Williams' entourage.
Holley said Williams took the camera only to erase any images of Knight's son, who was with his father while they were visiting a Beverly Hills studio on Sept.
Knight and Williams have pleaded not guilty and are due to be re-arraigned in the case on October 27.
Redden, a celebrity photographer who goes by the name KAT, testified she suffered a concussion and injuries to her hands and wrist in the Sept. 5, 2014 attack. A confrontation with Knight in which he calls her a "bitch" and tells someone to get her camera was recorded on a video recorder she wore around her neck.
Redden said she never recovered her professional camera, which was taken by a woman who attacked her and Williams. Knight is also seen on the video approaching Redden before she takes off running. "I just remember looking at his eyes and realizing it was getting very dangerous," Redden testified today.
