Former Death Row Records CEO Suge Knight may be serving a 28-year prison sentence for manslaughter, but apparently he still has to cough up millions of dollars to cover an old lawsuit.
According to NBC Los Angeles, a judge recently upheld a $107 million judgment against him that was originally awarded in 2005. Lydia Harris, a former Death Row employee and the person who filed the suit, objected to the ruling.
She ultimately agreed with Knight the suit should be voided, but Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Sotelo said he wouldn’t reconsider his December 2019 decision to reinstate the judgment — despite Harris’ objection.
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“This is a very old case with big names and big numbers,” Sotelo said.
Harris insisted she and her husband made investments in Death Row in 1989 as the label was getting off the ground and claimed to be the company’s first vice president. She sued after Knight allegedly pushed her out once the label began its ascent to success.
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Last September, Sotelo voided the judgment after Harris voiced her concerns about how her attorneys at Wasserman, Comden & Casselman won the case.
Harris’ current attorney, Dermot Givens, held a news conference with Harris last October and alleged the motion to void the judgment was needed because her “former attorneys, the bankruptcy trustee and others worked together to use her to wrongfully obtain the judgment.”
Givens also noted Harris hasn’t received a single dime since the ruling, even though the lawyers already collected part of the default judgment. But the firm of Wasserman, Comden & Casselman begged to differ and quickly filed court papers asking for the judgment to be reinstated, claiming Harris had received over $1 million.
In Sotelo’s December 2019 ruling, he said Wasserman, Comden & Casselman was entitled to 40 percent of the judgment under a retainer agreement. The judge explained the law firm sued Givens in September 2005, “alleging a conspiracy existed to deprive the firm of its share of the judgment through the brokering of a secret settlement between Harris and Knight.”
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A judgment was entered against Givens in 2008 and the law firm has a lien on the Harris judgment.
The case was back in court on Monday (March 2) where Harris pleaded with the judge to reconsider tossing out his December 2019 decision and upholding the September 2019 ruling. Evidently, things didn’t go her way.
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Knight was sentenced in October 2018 for running over and killing Terry Carter in 2015 on the set of Straight Outta Compton.
