Why DA’s ‘Suge’ Knight deal wasn’t rich-guy treatment

By Jeff German

Thursday, Feb. 26, 2009 | 2 a.m.

There’s a reason hip-hop mogul Marion “Suge” Knight keeps David Chesnoff, Richard Schonfeld and other well-paid criminal lawyers nearby.

The Death Row Records co-founder is one of those guys who can’t seem to stay out of trouble with the law. He has a lengthy criminal rap sheet that includes a history of assault, parole violations and carrying concealed weapons.

Chesnoff and Schonfeld bailed Knight out of his latest trouble in Las Vegas. They negotiated a deal with the district attorney’s office that allowed Knight to plead guilty to a misdemeanor domestic battery charge and avoid going to trial on felony charges stemming from an Aug. 27 altercation with his girlfriend. The punishment: 48 hours of community service, a small fine and mandatory domestic violence counseling.

Given his violent past, escaping three felony charges stemming from an act of violence seemed quite a feat for Knight, especially if you consider that two Metro officers said they were just 10 feet away watching his attack on girlfriend Melissa Isaac. They said they arrested Knight after they saw him brandishing a knife and punching Isaac.

When Knight was booked into the Clark County Detention Center, corrections officers found a tablet of the illegal drug Ecstasy and two prescription pain pills in his pockets. He contended he had a prescription for the pain pills. The Ecstasy, he said, was Isaac’s.

But prosecutors got little cooperation from Isaac, their chief witness.

They decided to plea bargain.

Even one of the district attorney’s harshest critics said he couldn’t argue with the result.

“I don’t think this is a case where a rich guy got a better deal,” Clark County Public Defender Phil Kohn said. “These things just happen in domestic battery cases. Witnesses change their minds and their stories, making it very difficult to prosecute.”

After the arrest, police needed weeks to find Isaac. Prosecutors had her ready to testify in December, but Chesnoff and Schonfeld found a flaw in their case. They persuaded a justice of the peace to toss out the charges after prosecutors acknowledged they didn’t know which corrections officer had found the drugs on Knight.

Chesnoff and Schonfeld, after all, had a right to cross-examine the officer.

Prosecutors later found the corrections officer and filed a new complaint in January, retaining the two drug charges, and changing a simple misdemeanor battery charge to misdemeanor domestic battery, which carries enhanced punishments. They also added a felony coercion charge, alleging Knight tried to stop Isaac from contacting authorities after the attack.

But then authorities lost contact with Isaac — and lost prosecutors’ confidence that they would be able to get her back to court. Without Isaac to refute Knight’s testimony, prosecutors said they would have had trouble persuading a jury to convict Knight. Hence the deal.

Still, District Attorney David Roger got a domestic violence conviction against Knight without the victim’s cooperation.

Maria Outcalt, a spokeswoman for Safe Nest, a domestic violence shelter, doesn’t object to the outcome because she knows Knight will face stiffer penalties, including jail time, if he is again convicted of battering a woman.

The plea bargain resulted in “an acknowledgment that there was a victim here, and it’s holding Knight accountable,” she said.