Suge Knight Files for Bankruptcy

Marion "Suge" Knight filed for bankruptcy yesterday to avoid losing control of his Death Row Records in a $107 million civil-court judgment, his lawyers said.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ronald M. Sohigian on Thursday March 23, ordered Suge Knight to appear at a hearing on April 1 to discuss his assets or risk having the court take control of his Death Row Records.

Knight failed to make good on a March judgment to pay Lydia Harris, ex-wife of incarcerated drug dealer Michael Harris who says she helped him start the label and wants a 50 percent stake in it.

Attorneys for both Lydia and Michael Harris had asked the judge to place Death Row Records in receivership if Knight didn't appear at April's hearing.

By seeking bankruptcy protection, Knight forestalls the court order that would have handed control of the label to a receiver.

"He has no choice, the way these people have forced his hand," said Knight's new lawyer, Laurence Strick. Mr. Stick says he expects that Knight will get a fairer hearing in federal bankruptcy court than in state court.

After Knight failed to show up for the hearing on Saturday, lawyers for Harris and her ex-husband, Michael Harris, filed a petition seeking the receiver and asking that Knight be found in contempt of court. But judge Sohigian, declined to find Knight in contempt.

"I think the $107 million, plus interest, is going to get paid," said Michael Harris' attorney, Steven Goldberg. "It's not going to be easy, but we're going to get him."