By Cathy Scott

Jailhouse rap

Las Vegas attorney David Chesnoff spent the holidays trying to get his client, hip-hop mogul Suge "Marion" Knight, out of jail. Knight, a sometime-Las Vegas resident who owns a $1.6 million house on the southeast side of the valley across the street from his longtime pal Mike Tyson, is being held at the Los Angeles County Jail. Knight was arrested Dec. 23 by parole agents from the California Department of Corrections for "consorting" with gang members.

Chesnoff (a former law partner of Mayor Oscar Goodman) says there's a parole hold on Knight and he can't be bailed out. "In this case, there's no such thing as a bond," he says. His client, founder of infamous Death Row Records (now known as Tha Row), could languish in jail 30 to 45 days until his hearing, which has not yet been set, Chesnoff says.

"But it's not like he's not used to getting the short end of the stick," he adds.

Still, Chesnoff says, there "may be some preliminary things I can do to get him out. We're working on it."

Knight was convicted of assault for a 1996 scuffle, later deemed a parole violation, at the MGM Grand hours before rap legend Tupac Shakur was gunned down. The infraction resulted in a nine-year prison sentence, of which Knight served five before being released in 2001. His latest arrest was for allegedly violating his parole by hiring drivers and bodyguards not approved by state authorities and by not informing officials that he moved from Beverly Hills to the tony Malibu beach community.

If a parole commissioner agrees that Knight was in violation, he could go back to prison. Chesnoff says law enforcement expectations of Knight are unrealistic.

"They're not alleging any new criminal conduct," he says. "They're just talking about alleged associations. I can't see how anyone in the hip-hop business could not wind up at some point being with people law enforcement wouldn't like. He needs to be able to work in his industry."