July 23, 2003
Marion "Suge" Knight has yet another witness who says the hip-hop record
producer did not punch a parking lot attendant. This time it's the actual
parking valet who was assaulted who has come forward to defend Knight.
In late June, Knight, a part-time Las Vegas resident, was arrested and accused
of violating his parole by hitting a parking attendant outside the White Lotus
nightclub in Los Angeles. Rose Kogeman, one of his attorneys, rounded up eight
witnesses who say it was another patron -- not Knight -- who sucker-punched the
valet.
The valet has come forward to reportedly make a statement to the Parole and
Community Services Division in defense of Knight.
"He told them that there was no way that Mr. Knight could have hit him," Kogeman
told MTV News, "since he was hit from behind and he could see Mr. Knight in
front of him."
Kogeman told MTV News that she is trying to convince the Board of Prison Terms
to release Knight until the hearing, which is usually scheduled within 45 days
of an arrest.
The rap mogul, who co-founded Death Row Records (now Tha Row), received
probation in 1992 for weapons and assault charges. He was found guilty of
breaking that probation in September 1996, after security cameras at the MGM
Grand hotel-casino showed him committing an assault. He served five years in
prison.
After the assault that September night, rap star Tupac Shakur was mortally
wounded in a drive-by shooting. When shot, Shakur was sitting in Knight's car.
Earlier this year, Knight was jailed for 62 days for violating his parole. Four
charges were dismissed, one was upheld, and Knight was ordered to complete 200
hours of anti-gang community service.
Knight is currently being held in Los Angeles County Jail. He faces up to a year
in prison if his parole is revoked.
Nuke waste route
An editorial in the Inland Valley [Calif.] Daily Bulletin claims
the odds say it's safer to transport nuclear waste to a disposal facility in New
Mexico on a more circuitous California desert route in San Bernardino County
than on a more direct path through the crowded Las Vegas area.
"But safe transport of the nuclear wastes through the less populated areas," the
editorial states, "still was far from a sure thing -- and that's why it makes
sense that the U.S. Department of Energy has indefinitely abandoned the
alternative route from Nevada through some 300 miles of California desert to New
Mexico."
Part of the roundabout route, from Nevada through California and Arizona to the
disposal facility, was to travel along Highway 127, a former wagon road that
California authorities say was not designed for heavy trucks and is poorly
maintained in places. It's also popular with tourists heading to Death Valley.
During the Yucca Mountain hearings, Mayor Oscar Goodman vowed to personally
arrest any trucker attempting to transport nuclear waste along the streets of
Las Vegas.
Strip club probe
A highly placed insider recently told KGTV-10 News in San Diego that the federal
G-Sting investigation is the result of certain individuals in the strip club
industry attempting to corrupt San Diego City Council members.
"Some bit, some didn't ... [Ralph] Inzunza bit," the source told 10 News.
The goal of the corruption, the source reportedly said, was to have San Diego's
"no-touch" strip club ordinance overturned. The ordinance forbids touching
between strip club dancers and customers.
A source, 10 News reported, has confirmed that San Diego City Councilman Ralph
Inzunza is the key figure in the federal investigation of City Hall in San
Diego.
A parallel investigation in Las Vegas has many of the same elements, including
topless club personnel being suspected of trying to influence political figures.
In both cases, federal grand juries have been impaneled to find out what took
place.
On July 18, a number of witnesses from Las Vegas were scheduled to travel to San
Diego to testify. But the witnesses' testimony has been delayed, 10 News
reports.
One woman did appear before the grand jury that day, but would not give
reporters her name or where she worked.
Another source told 10 News that the grand jury is most interested in Inzunza,
who -- according to a search warrant -- received the most money from strip
clubs. Inzunza reportedly received $8,000 in contributions from strip club
owners, their employees and associates. He has said he has done nothing wrong.
But at least one witness told the grand jury that John D'Intino, a day manager
at Cheetah's in San Diego, recruited strip club employees to write checks for
$250 to certain City Council campaigns. D'Intino would then reimburse the
employee with $250 in cash.
Meanwhile, the grand juries in Las Vegas and San Diego remain convened. No
indictments have been handed down.
The juries are following up on a two-year FBI probe into possible political
corruption tied to the owners of Las Vegas' Jaguars and Cheetahs strip clubs in
Las Vegas and San Diego. One of the Vegas search warrants noted that agents were
looking for, among other things, documentation of payments or gifts to Clark
County Commission Chairwoman Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, former County Commissioners
Dario Herrera and Erin Kenny, and then-City Councilman Michael McDonald.
Cathy Scott is a Las Vegas-based freelance journalist and author of such
titles as Murder of a Mafia Daughter, The Killing of Tupac Shakur
and Death in the Desert.