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Suge Knight loses yet another lawyer

By | Published on Monday 26 March 2018

Suge Knight

I know America has an awful lot of lawyers, but it does sometimes feel like all of them will – at some point in their career – work for one time hip hop mogul Suge Knight. His murder trial was postponed again on Friday when yet another lawyer bailed on the case.

And, I mean, who wouldn’t want to work for Knight? Especially after he declared last week, during a short ramble about jail conditions and his current legal representation: “Nobody in the world would use these attorneys for a jaywalking ticket!”

Knight is facing murder charges in relation to the death in 2015 of a man called Terry Carter, following an incident that occurred near the set of the NWA biopic ‘Straight Outta Compton’, which was then in production.

On Friday his fifteenth defence lawyer requested to be excused from the case citing a conflict of interest. Dominique Banos says she believes she is a target in the witness-tampering investigation that has already resulted in charges being filed against two other lawyers who have worked for Knight. Although she denied any wrongdoing, Banos said that she felt this meant she could no longer work on Knight’s defence.

Judge Ronald S Coen agreed to allow Banos to stand down and appointed a public defender to take over the case, which Knight accepted on an interim basis, while pledging to hire a new private legal rep. He then complained about a protective order that limits his access to people outside the prison where he is currently incarcerated, adding that that meant the only place he could sound out potential new attorneys was in the jailhouse visiting area.

The latest change in legal representation will again delay the murder trial. Coen said a new schedule will now be set at a court hearing on 23 Apr.

Carter’s widow criticised the latest delay in the case, telling the New York Daily News: “I’m so angry, I don’t know what to do. It’s totally ridiculous. I’ll be glad when this whole thing is over. We deserve the right to move on with our lives. Each time we have to come to court, it’s something new. It’s very difficult”.



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