Knight Charges Dismissed

A judge on Friday dismissed drug and battery charges filed against Marion “Suge” Knight, the hip-hop mogul accused of beating a woman in a parking lot in August.

Clark County Court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer says Justice of the Peace Abbi Silver dismissed the charges without prejudice in a morning hearing.

Knight’s attorney, David Chesnoff, said the prosecution had “discovery problems and witness problems.”

Prosecutor Susan Benedict did not immediately return a call for comment.

Knight was charged with two counts of felony drug possession and one count of misdemeanor battery. Police say he arrested in August after he was seen beating a woman while holding a knife in a parking lot near the Las Vegas Strip.

This may not be the end of the case.

Court records show the district attorney’s office filed a notice indicating it may try to revive the charges by seeking a grand jury indictment, Sommermeyer said.

A complaint filed by the district attorney’s office accuses Knight of striking a woman identified as Melissa Isaac. Authorities said the woman wasn’t stabbed, but was treated at a hospital for injuries. The complaint says Knight was carrying Ecstasy and hydrocodone when they arrested him.

Knight was later released after posting $19,000 bail.

He had faced mandatory probation and up to four years in a Nevada state prison on each of the drug charges. He could have been sentenced to up to six months in jail on the battery charge.

Knight’s Death Row Records was known for releasing seminal gangster rap albums by Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg. It sold tens of millions of albums in the heyday of early 1990s rap.

In 2006, a federal judge ordered a bankruptcy trustee takeover of Death Row Records, saying the label had undergone gross mismanagement. Knight’s decision to file for bankruptcy protection staved off a move by the court to appoint someone to take control of the record label and his assets.

The record company was auctioned in June for $24 million to New York-based Global Music Group Inc.