Suge Knight's family can't pay him any more prison visits, judge rules

Jailed rap mogul Suge Knight has been stripped of family visitation and phone calls in a surprise move his fiancée called "unfair" Wednesday.

 

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge halted Knight's access to his parents, children and spiritual advisers in a decision handed down Friday under seal.

The change was requested by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department as Knight remains locked up on charges he ran over two men with his truck — killing one of them — outside a burger restaurant in Compton in January 2015.

Knight, 50, has pleaded not guilty in the case and claims he was the victim of an armed ambush.

"It's absolutely not fair," his fiancée Toi-Lin Kelly told the Daily News. "His rights were taken away with no explanation."

She said the couple's 6-year-old son was allowed to visit Knight in jail shortly before Thanksgiving but now must stay away.

 

"Suge was so prevalent in life. He used to take him to school and play with him before studio time. Now it's nothing. They can't even have a phone call," she said.

Kelly has been barred from visiting Knight due to an earlier protective order but successfully pushed for his access to their son and spiritual advisors last year, she said.

The judge's order on Friday was "deflating," she said.

"If they want to say he's a threat to witnesses, then just listen to his phone calls and monitor them. You can't take away his rights on the premise that he might intimidate someone," she said.

Kelly said Knight already had few privileges behind bars.

"When he has yard time, he's not allowed the ability to really exercise. He's restricted to a cage outdoors, like a dog in a kennel," she said.

Knight's lawyer Thaddeus Culpepper vowed to fight the new restrictions.

"Careful attention must be paid when constitutional rights are restricted under seal," Culpepper told The News.

"This order significantly debilitates Mr. Knight's ability to access counsel of his choice and to assist his attorneys in the development of a defense," he said.

The judge's order came a week after Knight parted ways with Thomas Mesereau, the lawyer who got Michael Jackson acquitted in his 2005 child molestation case.

It was the latest in a series of defense team shakeups for the former head of Death Row Records.

Knight has burned through four lead lawyers in the last year, including his former Death Row Records attorney David Kenner.

Sheriff's officials had no comment on the change in Knight's jail status.

He's being held in lieu of $10 million bail and also is charged with robbing a press photographer of her camera in 2014.

Comedian Micah "Katt" Williams is his co-defendant in the felony robbery case.

Sheriff's officials first sought to restrict Knight's visitation and phone privileges in early 2015. A different judge approved the original protective order back then, but Knight slowly regained access to certain relatives and others approved by the court.

Under the new order, Knight loses all mail, phone and visitation privileges from everyone except his attorneys, the Associated Press first reported.