Judge Drops Charges Against ’Suge’ Knight

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

Justice of the Peace Abbi Silver dismissed the charges without prejudice, said Clark County Court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer.

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

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

Knight had been charged with two counts of felony drug possession and one count of misdemeanor battery in the beating of a woman in August. Police said they had seen him striking Melissa Isaac while holding a knife in a parking lot near the Las Vegas Strip.

Authorities said Isaac wasn’t stabbed but was treated at a hospital for injuries.

A complaint filed by the district attorney’s office also said the founder of Death Row Records was carrying the drugs Ecstasy and hydrocodone when he was arrested.

Death Row Records released seminal gangster rap albums by Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, selling tens of millions of albums in the early 1990s.

In 2006, a federal judge ordered a bankruptcy trustee takeover of Death Row Records, saying the label had been grossly mismanaged. The record company was auctioned for $24 million in June to New York-based Global Music Group Inc.