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COURT WRESTS CONTROL OF DEATH ROW: Judge authorizes takeover of Suge Knight’s troubled label.
*Although the glory days of Death Row records have been long gone, the final nail in the coffin occurred in a courtroom on Friday when a federal judge authorized a bankruptcy trustee to take over ownership.
The one-time home to multi-platinum artists Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre and Tupac Shakur had become a ship without a captain, according to U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Ellen Carroll, who stated “it seems apparent there is no one at the helm.”
Knight, 41, told a court in May that he only had $11 to his name (along with about $28,000 in material possessions). He also testified that the last time he checked the label’s financial records was at least 10 years ago.
Knight’s lawyer Daniel McCarthy argued Friday that his client was still “at the helm” of Death Row, which has since been renamed Tha Row, and had been working on securing distribution deals for the label’s catalog.
"Please give him some time to do that," McCarthy asked the judge.
Knight was a no show in court Friday--a fact his creditors' attorneys emphasized as proof of his absence “at the helm.”
Knight also skipped a meeting with his creditors earlier in the week after injuring himself in a motorcycle accident last Sunday. Knight was "under doctor's orders not to even go out," his lawyer said. Another scheduled meeting with the creditors was missed after Suge said he had experienced a death in his family.
Meanwhile, trustee owners of Death Row may take whatever assets are left and convert them into cash to pay off the creditors.
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