Two lawyers who previously represented Suge Knight in his murder case have been arrested and hit with felony charges in connection with Knight’s hit-and-run incident that left one person dead.
According to the LA Times, in a detailed 22-page court filing, Los Angeles County prosecutors alleged that Matthew Fletcher, Thaddeus Culpepper, and Knight bribed and tampered with witnesses involved in his case.
Amid the investigation, investigators found phone calls from 2015 that showed evidence of bribing and witness tampering. According to the publication, prosecutors say, Knight, Fletcher, and others involved, discussed paying witnesses to say they saw other people at the scene of the crime with a gun, which would help Knight’s claim of self-defense. Although such conversations would normally be protected by attorney-client privilege, a judge allowed investigators to listen to the calls that Knight made to someone else, who then linked Fletcher in – which breaks the privilege, the publication reports.
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In addition to Fletcher’s tampering, prosecutors say Culpepper also agreed to pay an informant for “his sworn testimony that he was present at the time of the crime and [witnessed] evidence favorable to the defense.”
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As a result, Fletcher was arrested and held in lieu of $1-million bail, while Culpepper was arrested three hours later at his home and held on a $1-million bail, as well. Both face charges, accusing them of acting as “accessories after the fact,” officials say.
