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Indicted attorney dismissed from Suge Knight’s murder case
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An attorney who was indicted on witness-tampering charges was dismissed Monday from the murder case of rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight.
Knight previously gave up his right to having a lawyer without potential conflicts of interest so he could keep Thaddeus Culpepper on his defense team.
That decision came last month when Culpepper was under investigation but had not yet been indicted.
Los Angeles County Judge Ronald S. Coen overrode Knight’s decision and removed Culpepper.
Knight, 52, the co-founder of Death Row Records, has pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder after he ran over two men outside a Compton burger stand in January 2015.
The move could mean more delays in a trial tentatively set to start April 9.
Culpepper and another former Knight attorney, Matthew Fletcher, were both indicted a week ago on charges of conspiring to influence potential witnesses in Knight’s murder case. Both have denied any wrongdoing.
The indictment accused Culpepper of arranging with a potential witness, who turned out to be a confidential informant, to provide false testimony at trial — saying he saw weapons at the crime scene. That could bolster defense claims that Knight acted in self-defense.
Culpepper said he committed no crimes and was doing his job as Knight’s defense attorney and looks forward to exonerating himself.
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The Montclair Film Festival has named Beth de Araújo its 2026 Breakthrough Director, honoring the filmmaker on Sunday, October 18 at The Bellevue Theatre following a screening of her new film, Josephine.
In presenting the award, the festival praised de Araújo’s “compassionate and deeply felt exploration of trauma, humanity, and the responsibilities that bind us to one another” — the qualities that have marked her rise as one of the most closely watched American directors of her generation.
De Araújo first drew major attention as the writer and director of Soft & Quiet, her blistering debut feature, which premiered at SXSW and earned her a place on year-end lists and awards ballots for breakthrough filmmaking. Josephine is her second feature, and the Montclair honor — part of the festival’s annual Honors program, which this year also salutes Ava DuVernay and Tony Gilroy — confirms her standing as a director whose work travels.
The 14th Montclair Film Festival runs October 16–25 in Montclair, New Jersey.
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