Katt Williams has said that his arrest alongside Suge Knight in 2014 wasn’t what it initially appeared to be in the press.
The firebrand comedian sat down with ex-Geto Boys rapper Willie D for his podcast on Tuesday (January 9), and revealed that the reason why he and the ex-Death Row CEO got in the face of a female photographer: to protect a child.
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“I’ll tell you the story, and then, you tell me if that changes how you frame this,” he said, when confronted about the incident. “So, we have a meeting with a hologram company which is going to into a licensing deal on some holograms. This is in Beverly Hills.”
He continued: “So now, there’s Rodeo [Drive]. And behind that, there’s an alleyway where you park your vehicles. Suge has brought his son with him, who is 5 years old at the time. And before we go into this meeting, Suge’s son runs behind the dumpster and urinates.”
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At that point, he said, a woman came out and began filming the child.
Check out the interview below. The snippet about the incident with Suge Knight starts at the 24:50 mark.
Williams doesn’t go into detail about what happened after the woman with the camera began filming the child, saying only that she allegedly thought the child in question belonged to Williams, not Knight.
Back in 2014, the Los Angeles County District Attorney slapped robbery charges on both Knight and Williams for stealing Leslie Redden’s camera.
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A press release stated that “the two men are suspected of stealing the camera of an independent photographer on Sept. 5 outside a studio in Beverly Hills.”
Redden was described in contemporary press reports as a “paparazzi photographer.”
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As a result of the arrest, Williams faced seven years in custody while Knight faced 30 to life in state prison. Bail was set at $75,000 for Williams and $1 million for Knight. Knight’s $1 million bail and possible prison time were likely due to a prior conviction.
Redden also sued Knight and Williams shortly after their arrest, claiming that she received a concussion from “an associate” of the pair’s, who ripped the camera away from her.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Redden claimed that Knight began to “angrily advance” on her, then dispatched a female associate to assault her. What’s more, Redden claimed that another female associate — believed to be Williams’ girlfriend at the time — held her down so she couldn’t get away from the assault.
As a result, Redden allegedly suffered severe injuries, including a concussion and a fractured finger.
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Williams eventually pleaded no contest to stealing the camera in 2017, and was sentenced to three years probation, per the Associated Press. He was also required to take anger management classes.
