Crooks X Karmaloop Party in Las Vegas

Crooks & Castles teamed up with Karmaloop to throw the wildest party we've ever seen in the Hugh Hefner suite at the Palms. The Belvedere was flowing, but no matter how sloppy you got, what you saw at this party you'll never forget...

O.J. Simpson, Dogged By Past, Heads To Trial

LAS VEGAS (AP) ― Once upon a time O.J. Simpson was a national sports hero, showered with adulation and endorsement contracts. He was the "Juice" -- a Hall of Fame football star, actor, TV commentator and pitchman with a beautiful wife, two children and a Rolls Royce.

But the stabbing death of his ex-wife more than 14 years ago makes those early days seem like a fairy tale for Simpson. It was a life before allegations of murder, robbery and kidnapping, before the world he knew ended and a new, darker one began.

The next chapter unfolds Monday in a Las Vegas courtroom, where Simpson and co-defendant Clarence "C.J." Stewart go on trial on armed robbery and kidnapping charges. A conviction could send them to prison for life.

Simpson, 61, is accused of leading an odd collection of characters, including three convicted criminals, to a casino hotel room, where they were charged with holding two sports collectibles dealers at gunpoint and taking memorabilia that Simpson maintains belonged to him.

Simpson, who lives in Miami, has said he was trying to retrieve personal belongings and family heirlooms, that he didn't ask anyone to bring guns and that he didn't know anyone in the room was armed.

But four of the five men who accompanied him have pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Simpson.

One, Michael McClinton, testified that Simpson asked him to bring guns and told him to look "menacing" during the confrontation with sports memorabilia dealers Bruce Fromong and Alfred Beardsley.

Hanging over the trial, scheduled to last five weeks, will be the shadow of the 1994 slaying of Simpson's ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, who was found slashed to death along with her friend, Ronald Goldman.

As a stunned nation looked on, Simpson led a slow-speed chase in a white Ford Bronco and was charged with the killings. A year later, after a televised trial watched by millions, he was acquitted. A civil jury later held him liable for the killings, but he hasn't paid the $33.5 million in damages, insisting he did not commit the slayings.

And then Simpson retreated to Florida seemingly intent on living the life of a retiree, playing golf every day and looking after his children.

But things have not been idyllic for Simpson.

He was tried in a road rage case and acquitted. Family disputes went public.

This latest episode ironically resulted from a clash between past and present -- Simpson's obsession with keeping control of memorabilia from his glory days.

One of the men expected to testify against him, Thomas Riccio, a convicted felon and a memorabilia dealer who arranged the meeting, said Simpson's motive was clear when he went to the hotel room at the Palace Station casino a year ago and demanded the return of items he said belonged to him.

"O.J. wanted to be able to pass these things down to his kids," said Riccio, who wasn't charged in this case.

The memorabilia dealer, who has known Simpson for many years and got a book published as a result of the Las Vegas case, acknowledged letting Simpson into the hotel room with a key. He also had a tape recorder running inside the room and later sold an audio tape of the events to a gossip Web site. The audio tape will be key evidence against Simpson, along with the testimony of the four former co-defendants, Riccio, Beardsley and Fromong.

Prosecutors say Beardsley and Fromong were lured to the room and held against their will at gunpoint. Defense lawyer Yale Galanter say prosecutors overreached for charges against Simpson. He called the witnesses against him "a cast of very nefarious characters" with credibility problems and a financial incentive to twist their stories.

Some believe the new trial will be shadowed by the past.

"For the public, it's justice delayed," said Jerry Reisman, a Garden City, N.Y., attorney who represented Simpson on business matters before the murder case.

"I think the public is going to see and hear what they want to and hope that he is convicted," Reisman said. "It's going to be difficult for O.J. to get a fair trial. A lot of the public believes he was guilty of the crimes he was charged with back then and he got away with it."

The challenge for Simpson's attorneys will be to keep the focus on the current charges, he said.

Ian Weinstein, a professor of criminal law at Fordham University who has followed Simpson's legal travails over the years, said the "celebrity factor" may weigh in favor of Simpson if jurors are old enough to remember his triumphs as well as his downfall.

"Some of us have a longer view of him," Weinstein said. "My students in our law school know him only as a celebrity with legal problems. But to me he's still the guy running through the airport in the Hertz commercials."


(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

UNDFTD Sin City 5 Strike Tee

Coming off another trade show season, the Undefeated crew give a final look back at Sin City. Using their trademark 5 strike graphic, the label gives life to the somewhat over used cliche “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”. The tee will release September 6th at all Undefeated Japan stores.

VIA: Hypebeast

Can't Stop, Won't Stop: 80-Year-Old Stripper Still Working Hard In Vegas!

Description:
CBS reports "Tempest Storm has been a stripper for the past half-century in Sin City"

Suge Knight Arrested On Assulting His Girlfriend & Drug Charges!

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CBS reports "Suge Knight Booked On Assault And Drug Charges"

Update: Marion 'Suge' Knight posts bail after Vegas arrest

By KEN RITTER, Associated Press Writer

LAS VEGAS - Marion "Suge" Knight was jailed Wednesday on assault and drug charges after he was accused of beating his girlfriend while brandishing a knife near the Las Vegas Strip, police said.

Knight, 43, posted $19,000 bail and was scheduled to be released late Wednesday with a promise to appear Sept. 26 in Las Vegas Justice Court, a court spokeswoman said.

Police said the founder of bankrupt Death Row Records was arrested about 6:40 a.m. after officers arrived at the scene of a minor traffic accident and found Knight hitting a woman in a parking lot off a busy thoroughfare.

"A citizen sees the beating in a parking lot, police get there fast, they see him beating her. It's a good solid case," said Las Vegas police Lt. Chris Carroll.

The woman was not stabbed but she was treated at a hospital for injuries that Carroll said were not life-threatening.

Police did not release the woman's name or age, but said she identified herself as Knight's girlfriend of three years.

"This is a very large man," Carroll said, estimating his weight at more than twice the woman's. "He was on top of her, actually in the act of violently beating her when the officers arrived, with the knife in his hand."

At least one officer drew a Taser stun gun as they approached Knight, said Officer Jacinto Rivera, a police spokesman. He said he did not know if the officers drew their handguns.

Knight dropped the folding knife and was taken into custody without incident, Carroll said.

He was booked into the Clark County jail on felony charges of assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a controlled substance, and misdemeanor charges of possession of dangerous drugs without a prescription and domestic violence.

Knight had the drugs Ecstasy and hydrocodone when he was arrested, Carroll said, but it was not clear if he or the woman had used drugs or alcohol before the arrest.

Lawyers David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, who are representing Knight, said they wanted to gather information about the arrest and talk with Knight before commenting.

Rivera said Knight and the woman left a Las Vegas strip club, Spearmint Rhino, shortly before the arrest. They were alone in a champagne-colored Cadillac Escalade.

Police said Knight and the woman argued in the vehicle while Knight was driving before he allegedly punched her in the head.

"The victim purposely grabbed the steering wheel and caused the vehicle to hit the curb," police said in a statement. Police said the woman tried to run away, but Knight caught her.

Knight has a history of legal problems and was with Tupac Shakur when the rapper was gunned down in Las Vegas in 1996.

Knight was convicted of assault in 1992 and placed on probation, then jailed for five years in 1996 for violating that probation.

He was returned to jail in 2003 for again violating parole for punching a parking attendant at a Hollywood nightclub. He was released the next year.

Knight was wounded during a shooting at a party in a Miami nightclub in August 2005.

His former record company was auctioned in June for $24 million to New York-based Global Music Group Inc.

Daniel McCarthy, a lawyer handling a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing for Knight and the record company, said Wednesday that the sale is pending.

Death Row Records was known for releasing seminal gangster rap albums by Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, and sold tens of millions of albums in the heyday of early 1990s rap.

In 2006, a federal judge ordered a bankruptcy trustee takeover of Death Row Records, saying the label had undergone gross mismanagement. Knight's decision to file for bankruptcy protection staved off a move by the court to appoint someone to take control of the record label and his assets.

'Suge' Knight arrested in Vegas drug, assault case

LAS VEGAS – Rap music mogul Marion "Suge" Knight was jailed Wednesday on assault and drug charges after he was accused of beating his girlfriend while brandishing a knife, police said.

Knight, 43, the founder of bankrupt Death Row Records in Los Angeles, was arrested about 6:40 a.m. on a busy street near the Las Vegas Strip. Police responding to a domestic violence call found Knight standing over his longtime girlfriend with the knife in his hand.

"He did not stab her," said Officer Jacinto Rivera, a department spokesman.

Police did not release the identity of the woman, who told officers she was Knight's girlfriend of three years.The woman was treated at a hospital for minor injuries, according to Rivera.

Knight was taken into custody without incident and booked into the Clark County jail on felony charges of assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a controlled substance, and misdemeanor charges of possession of dangerous drugs without a prescription and domestic violence.

Knight had the drugs Ecstasy and hydrocodone when he was arrested, police said.

Lawyers David Chesnoff and Richard Schonfeld, who are representing Knight, said they wanted to gather information about the arrest and talk with Knight before commenting.

Rivera said Knight would be held at the jail for at least 12 hours on the domestic violence charge.

It was not immediately clear if Knight would appear in person when a judge was scheduled to review his arrest Thursday morning.

Police said Knight and the woman argued in the car while Knight was driving before he allegedly punched her in the head.

"The victim purposely grabbed the steering wheel and caused the vehicle to hit the curb," police said in a statement. Police said the woman tried to run away, but Knight caught her.

Knight has a history of legal problems and was with Tupac Shakur when the rapper was gunned down in Las Vegas in 1996.

Knight was convicted of assault in 1992 and placed on probation, then jailed for five years in 1996 for violating that probation.

He was returned to jail in 2003 for again violating parole for punching a parking attendant at a Hollywood nightclub. He was released the next year.

Knight was wounded during a shooting at a party in a Miami nightclub in August 2005.

His former record company was auctioned in June for $24 million to New York-based Global Music Group Inc.

Daniel McCarthy, a lawyer handling a Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing for Knight and the record company, said Wednesday that the sale is pending.

Death Row Records was known for releasing seminal gangster rap albums by Tupac Shakur, Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, and sold tens of millions of albums in the heyday of early 1990s rap.

In 2006, a federal judge ordered a bankruptcy trustee takeover of Death Row Records, saying the label had undergone gross mismanagement. Knight's decision to file for bankruptcy protection staved off a move by the court to appoint someone to take control of the record label and his assets.

VIA: Yahoo!