Humiliated: Suge Knight Shows Up To Court In Mandated Wheelchair

Suge Knight was handcuffed to a stretcher-style wheelchair and rolled into court Wednesday in a dramatic scene that upset the music mogul accused of murder.

His lawyer called the treatment “degrading and humilating,” likening the image of Knight in the long-back chair to that of Dr. Hannibal Lecter strapped to a stretcher in the 1991 thriller “The Silence of the Lambs.”

“I’m being chained to some type of chair and they’re pushing me…I walked perfectly fine from county jail to the bus and from the bus to here,” Knight told Judge Ronald Coen in court. “It makes matters worse.”

The judge, who was in court last month when Knight collapsed and had to be rushed to a hospital, said the wheelchair was used as a precaution.

“Apparently you mentioned to the deputy personnel that you were paralyzed on one side. They were concerned that you might fall,” Judge Coen said.

“If you can walk, you can walk. It won’t happen again,” the judge said.

“They took him up to the 8th floor, stopped, then strapped him down in the ‘Silence of the Lambs’ chair and then walked him through the hallways in front of the cameras,” Knight’s lawyer Matthew Fletcher said after the hearing.

“(They’re) trying to make him look like a fool, make jokes about him. I’ve never seen anyone else strapped to the safety chair,” Fletcher said.

The Wednesday hearing was related to Knight’s pending robbery case out of Beverly Hills in which comedian Micah “Katt” Williams is a co-defendant.

Knight, 49, and Williams, 43, have pleaded not guilty to stealing a camera belonging to a celebrity photographer.

Knight said in court that he “fired” his prior lawyer on the robbery case, David Kenner, and wanted to represent himself.

Judge Coen said he wouldn’t allow Knight to act as his own lawyer and gave the founder of Death Row Records until May 27 to find new counsel.

Fletcher, who is representing Knight in his pending murder case, said he stood in for Kenner Wednesday but had no immediate plans to take over the robbery case.

He said Knight should be allowed to represent himself if he chooses.

“You have an absolute right to represent yourself,” Fletcher said.

Knight is due in court again next week for a preliminary hearing in his separate murder case.

Prosecutors alleged Knight intentionally ran over two men in the parking lot of a Compton, Calif., burger stand – killing Terry Carter, 55, and injuring former gang member turned filmmaker Cle “Bone” Sloan, 51.

Knight has pleaded not guilty and claims he was the victim of an armed assault and had no choice but to flee for his life.

Surveillance footage shows Sloan punching Knight though the truck’s driver side window before Knight gunned his engine.

Fletcher said he might call a witness next week who was involved in the Compton incident.

“If I have to save (Knight’s) life, I will,” the witness allegedly promised, according to Fletcher.

Knight, meanwhile, remains in custody on bail set at a whopping $25 million.

Fletcher filed an appeal last week claiming Knight is under a sealed protective order that prohibits any visits with experts working on his defense.

The California Court of Appeals nixed the emergency appeal, court records show.

“I’ve never heard of this,” California appellate law expert Dennis Fischer told The News, referring to the alleged restriction on expert witnesses.

“It sounds quite unprecedented. But who knows what kind of showing has been made by prosecutors,” Fischer, a lawyer not working on Knight’s case, added.

Fletcher said the only other time a defendant has been held without access to defense experts was in the case of the first World Trade Center bombing in New York.

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