Katt Williams Pleads Not Guilty To Assault

Katt Williams pleaded not guilty Tuesday to assaulting and pepper spraying a man near LAX airport last summer.

The caustic comedian is catching heat for allegedly spraying the tear gas in a manner not related to self defense and knocking the alleged victim with his Rolls Royce, prosecutors said.

The confrontation reportedly was sparked when the man tried to take a picture of Williams on his cell phone and then refused to hand over the device.

Williams, 43, was ordered to return to the Inglewood courthouse Jan. 28 for his next hearing in the felony case.

The arraignment had been set for late October but got postponed when authorities swooped in minutes before the hearing and arrested the entertainer in a felony case involving rap mogul Suge Knight.

Both Williams and Knight were the subjects of a two-state surprise sting Oct. 29 stemming from charges they stole a woman’s camera during a separate confrontation in Beverly Hills in early September.

Knight has pleaded not guilty in the case and is out on bail. Williams is set to be arraigned on the second degree robbery charge on Christmas Eve.

“Our position is that the charges are absolutely unfounded,” Knight’s lawyer Richard Schonfeld previously told the Daily News.

“I can tell you from the evidence I have seen, it doesn’t support the charge against Mr. Knight,” he said. “(The alleged victim) didn’t mention Suge Knight doing anything to her in her statement to the police.”

Schonfeld said that at the time of the alleged robbery on Sept. 5, his client was still recovering from multiple gunshot wounds sustained during a nightclub shooting two weeks earlier at a party hosted by singer Chris Brown.

“Mr. Knight had been released from the hospital just seven days earlier. He was in no physical shape to do anything,” he said. “My understanding is that Mr. Knight wasn’t immediately present when the conduct occurred.”

The lawyer said Knight had no idea he was a wanted man in California at the time of his arrest in Las Vegas.

Knight, 49, was cuffed and arrested “without incident” at an undisclosed property just off the Las Vegas strip in the area of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police said.

He was apprehended by a joint task force that included members from the FBI.

If convicted, Knight could face a maximum of 30 years to life in prison while Williams could face up to seven years.

Williams called alleged Beverly Hills robbery victim Leslie Redden a liar in a video interview posted on TMZ.com after his release from custody.

He said Redden, an independent celebrity photographer, started the alleged confrontation by videotaping a 5-year-old child in an alley behind a TV studio in Beverly Hills.

The child was Knight’s son, TMZ reported Thursday.

Williams said he never took Redden’s camera and refused to flip on Knight during questioning by cops.

“Her story is clear that she got in an altercation with me, but she didn’t,” Williams told TMZ. “She says Suge too, but she didn’t have an altercation with that person either.”

He claimed police tried to get him “to blame it on Suge, (but) that’s not happening.”

“I’d rather take it than that. Don’t be silly,” he said.

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