Tupac Shakur convicted for attack on director Allen Hughes

Jet, Feb 28, 1994

Actor/rapper Tupac Shakur, who starred opposite Janet Jackson in the John Singleton film Poetic Justice, recently was convicted for assault and battery on former director Allen Hughes.

A Los Angeles jury convicted Shakur, 22, on one count each of assault and battery in an attack on Hughes, 21, who had fired Shakur six months prior to the March 1993 assault. After a six-day trial, the Municipal Court jury deliberated an hour. Shakur faces up to six months in jail.

"I would never have gone to court with this matter if it was just me and Tupac face to face," noted Hughes in the USA Today.

"But he had 15 homeboys with him and couldn't fight his own fight--he had to swing on me when my back was turned, so we had to settle it in court."

Hughes, the director of the hit film Menace II Society, noted the attack scarred his nose.

In the acclaimed film, Shakur was scheduled to play the role of Sharif, a member of the Nation of Islam, but Hughes said he fired Shakur for causing trouble on the set, which led to Shakur's assault on Hughes.