Store owner could face life in prison. A 69-year-old shop owner will appear in court March 3 after he allegedly shot a man for peeing on his building. Leroy Moon, who runs Detroit’s Asian Fisheries, is charged with killing Shawn Johnson, 36, early this week. Johnson, an elementary school janitor, apparently stopped outside Moon’s business about 7 p.m. When Johnson began relieving himself, Moon reportedly told him to stop and called for another man to bring a gun. Johnson is said to have walked off Moon’s property, while still urinating, when Moon pushed him and then shot. Neighbors say the business owner’s alleged behavior is out of his character, and that he has even given food to the neighborhood needy.

TMZ says Rihanna photo was legally obtained. A popular TV show and celebrity news Web site obtained a controversial photo without breaking the law, producers say. While Los Angeles Police investigated how a head shot of singer Rihanna wound up on TMZ’s Web site Thursday, the companion Fox show broadcast the image again Friday evening. Rihanna is shown with her eyes closed, bruised and beaten in the face, after she was allegedly attacked by her romantic associate Chris Brown on the night of the Grammy Awards. But the LAPD says it would never release a photo of a domestic violence victim and wants to know how TMZ got the image. TMZ posted the Web photo under the caption “Rihanna – The Face of a Battered Woman.” The show’s and site’s main producer, Harvey Levin, is a lawyer.

N.Y. Giants receiver Plaxico Burress got a rare legal win Wednesday when a Pennsylvania jury sided with the troubled baller in a civil dispute over an impounded vehicle. Fred Laurenzo, who owns a car dealership in Lebanon, Pa., loaned Burress a 2004 Avalanche truck, worth $36,000, in exchange for autograph signings and other publicity events. But New York City Police impounded the truck, telling Laurenzo that it had been involved in a crime. He said that Burress never contacted police to resolve the matter, and it remained in custody for about a year. Laurenzo sued for $19,000. But a jury awarded him only $1,700, the amount that Burress had contended he was responsible for. Burress still faces gun charges after shooting himself in the leg in a New York restaurant.

Imprisoned Vick loses another legal battle.

Suspended NFL quarterback Michael Vick will have to be flown back to Virginia so that he can plead guilty to state dogfighting charges at state expense. The hearing is scheduled two days before Thanksgiving. Surry County Circuit Judge Samuel E. Campbell denied a request by Vick’s lawyers that he be allowed to enter guilty pleas by videoconference from the federal prison in Leavenworth, Kan., where Vick is serving a 23-month sentence for a federal dogfighting-conspiracy crime. Although the judge says the law gave him full discretion in the matter, he said it was in the court’s and Vick’s best interests for him to appear in person Nov. 25. He also said the public would be better served if Vick actually showed up in person. Surry prosecutor Gerald G. Poindexter objected to the videoconference request, saying there was no specific language in Virginia law that addressed it. “It’s unprecedented; it’s never been done in Virginia anywhere,” Poindexter said after yesterday’s brief hearing in Sussex Circuit Court on the issue. “And I didn’t want Surry County to be groundbreaking in that sense. … There’s also the question of the public’s right to be present. The public would not be accommodated in a closed-circuit TV proceeding.” Vick’s case is being handled in Sussex because the Surry courthouse is undergoing renovation.

More legal problems find Gary Coleman.  Police are investigating a weekend incident during which former “Diff’rent Strokes” TV star Gary Coleman allegedly struck a man with his truck after an argument. Find out more at BET.com/News.

Rappers make $100,000 Xbox wager. The Game is a better Madden football player than Bow Wow – and he’ll have $100,000 for charity to prove it. Bow Wow tells TMZ.com that he lost the Xbox video competition to Game. The pair had recently made a friendly wager, with the loser’s cash going to those in greater need.

No one injured at The Boss’ “Be Out Day.”

One man was arrested and another was being sought by police after gunshots disrupted a Florida charity event hosted by rapper Rick Ross. The Boss held his annual “Be Out Day” celebration this week, an event where he distributes food and school supplies, and encourages voter registration. Flo-Rida had performed and Ross had just taken the stage when the suspects began shooting and sending participants diving for cover. “The shots happened near the event … across the street, but it was close enough that it seemed as if it happened in the park (where the show was taking place),” says Elora Mason, publicist for Rick Ross Charities, Inc. “It’s not clear what brought it on, but police said the person shooting appeared to be shooting in the air.” The investigation is ongoing. Police cleared the stage, but Ross later returned to do a short performance and then sign autographs for some of those who remained. Ross says 2,000 backpacks were distributed.

Morgan Freeman reportedly “resting comfortably.”

Having undergone surgery for injuries connected to a weekend car crash, actor Morgan Freeman is back at home. A spokesman for the veteran actor says he left Memphis’ Regional Medical Center on Thursday. “He was released today at noon local time and is now resting comfortably,” Ken Sunshine says. Freeman and his passenger Demaris Meyer, who reportedly gave the hospital a phony name to hide her relationship with the married-but-separated star, were traveling in Mississippi when he lost control of the vehicle. Both occupants had to be cut out of the Nissan. Freeman later revealed that he and his long-time wife Myrna have been separated since December, apparently to quell speculation about Meyer’s identity. She was also treated for her injuries.

Remy Ma hopes legal eagle can come to rescue.

Just three months into an eight-year sentence for felonious assault, weapons possession and attempted coercion, rapper Remy Ma has hired a lawyer who she hopes will help her appeal her way to freedom. William “Billy” Murphy Jr. won an acquittal on behalf of boxing promoter Don King in 1998 after he’d been charged with defrauding Lloyd’s of London. Murphy has also represented DMX and Mary J. Blige, among other celebrities. “With the addition of Mr. Murphy…I now believe I have assembled a team that will have the might and expertise to tell my side of the story,” Remy says in a statement. “I am confident that after hearing everything, my side will prevail.” Remy was convicted this spring in the shooting of her former friend Makeda Barnes-Joseph in a dispute over money.

Police seek clues to who murdered an Atlanta mother
Investigators and family members in the Atlanta suburb of Duluth continued seeking clues Tuesday to explain why anybody would shoot to death a 40-year-old mother as she waited to pick up her daughter from work. After all, authorities say, the car that was stolen from Genai Coleman Friday night, when she was gunned down outside a Red Lobster restaurant, was an old Dodge; plus, she had no enemies anyone knew about. A stunned Geraldine Brown, who flew to Atlanta from Elkhart, Ind., immediately after hearing that her daughter had been shot, said the car certainly was “nothing worth being killed over,” according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “They had the car, why did they have to shoot her?” Coleman, a single preschool teacher at Montclair Elementary School in DeKalb County, took in and raised three foster daughters (now ages 19, 21 and 23) at her home in Snellville, Ga., the Journal-Constitution reports. “‘Genai’ means “one who loves people,” and she did just that, her mother said.

Detroit’s Kilpatrick has some legal team

If Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has to cough up some more cash, gets booted out of office or winds up in jail behind the scandals swirling around him these days, it certainly won’t be due to a lack of legal representation. The Detroit News reports that the embattled city chief, who is “confronting legal challenges on at least six fronts, has assembled a huge team of attorneys to fight an array of civil lawsuits and attempts to remove him from office without compromising job one – defending Kilpatrick on felony charges.” Such a seemingly humongous effort, according to the News, requires at least 17 public and private attorneys. BET.com/News has more on this story. Should Kilpatrick step down, or is there a witch hunt against the mayor?

A Georgia school gets the paddles ready for the fall
To spank or not to spank … that’s the question in Twiggs County, Ga., where principals are breaking out their paddles this fall to deter misbehaving. It won’t be the first time that the school district puts the wood to students who act up. Last year, for example, a second-grader was swatted for throwing pencils, as were others who were deemed too unruly for the standard time-out or other methods of discipline, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. But the policy was rarely used. Teachers and administrators can opt out if they desire, and parents must sign a permission slip to allow their children to be paddled. Read more of what the parents and teachers had to say at BET.com/News.