Coolio Won't Fight Verdict

Rap star Coolio does not plan to appeal his German conviction last week for theft and punching a boutique owner and may use his impressions from the trial in his next album, his attorney said Thursday. Georg Prasser said the American believed the Stuttgart court verdict was unjust but preferred to accept it and to concentrate on his music and a planned European tour. A Stuttgart court last Thursday sentenced Coolio to six months probation and fined him $17,000 after convicting him of being an accessory to robbery and causing bodily injury after Coolio, 35, and members of his band, the 40 Thevz, took $950 worth of clothing from a boutique in a Stuttgart suburb on Nov. 20, 1997. They then punched the store owner in the stomach, the court ruled.