Houston rap executive James Prince is suing Viacom, the parent company of Black Entertainment Television, for broadcasting his image with a convicted murderer in commercials for BET’s American Gangster documentary series. The slander lawsuit in Houston federal court alleges that Prince and a Rap-A-Lot 2K Records employee were shown in a photo with Gangster Disciples leader Larry Hoover, whose story is the focus of an American Gangster episode.

The gang founder is serving several life sentences at “Supermax,” a maximum-security federal prison in Colorado. In the suit, Prince and Thomas Randle contend that they are falsely portrayed as “murderers” having a criminal association with Hoover. Last week, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes denied the men’s request for a restraining order to keep the episode or related commercials from airing on television or being downloaded on iTunes, the Apple-owned digital media player.

But at a hearing Tuesday, lawyers for Viacom and Apple Inc. said that the Hoover episode and trailers have been removed from the BET and iTunes Web sites. “It’s pulled temporarily, at least, until we can look into it,” said Lee Kaplan, a Houston lawyer representing Apple, also named in the lawsuit.