Stunner
06-16-2006, 08:28 PM
LOS ANGELES - Lawyers for Notorious B.I.G.'s kin say they want to know who was behind the coverup of an LAPD file that shows authorities had suspected two rogue ex-cops of involvement in the rapper's 1997 murder.
The Internal Affairs Bureau file was concealed for years, and when it recently came to light, the city's lawyers tried to stop the family's legal team from investigating who was responsible, according to a bombshell court transcript obtained by the Daily News.
"This is stunning information," federal Judge Florence-Marie Cooper declared on April 26 after Perry Sanders, the lawyer for B.I.G.'s family, showed her the file.
Since B.I.G.'s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2002, cops and city lawyers have insisted there was no evidence to suggest crooked ex-cops David Mack and Rafael Perez were involved in the Brooklyn-born rapper's slaying.
But the 2001 file shows the department's own anti-corruption bureau lodged formal "allegations" against Mack and Perez in connection with B.I.G.'s murder and conducted its own probe, according to the court transcript.
Judge Cooper was furious. "Now I am hearing that Internal Affairs investigated. ... This is extremely significant ... not to have turned this information over to the plaintiff, I'm just amazed," she said, according to the transcript.
Mack and Perez were never charged in the shooting death of the 24-year-old B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls, who was born Christopher Wallace. The disgraced ex-cops are behind bars for unrelated police corruption.
Last year, Cooper declared a mistrial in the suit after finding that a police detective deliberately concealed a file about an informant who implicated Perez and Mack in B.I.G.'s killing.
News of yet another hidden file irked the judge, who has set the retrial for Oct. 16.
Credit: Nydailynews.com
The Internal Affairs Bureau file was concealed for years, and when it recently came to light, the city's lawyers tried to stop the family's legal team from investigating who was responsible, according to a bombshell court transcript obtained by the Daily News.
"This is stunning information," federal Judge Florence-Marie Cooper declared on April 26 after Perry Sanders, the lawyer for B.I.G.'s family, showed her the file.
Since B.I.G.'s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2002, cops and city lawyers have insisted there was no evidence to suggest crooked ex-cops David Mack and Rafael Perez were involved in the Brooklyn-born rapper's slaying.
But the 2001 file shows the department's own anti-corruption bureau lodged formal "allegations" against Mack and Perez in connection with B.I.G.'s murder and conducted its own probe, according to the court transcript.
Judge Cooper was furious. "Now I am hearing that Internal Affairs investigated. ... This is extremely significant ... not to have turned this information over to the plaintiff, I'm just amazed," she said, according to the transcript.
Mack and Perez were never charged in the shooting death of the 24-year-old B.I.G., aka Biggie Smalls, who was born Christopher Wallace. The disgraced ex-cops are behind bars for unrelated police corruption.
Last year, Cooper declared a mistrial in the suit after finding that a police detective deliberately concealed a file about an informant who implicated Perez and Mack in B.I.G.'s killing.
News of yet another hidden file irked the judge, who has set the retrial for Oct. 16.
Credit: Nydailynews.com