Submitted by Shiva Suntoo -
A federal has judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the mother of the later rapper Notorious B.I.G., which blamed the city of Los Angeles and the LAPD for her son’s death.
On Monday April 5th, Judge Jacqueline Nguyen dismissed the lawsuit without prejudice, after an eight-year wrongful death lawsuit in federal court.
Notorious B.I.G, born Christopher Wallace, was gunned down in March of 1997, after attending an after party during the Soul Train Awards in Los Angeles.
Although it has never been proven, the wrongful death lawsuit claimed that Marion “Suge” Knight conspired with Amir Muhammad, the alleged triggerman and LAPD officers Rafael Perez and David Mack, to murder Notorious B.I.G.
B.I.G. had been feuding with Tupac Shakur, who was gunned down on the Las Vegas six months earlier, in September of 1996.
In March of 2006, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper ruled in favor of B.I.G., awarding the family a $1.1 million dollar judgment against the city.
In May of 2006, Judge Cooper dismissed the previous ruling in the case, after discovering the family had information they told the court they did not have access to.
In June of 2006, the city of Los Angeles claimed B.I.G.‘s attorneys went to “absurd lengths” to "satisfy their ambition to extract hundreds of millions of dollars from the city.”