January 23, 2006

Notorious B.I.G.'s Family Awarded $1.1 Million From City Of L.A.

By Jem Aswad (MTV.com)

The city of Los Angeles was ordered by a federal judge on Friday to pay $1.1 million to the family of the Notorious B.I.G. for intentionally withholding evidence in the rapper's 1997 death, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The family's civil suit was ruled a mistrial in July after it was discovered that the Los Angeles Police Department withheld statements that linked two rogue LAPD officers, David Mack and Rafael Perez, to the shooting. A retrial is set to begin later this year.

At the time, city attorneys argued that the statements had come from a jailhouse informant seeking special treatment, and a police detective, Steven Katz, insisted that he had "overlooked" the evidence in his desk, according to the Times.

U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper ruled on Friday that the information was important to the trial and ordered the city to pay the family $1.1 million for all of its attorney fees and court costs, as well as security costs for the family's attorneys and witnesses.

Cooper said that Katz and perhaps others had deliberately concealed the information and said it could have strengthened the family's contention that Mack was involved in the killing.

The family had sought $2 million, but Cooper left the door open for the family to recoup an additional $300,000, according to the Times.

B.I.G. (real name: Christopher Wallace) was killed at the age of 24 on March 9, 1997, after attending a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.

The slaying remains unsolved.