Notorious B.I.G. Lawyer Says LAPD To Blame For Chris Brown Party Melee Where Suge Knight Got Shot
Aug. 25 2014, Published 9:51 a.m. ET
An attorney is charging that the Los Angeles Police Department is responsible for the violent shooting that rocked singer Chris Brown’s pre-VMAs party on Sunday.
Although Brown wasn’t hurt in the melee at the nightclub 1OAK, famed rap producer Suge Knight wound up injured with multiple gunshot wounds and is recovering from surgery at Cedars Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Rumors are flying that the shooting was gang-related.
And now, in an exclusive interview with RadarOnline.com, Perry Sanders, the family lawyer for the late rapper Notorious B.I.G., said the LAPD (headed by Chief Charlie Beck) is to blame for the shooting—because long ago, the department failed to indict Suge Knight for allegedly being involved with Notorious’ murder.
Sanders makes the claim even though the 1OAK shooting isn’t in the LAPD’s jurisdiction.
Christopher Wallace, aka, Notorious B.I.G., was murdered while riding in the front seat of a Suburban after leaving a hip hop party in the Miracle Mile area of Los Angeles on March 9, 1997.
There have been widespread rumors that Knight ordered Wallace’s murder in retaliation for Tupac Shakur's killing just six months earlier in Las Vegas as part of an East Coast – West Coast rap rivalry.
According to Wallace family attorney Sanders, who filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the LAPD in connection with Biggie's murder, "At our civil trial, where we caught the LAPD hiding evidence of police involvement, the lead detective for LAPD testified that he believed there was sufficient evidence to indict Suge.
“He was never indicted and no explanation was given. Greg Kading, the next lead detective, said the same thing. Still no indictment. The original detective, Russell Poole said the same thing. Still no indictment. All three detectives said there was sufficient evidence to indict/charge Suge Knight for orchestrating the hit on Christopher Wallace and being a principal to murder.
Sanders continued, “This is truly an indictment of LAPD and the city of Los Angeles. Los Angeles is a fabulous city that deserves better from its leaders. The victim’s family hopes to one day see criminal justice in this cold case murder."
The wrongful death lawsuit also named former LAPD cops, Rafael Perez and his partner Nino Durden, alleging that the murder was committed in “in a very efficient, organized and professional manner, suggesting that a high degree of coordination and planning preceded his murder."
But the civil lawsuit was dismissed just days after the trial had begun, after the federal judge ruled that the detective assigned to investigate the rapper’s murder had either taken it upon himself, “or in concert with others, made a decision to conceal from the plaintiffs in this case information which could have supported their contention that David Mack was responsible for the Wallace murder.”
After the family refiled the lawsuit, it was ultimately dismissed in 2010.
Even though Notorious' murder remains unsolved, seventeen years later, Perry told us the family hasn't given up on having his killer/s brought to justice.
"The family is hoping that if the LAPD knows who participated in the murder, there will be an arrest and prosecution. They merely want criminal justice in L.A. Through the city's actions, whether intentional or not, the water has been so muddied that it will take a rock solid prosecutor to bring any case they ultimately uncover.”
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According to the legal eagle, the Wallace family isn't suing the LAPD for financial gain, but because, "Through the civil litigation the fact came out that all evidence pointing at LAPD officers was removed from the homicide file. That effort was worthwhile."
The LAPD had no comment. Suge Knight has denied any involvement with Notorious B.I.G.’s murder.
