(LAUNCH, 07/12/2004 2:00 PM)
By LAUNCH Radio Networks
The estate of the Notorious B.I.G.'s (Christopher Wallace) won a legal victory last month in its ongoing wrongful death lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department. MTV.com reports that a judge has cleared the way for the case to go to trial on October 5 after ruling that former police officer David Mack could have been operating 'under the color of law,' which means committing an act with the authority of the law although he wasn't on duty on the night that he and an accomplice allegedly orchestrated the murder of the rap star.
The Notorious B.I.G. was murdered outside of the Petersen Automotive Museum on March 9, 1997, and his estate believes that Mack was involved and that the L.A.P.D. could have done more to prevent his death. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2002 in U.S. District Court for the Central District Of California, alleges that "defendant police commissioner Bernard Parks intentionally, willfully, and recklessly delayed and stopped the investigation as soon as it became apparent officers employed by the Los Angeles Police Department were involved in the murder."
According to former L.A.P.D. detective Russell Poole, Chief Parks, the head of Rampart, instructed him to leave it alone since Mack was already incarcerated for a bank robbery. Mack and two accomplices robbed a Los Angeles bank of more than $722,000 using police scanners and radios. Mack was apprehended, but his two accomplices and the money were never found. The former officer is currently serving a 14-year jail sentence.
The L.A.P.D. attempted to have the lawsuit dismissed on the grounds that Mack was not on duty on the night of the murder but Judge Florence Marie Cooper ruled on June 30 that the fact that Mack wasn't on duty wasn't controlling as to whether or not he operated under color of law.
Cooper's ruling read in part, "The investigation into Wallace's murder indicates that the suspects had access to non-public information that would have been available only to police officers, including the surveillance of the rapper, the composition and location of police officers at the Petersen Automotive Museum where the rapper was attending an afterparty for the Soul Train Awards, tactics used by the police in protecting large events, tactical frequencies used by police radios, the location of the rapper's car and his exit plan, and how the police officers would respond to the shooting."
Cooper added, "In addition, it appeared that police radios were used to monitor the location and response of law enforcement to the shooting, as well as to facilitate escaping after the shooting, concealing the vehicle, and disposing of the weapon."
Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are former L.A.P.D. chiefs Willie Williams and Bayan Lewis, and former police officer Mack and Amir Muhammad, a man some believe was the triggerman in Notorious B.I.G.'s murder, although he was never formally charged.
