Notorious BIG
los angeles (ap)
A FEDERAL JUDGE postponed retrial Monday in the wrongful death lawsuit against the city brought by the family of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G.
U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper pushed retrial to January 16, three months later than the date she originally set, to give the family's attorneys more time to seek information from the defence.
The rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was shot and killed March 9, 1997, after a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles. The murder has not been solved.
In the lawsuit, the rapper's family claims that rogue police officers were involved in the killing.
Cooper declared the mistrial last summer after finding that a police detective intentionally hid statements by a jailhouse informant linking the killing to former officers David Mack and Rafael Perez. The judge also ordered the city to pay $1.1 million in legal fees and other expenses to the rapper's family.
After the mistrial, an investigation of the Police Department's Robbery-Homicide Division uncovered statements by a former Perez cellmate, who had told the department that the disgraced officer had confessed to participating with Mack in Wallace's killing.
Plaintiffs' attorney Perry Sanders was seeking information from 27 city employees he said had contacted with the statements.
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