Try Not to Shed A Tear

I feel like I'm back in the 1990's...

The family of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G tried Thursday to paint a dark conspiracy theory of his death by linking corrupt police officers to gang members in a wrongful death lawsuit against the city and the LAPD.

A witness for the plaintiffs, LAPD Detective Wayne Caffey, said he once saw a photograph showing disgraced officers Rafael Perez and David Mack together.

The family of Notorious B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace, alleges that Mack helped arrange the rapper's killing.

Caffey said he saw the photo at a police station following raids on the homes of gang members in suburban Compton shortly after the 1996 killing of rapper Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas.

"I don't know where the picture came from. I assume it was from the search warrant," Caffey said, adding that he notified homicide investigators.

Jerry Sanders, an attorney for the family of Notorious B.I.G., suggested nothing was done with the information. He also suggested that it was unusual for Perez and Mack to pose together and for such a photograph to be found in a raid.

There was no description, however, of what event the photograph depicted and, except for Caffey's testimony, there was no confirmation that it actually existed. Sanders did not produce the photo for the jurors.

Mack, who is serving a 14-year term for bank robbery, has denied any involvement in the killing.

Perez was at the center of a police corruption scandal involving anti-gang officers who allegedly framed suspects in the Rampart Division near downtown. He never was implicated in the Wallace killing.

Wallace, 24, was gunned down outside the Petersen Automotive Museum on March 9, 1997, after a music industry party. His death came six months after Shakur's. Both cases are officially unsolved.

Wallace's family contends that Mack helped arrange Wallace's killing at the behest of Death Row Records founder Marion "Suge" Knight as retaliation for the killing of Shakur, a Death Row star.

The real tragedy in all this, atop the death of Biggie, is that it launched Puff Daddy's career, which meant J. Lo became more famous. Well, that and the loss of Tupac's actng talent.