LATEST: Members of slain rapper NOTORIOUS BIG's family have come under fire from attorneys representing the city of Los Angeles, who insist they lied in court to extract millions from officials.
In papers filed yesterday (07JUN06), city of LA lawyer DOROTHY WOLPERT asked court officials to retry the wrongful death case as soon as possible, so she could publicly expose the rap star's family for going to "absurd" lengths to "satisfy their ambition to extract hundreds of millions of dollars" from her client.
An ongoing trial into the rapper's death was halted last year (05) when attorneys representing his family presented an anonymous tip from a former police officer who claimed an informant had linked two former officers to the killing.
Judge FLORENCE-MARIE COOPER immediately declared a mistrial after discovering a detective misled the court by hiding statements from the informant.
She demanded the city to pay the family of the deceased over $1 million (£555,000) in court costs.
But now the city attorneys are fighting back after investigating the matter and discovering that the plaintiffs had known about the informant's supposed missing remarks.
Wolpert suggests that the rapper's family introduced the claim of an anonymous tip because they "were not happy with the way the trial was developing".
Notorious BIG, real name CHRISTOPHER WALLACE, was shot dead in the street outside a Los Angeles party in 1997. His family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city, which went to trial last year (05).