Family of Notorious B.I.G. loses lawsuit bid

The family of the late rapper Notorious B.I.G. has lostits bid to broadena wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles thatwould have included claims ex-police officers were involved in his death.

The family submitted a motion last month alleging two former officers were working for the head of Death Row Records, Marion (Suge) Knight.

Notorious B.I.G., whose real name was Christopher Wallace,and his record label Bad Boy Entertainment were enmeshed in a fierce rivalry with Knight and his star, rapper Tupac Shakur.

Shakur was shot to death in Las Vegas six months before Wallace's shooting death March 9, 1997, after a party in Los Angeles.

Neithermurder has been solved.

Officers deny involvement

The family accuses one ex-police officer, Rafael Perez, of being at the museum the night of Wallace's death, and therefore providing the tipoff of his whereabouts. Perez, Knight and the other officer, David Mack, have all denied involvement in Wallace's death.

U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper denied the family's request late Thursday. She ruled there was"no admissible evidence that Perez was on duty ... at the scene of the murder."

Cooper declared a mistrial last July in the case after discovering that a detective hid statements by an informant linking the killing to Mack and Perez.She then ordered the city to pay $1.1 million US in legal fees and expenses to the rapper's family.

The retrial is scheduled to begin in January.