More controversy in B.I.G. case

LOS ANGELES, May 24 (UPI) -- The federal judge who told Los Angeles to pay Notorious B.I.G.'s family $1.1 million after declaring a mistrial in their suit, says she was deceived.

The attorney for the family of the rapper born Christopher Wallace Tuesday was ordered to explain proof supplied by the city the plaintiffs actually had information they claimed was withheld by police, The Los Angeles Times reported. Wallace was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1997 and his death remains unsolved.

The alleged missing information led U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper to order a mistrial last summer in the family's wrongful death suit. She also ordered Los Angeles to pay restitution to the family for withholding evidence.

However, the city has since supplied the judge with proof that a private investigator hired by the plaintiffs in 2002 gave them the information they claimed the city had suppressed during the trial, the Times said.

Attorney Vincent Marella, who is representing the city, told the Times, "This shows beyond any question that everything they said they never had, they had."

The attorney for the Wallace family told The Times he did not hide anything from the judge or anybody else.

"We made our entire file 100 percent accessible (to police), not in an attempt to file a lawsuit, but in an attempt to solve a murder," he said.