A new podcast called “The Dossier” is centered around a conspiracy to cover up the murder of the rapper, Christopher Wallace aka Biggie Smalls.
“The Dossier” is produced by investigative journalist/filmmaker, Don Sikorski, who explained how he came across explosive, unredacted documents as he looked into Biggie Smalls’ murder.
“Phil was an FBI agent who had worked out of the LA field division. I realized that he had investigated what at the time was called a public corruption case, looking into whether LAPD officers were involved in the murder of Biggie,” Don Sikorski explained to AllHipHop.com. “At the time that I found out that Phil had done this, he was still inside the FBI. So knowing anything about the FBI, you know, FBI agents will not talk. They will not talk to the media, they will not talk to civilians they won’t talk to anybody. It just so happened though that Phil was retiring, and he said “you know what, I’ll sit down with you and, and I’ll talk to you.”
In late 2018, Sikorski came into possession of unreleased documents that were submitted as evidence during a civil lawsuit Biggie’s mother Voletta Wallace brought against the LAPD. B.I.G.’s mom and her lawyer Perry Sanders believed that rogue LA cops from the infamous Rampart Division took part in orchestrating the hit against the rapper on March 9th, 1997.
Biggie Smalls was infamously shot and killed in front of dozens of witnesses, who had attended the Soul Train Awards at The Petersen Automotive Museum. His murder remains unsolved.
In “The Dossier” Don Sikorski argues that there is enough evidence for the FBI to file federal charges against ex-LAPD cops Nino Durden, Rafael Perez, David Mack, and an associated named Amir Muhammad.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/2vF60Kvc8rFG6IrCGJ86pp?si=DaL3EFNpRqazLRHkfuCXzg
VIDEO: EX-FBI AGENT PHIL CARSON ON BIGGIE INVESTIGATION
During his first video interview, Agent Phil Carson explains in detail how he came to be in charge of the investigation into Biggie’s murder.
AllHipHop had the chance to sit down with Don Sikorski and Phil Carson, in a 2-hour interview that will be rolled out over the next month. Phil Carson is a Seattle native, who attended the University of Washington, where he majored in business finance.
According to Phil Carson, he grew weary of Seattle’s weather and packed up for Southern California, where he worked as a financial analyst for a few years.
Carson said he eventually applied to work for the FBI in 1997. He went through rigorous physical training and was eventually accepted and assigned to a unit that was tasked with investigating prison, and public corruption cases.
Phil Carson’s experience with corruption cases led him to an assignment with the FBI’s RAMfit Squad.
The unit was formed after LAPD officer Rafael Perez admitted dozens of cops within the Rampart Division were violating the civil rights of citizens by planting evidence, robbing banks, assaulting, and sometimes, murdering people.
“When they brought him in when they finally to get him to talk, they gave him the deal of the century,” Agent Carson said of the origin of his investigation into Biggie’s murder.
“There was no state or Federal case on Rampart. Rampart was just another division with an LAPD. Rafael Perez got busted ordering out cocaine from an evidence locker in the LAPD,” Former FBI Agent Phil Carson told AllHipHop.com.
The scandal started to unfold on November 6, 1997, when LAPD officer David Mack robbed a Bank of America branch with two accomplices who have never been caught. Mack was arrested one month later, in December of 1997, for his role in the robbery, which netted him and his cronies $722,000
Mack was arrested in December of 1997, and eventually convicted of bank robbery charges. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He was released on May 14, 2010.
His accomplices were never apprehended.
But the Rampart Scandal really exploded on March 27, 1998.
That is when LAPD officer and Rampart/CRASH Unit member and David Mack’s old partner Rafael Perez, was nabbed for stealing six kilos of cocaine out of an evidence locker that belonged to a controversial ex-officer named Frank Lyga.
Agent Carson believes Rafael Perez may have been motivated to steal the drugs after Officer Lyga shot and killed another LAPD cop named Kevin Gaines, during a road rage incident in 1997. Officer Gaines, who was supposedly connected to the Bloods, moonlighted as security for Marion “Suge” Knight and Death Row Records.
Kevin Gaines was supposedly the connect for other crooked LAPD police officers to get jobs working for Death Row. Those cops included Nino Durden, Rafael Perez, and David Mack.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1RZeieanCQEEtQbin3lFHd
Rafael Perez eventually took a plea deal for stealing the cocaine from Frank Lyga’s locker. He dimed out other police officers and was sentenced to five years in prison for stealing the cocaine.
“When they gave him that deal, they had no idea what he was going to tell them. They thought maybe that he was going to tell him about just some other bad stuff that he’d been involved with and some of the cocaine, that he’d been stealing out in locker. Well, he throws out a bombshell about Rampart, and about all these corrupt police officers and all the bad stuff they were doing,” Former FBI Agent Phil Carson told AllHipHop.com.
Frank Lyga was not charged over the shooting, but the LAPD shelled out $250,000 to settle the incident with Kevin Gaines’ family. Lyga was eventually relieved from the LAPD in 2014 for making racist comments about the shooting during a talk with a class at the LAPD Academy.
Nino Durdan pleaded guilty to shooting one unarmed gang member and framing another. He served five years in prison for his crimes.
THE RAMPART SCANDAL EXPLODES
The ensuing scandal surrounding Rafael Perez’s admissions became known as the Rampart Scandal, one of the biggest police corruption cases in history.
“Planting evidence, shooting unarmed people ripping off drug traffickers…once that happened, it no longer became an LAPD Internal Affairs investigation on Rafael Perez, now you’re talking about Civil Rights violation. Shooting unarmed people and all sorts of stuff.” – Former FBI Agent Phil Carson told AllHipHop.com.
Agent Carson’s investigation into Perez with the RAMfit unit resulted in 70 police officers being implicated, with 24 being charged for a litany of crimes, including planting evidence, beating suspects, dealing drugs, attempted murder, and murder.
In the end, only four officers were convicted: Officer Paul Harper, Officer Brian Liddy, Officer Michael Buchanan and Sergeant Edward Ortiz. Although nearly every accused cop in the scandal walked away without being charged, the scandal cost the City of Los Angeles over $125 million to settle dozens of civil suits over the police misconduct.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/4O2kUyt0IH6V0xKT3z3qiq
The stolen money from David Mack’s bank heist was never recovered and some have claimed the money was used to pay for B.I.G.’s contract killing just six months earlier.
THE INVESTIGATION INTO THE NOTORIOUS B.I.G.’s ASSASSINATION
Phil Carson said he opened another, separate corruption investigation into Biggie Small’s murder in the early part of 2000, after watching an unnamed documentary on the rap star’s murder. Carson was amazed to learn the very same subjects he had spent years investigating could have conspired together in yet another, high-profile crime.
“People were coming up with their own theories of who might have committed the murder. And that’s when I started thinking like ‘No. I kind of know what’s going on here,” Former FBI Agent Phil Carson told AllHipHop.com.
“That’s when I wrote up the long communication to my boss. It must have been eight or 10 pages long. I was involved with the Rampart case and I had knowledge of David Mack’s bank robbery case. I was able to put it all together saying no ‘there’s, a pattern here, and it’s not a good pattern. It involves corrupt LAPD officers and the same names are coming up. And so that’s when I sat down with my bosses.
“You have to have enough information to open up what’s called a preliminary investigation. So it’s not a full field case yet. Well, I was able to dig up enough information with the knowledge I had from these other cases, to where when I went in and I presented this to my bosses, it wasn’t a preliminary investigation. It was a full field investigation case number, title, everything, and I started running with the ball then,” Phil Carson told AllHipHop.com.
Phil Carson retired from the FBI in 2017, after almost two decades of service to the bureau.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/100vnVnBMWTm9oMUz3rL0L
WHY IS PHIL CARSON SPEAKING ABOUT BIGGIE’S MURDER NOW?
Agent Carson Phil Carson said he hopes his decision to speak on the record about how powerful LAPD officers and their cronies obstructed his investigation, will put a fresh set of eyes on the case and eventually lead to charges for the rapper’s murder.
READ MORE: Detectives That Hid Evidence Added To B.I.G. Lawsuit
Agent Carson reveals the evidence he gathered and how he came to the conclusion that cops with the Los Angeles Police Department conspired to murder The Notorious B.I.G.
During the Q&A, Phil Carson also explains how he was prevented from testifying against the LAPD’s top brass during the controversial civil trial over Biggie’s death, out of fear that a $500 million judgment in favor of the rap star’s estate would bankrupt the city.
Former agent Phil Carson and Don Sikorski said at least four sitting police chiefs, including Willie Williams, Bernard Parks, William Bratton, Charles L. Beck, and current chief Michel Moore, who is dealing with a new corruption scandal of his own, are aware that LAPD cops were involved in Biggie’s murder.
B.I.G’s mom’s civil suit was dismissed without prejudice, thanks in part to trial errors, statements by former Police Chief Bernard Parks, and the fact that Pac’s bodyguard/informant Kevin Hackie recanted earlier statements he made implicating David Mack in the murder.
READ MORE: Judge Orders City Of L.A. To Pay $1.1 Million To B.I.G.’S Family
During the first trial, a “gang expert” named Sheriff’s Detective Timothy Brennan testified that Biggie’s was killed in a dispute with The Southside Crips, who were allegedly providing security for the rap star.
DID THE SOUTHSIDE CRIPS KILL BIGGIE?
Agent Carson and Don Sikorski also layout facts to dispute former LAPD officer Greg Kading’s assertion that Wardell “Poochie” Fouse and the Southside Crips were involved with Biggie’s murder in his book 2011 “Murder Rap.”
Carson and Sikorski believe Greg Kading’s theory is part of an ongoing disinformation campaign, which at various times had included the LAPD, and the LA Times, through the reporting of former journalist Chuck Philips.
READ MORE: L.A. Times Journalist Chuck Phillips: Me Against The World
Instead, both men believe the investigative work of former LAPD officer Russell Poole – who also investigated the murder as an officer on the force – was right the whole time. This theory was advanced based off of Poole’s interviews in Randall Sullivan’s 2002 book “LAbyrinth.”
Poole also came to the conclusion that Perez, Mack, and Knight worked together to kill Biggie.
“When Biggie is killed a guy by the name of Russ Poole of LAPD’s Robbery/Homicide division gets the case,” Don Sikorski told AllHipHop.com. “He tries to solve the case, and at every turn, is sort of shut down by LAPD. He is pushed out of LAPD he sort of is blackballed out of the LAPD…and that is the first instance of this case where you started to see weird things happening, where he wanted to investigate different things. He wanted to run ballistics on a car that possibly, was at the murder scene in the LAPD told them not to.”
Neither Mack and Amir Muhammad have ever faced criminal charges. At one point, Amir Muhammad was ready to take a lie detector test to prove his innocence and he publicly denied being involved in the shooting.
Agent Carson maintains he saw photos of Amir Muhammad near Biggie and other members of the Bad Boy entourage in front of The Petersen Museum on March 9th, 1997, during his investigation.
READ MORE: Greg Kading Speaks On His ‘Murder Rap’ Documentary About The Murders Of 2Pac & The Notorious B.I.G.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/1pjW0IQTP1Aknd1TNnMbCm
Phil Carson also explains how he was prevented from testifying against the LAPD during the controversial civil trial over Biggie’s death, which helped torpedo the case in 2005 and 2007.
Agent Phil Carson also crystallizes how a murder led police officers David Mack and Rafael Perez to become so close, how they ended up moonlighting as security for Death Row Records, and the crooked cops plot to kill the Notorious B.I.G.
Originally published on October 7, 2020