Family of slain rapper presses on with wrongful death case

Los Angeles – Hoping to regroup after a series of pretrial setbacks, lawyers for the family of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G. said Monday that their wrongful death case against the Los Angeles Police Department goes beyond a few reluctant witnesses and the investigation of a former detective.

Attorney Perry Sanders, who is representing the mother and other relatives of Christopher Wallace, said he plans to present a circumstantial case that would show “more likely than not” that an LAPD officer was involved in the rapper’s death.

The team of attorneys for the family released what was described as previously sealed search warrant affidavits in which rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight allegedly told a confidential informant he had conspired to kill Wallace. Throughout the warrant, however, the name of the informant is blotted out.

That the lawyers called a news conference on the eve of jury selection, scheduled to get under way Tuesday in U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles, illustrates how much of a fast-moving target this case has become in recent weeks as several key plaintiff’s witnesses have changed their stories.

Sanders suggested that “amnesia” on the part of “reluctant witnesses” could be explained by fears related to the case or media coverage.

Wallace, a 24-year-old Brooklyn-born rapper, was gunned down in a car-to-car shooting March 9, 1997, after a party at the Peterson Automotive Museum.

The central theory of the case, put forward by former LAPD Detective Russell Poole, is that the Wallace killing – and that of Tupac Shakur six months earlier – grew out of a feud between East Coast and West Coast rap contingents.

According to Poole, Knight enlisted ex-Los Angeles Police Officer David A. Mack to orchestrate the Wallace slaying. Mack, who was subsequently convicted of bank robbery, then allegedly hired college classmate Amir Muhammad to carry out the vendetta.

Assistant City Atty. Don W. Vincent said there were no witnesses or evidence to link Mack to the slaying.

Neither the LAPD nor the FBI, which earlier this year ended a separate 18-month investigation, have identified a suspect in the case.

Former vice president’s daughter fighting cancer

Minneapolis – Eleanor Mondale, the daughter of former Vice President Walter Mondale, has been diagnosed with brain cancer, the Star Tribune reported.

Mondale spoke to the newspaper just hours before she began her first session of radiation and chemotherapy at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Just a week ago, Mondale married local rock star Chan Poling.

Mondale, 45, said her vision had bothered her in recent months but didn’t believe there was anything seriously wrong until a camping trip May 16, when she suffered two seizures.

Doctors determined she had two tumors, both in her frontal lobe, and on May 31 they were found to be cancerous.

Book deal I

New York – The Rev. Billy Graham’s upcoming New York Crusade, likely his last mass event in the United States, will form the basis of a book coming out in August.

“Living in God’s Love: The New York Crusade” will be published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of Penguin Group USA.

“This book will include the vital messages from his historic New York Crusade, a culmination of the most important information from Rev. Graham’s remarkable ministry,” Joel Fotinos, Penguin’s director of religious publishing, said in a statement Tuesday.

The New York Crusade will take place Friday through Sunday at Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

The 86-year-old Graham, the elder statesman of the evangelical movement, has brought his message of salvation through Jesus Christ to over 210 million people in 185 countries.

Book deal II

New York – The Michael Jackson saga is coming to bookstores.

Court TV anchor Diane Dimond is writing a book about the singer’s legal struggles, to be published this fall by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, Judith Curr, executive vice president and publisher, announced Tuesday.

Financial terms weren’t disclosed. The book is not yet titled.

Jackson was acquitted last week of child molestation charges following a 4-month trial, but his supporters have long alleged that Dimond’s reporting favored the prosecution, a charge she has denied.

Politicians, pop stars to attend Hispanic conference

Little Rock, Ark. – Former President Clinton, Gloria Estefan and members of President Bush’s Cabinet are among those confirmed for events during the convention of the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights organization.

The League of United Latin American Citizens is expecting about 10,000 members to descend on Little Rock from June 27 to July 2, said Brent Wilkes, LULAC’s national executive director. Clinton will headline a presidential banquet at the Statehouse Convention Center on July 1, said Skip Rutherford, head of the Little Rock-based Clinton Presidential Foundation.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and his Republican counterpart, Ken Mehlman, are also confirmed participants.