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* + CALIFORNIA. _ mare LOS ANGE ry ray CFBE, from Page BI) + ie fe to refer any inquiries iftom them to the FBI legal de- i ‘partment. - Voletta Wallace, whose suit" { ‘Soouses the Los Angeles Police’ ent "of covering Up po-. pce invoivernent in her son's kill- “sing, is'secking unspecified mon- etary damages; The case is ‘scheduled to go to trial April 12 in. ‘ federal court in Los Angeles. *- It is unclear what testimony her lawyers intend to elicit from Carson. ‘Louis J. Caprino Ir, acting 1 ‘head of the criminal division of ’ "She FBI's Los Angeles field office, > Said this week that Carson’s in- rt westigation was closed because ‘federal prosecutors reviewed the ‘evidence he had gathered and +“determined that there was no basis for prosecution.” <. FBI officials acknowledged that they discussed with Carson “his dealings with the Wallace t lawyers. But they said that had “ no bearing on the decision to halt . the investigation. i .. Caprino said the discussion Lowes part of a “standard adminis- “trative review” conducted when- “ever an agent is subpoenaed to ‘testity. He said the bureau found mio improper conduct on Car- “Bon' ‘Ss part. Perry Sanders, an attorney “tor Voletta Wallace, took issue ‘with the FBI's explanation for ,» Why the probe was discontinued. : Sanders said the LAPD “ex- erted political pressure on the . FBI to lay off the case.” He said he learned this from “a reliable ‘confidential source” whom he ' ‘would not identity. Assistant FBI Director Rich- ‘ ard -T. Garcia, head of the Los ted the-alie-—— “gation. “No one at the FBI was asked or directed to stop any- « thing,” Garcia said in an inter- ’ view. “This investigation was re- viewed diligently by [Carson’s] boss on a regular basis and the results were submitted to the US, attorney's office. They de- wermined that the evidence was Amsufficient for prosecution. So we dropped it.” xs .» Christopher Wallace, then 24, uwas gunned down March 9, 1997, .in front of hundreds of fans after amusic industry party at the Pe- tersen Automotive Museum in the mid-Wilshire district. *~ LAPD detectives have pur- sued various theories in their et- forts to solve the crime, One is that the killing, like that of rap star Tupac Shakur six months earlier, stemmed from a feud be- tween rap figures in New York and Los Angeles. Shakur was the brightest star -of Knight's Death Row Records in Los Angeles. Wallace was as- sociated with Bad Boy Records in New York, The two stars and their associates had exchanged insults and threats on stage and in recordings. -.In 1998, LAPD investigators began to suspect that a dis- igraced former officer, David A. ad FBI Discards Theory, Mack, may have been involved. By then, Mack was in prison for robbing a bank. He had been on the police force at the time of Wallace's killing. Detectives learned that Mack owned a Diack Chevrolet Impala similar to ‘one seen speeding from the murder scene. A wit- ness said he saw Mack outside- the automotive museum several hours before the shoating. Then-Det. Russell Poole ad- vanced the idea that Mack planned the killing at Knight’s behest and arranged for a friend, ‘Wallace. Other information guthered by investigators did not support the theory, however, and detect- ives turned their attention else- , where. Knight, Mack and Mu- -hammad, a Southiand mortgage broker, have all denied any role in the killing. Since resigning from ‘the LAPD in 1999, Poole has contin- ued to promote his theory in books and through appearances in documentaries and on TV shows. Voletta Wallace’s lawsuit incorporates Poole’s arguments, and he is listed.as an expert wit- ness for the plaintiffs. Carson, the FBI agent, began his investigation after watching Poole ona TVispecial in the sum- mer of 2003, court documents show. ; Carson contacted Poole and interviewed other detectives, witnesses and informants around the country at the sug- gestion of Wallace family attor- neys, records show. In December 2003, Carson and other agents conducted sur- veillance of Muhammad and wired an informant in an at- tempt to illicit incriminating statements from him, The effort yielded nothing. te -ambush-—-eivil-complaist-v Mrreu Yaeurama For The Timer SEEKING DAMAGES: Voletta Wallace, mother of the rap star Notorious B.LG., has filed a lawsuit accusing the LAPD of covering up police involvement in her son’s killing. In February 2004, Carson visited Mack at a federal prison in Alabama. Mack has said Car- son offered to seék a reduction in his 14-year sentence for the bank robbery if he cooperated in the ‘Wallace investigation. In a court filing, Mack said he fejected the offer in no uncertain terms. “I advised Carson that hc had to be either the most inept or la- giést agent I had ever met,” Mack wrote, “It was obvious that he... was only regurgitating the alle- gations contaimed in the Wallace “This week, FBI officials dis- puted Mack’s account, contend- ing that Carson never offered to seek a reduction in his sentence, which they said would tave via- lated FBI policy. . In September, FBI officials say, they asked Carson to attend a meeting to discuss why his name was on a plaintiff's list of potential witnesses. During the meeting, Carson’s bosses also discussed his con- duct of the investigation and ex- plored his dealings with the plaintiff's attorneys, sources said. FBI officials were concerned that Carson might have been in- fluenced by the Wallace lawyers - and that his contacts with them. could embarrass the bureau, the sources said. FBI agents are permitted to contact civil attorneys to see if they have information relevant to a criminal investigation. But bureau policy bars agents from sharing investigative informa- tion with them. Carson and his FBI superiors said he never shared information with Wallace's lawyers. Times staff writer Greg Kri- kKortan contributed to this re- port.