◆ SpookStack

A | ; According to Poole, Knight had shakur Mes because the rap star was about te leaVe his label -- and Knight _ then had Wallace murdered to make it appear that both slayings were the result of a bicoastai rap feud. Poole contends that Knight may have used corrupt police officers to help carry out both murders. Mack, onetime partner of disgraced former LAPD Officer Rafael Perez, came under suspicion after he was arrested in December 1997 for robbing a bank. He was later convicted and is serving a 14-year prison term. Mack owned a black Impala similar to the car used in the Wallace slaying, and a witness reported seeing him at the scene. Informants told investigators that Mack may have provided security for Knight. Both men grew up in Compton. Poole began scrutinizing Muhammad, who was a classmate of Mack's at the University of Oregon, after learning that he had visited Mack in prison in December 1997. Several months earlier, a jailhouse informant had told detectives that Wallace's killer was a Southside Crip who went by a Middle Eastern name, possibly “Amir® or “Ashmir" - - and that his true name might be Abraham or Kenny or Keeky. A driver's license photo of Muhammad resembles a police sketch of Wallace's killer based on witness descriptions. One witness told police he saw a man who resembled Muhammad outside the Petersen museum the night of the shooting. . Muhammad, in the phone interview, said the account was unfounded. "Anybody who says they saw me there that night or that | had anything to do with this is a liar," he said. Poole resigned from the LAPD in 1999 after disputes with his superiors about the direction of various investigations, including the one into Wailace's murder. Since then, Poole has promoted his theory of the Wallace slaying in newspaper interviews and books and through appearances on documentaries and TV shows. He has endorsed a screenplay treatment of it that is _being shopped to Hollywood studios. Actor Sylvester Stallone has discussed portraying Poole in a movie. Poole also joined forces with Wallace's mother, Voletta, who filed a wrongful-death suit against the city of Los Angeles two years ago. The suit contends the LAPD covered up police involvement in the rapper's killing. The case is scheduled to go to trial July 27 in federal court in Los Angeles, with Poole testifying as an expert witness for the plaintiffs. Lawyers in the case have taken depositions from Poole and other police officers tied t the Wallace investigation. In-those depositions, which have been sealed under court order, officers disciose- details about the FBI probe. The FBI's interest in the case was sparked by a TV special on the Waliace killing aired on the VH1 cable channe! last summer. An FB! agent who saw the show later contacted attorneys for the Wallace family, who alleged that witnesses were afraid to taik to LAPD detectives about the case, documents show. The FBi has interviewed several witnesses at the suggestion of the Wallace family's lawyers. Depositions suggest that agents have reviewed Muhammad's mortgage payments and phone records and conducted wu—*aos, trying to tink him to Mack, The FBI recently conducted surveillance of Muhammad in San Diego sources said, wired an informant in an attempt to elicit incriminating statements from him. ihe effort yielded nothing; according: to court documents ana people familiar wi e case. An FBI agent recently tried to interview Mack at the federal prison in Alabama where he is. serving 14. years for the 1997 bank tobbery: Mack denied having anything to do with the Wallace murder, according to court records and sources. The FBI declined to comment on the investigation. Documents indicate that the bureau is coordinating its work ‘with the LAPD's Professional Standards Bureau, which looks into alleged police misconduct. http://paasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/583747 181 .btmi?MAC=0d87ecfef255c4896d31a723a... 3/22/2004 Scere