Rapper’s family prepares for talks

Lawyers for relatives of slain rapper Notorious B.I.G. are preparing for mediation talks in their wrongful death lawsuit against the city and several police officers.

The rapper, whose real name was Christopher Wallace, was killed in a drive-by shooting in the Mid-Wilshire district in 1997.

No arrests were made in the case, and family members filed suit in 2002 alleging that former Los Angeles Police Department officers and others in the rap industry had plotted to kill him.

Last week, a federal judge threw out a second lawsuit the family filed claiming that corrupt LAPD officers at the center of the department’s Rampart scandal were part of the plot.

The judge said the family waited too long to file the additional claims.

That decision came days after the judge put the first lawsuit on hold, ordering the two sides into mediation before a retired judge. The mediation sessions have not yet been scheduled, said a spokesman for the city attorney’s office. Lawyers for the Wallace family could not be reached for comment.

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-- Joel Rubin