THE DOSSIER

In 1999, LAPD detectives Buford Watts and Fred Miller (whose name should ring a bell) served a sweeping search warrant on the following places while investigating the murder of Biggie Smalls: A 1995 Chevy Impala SS that was in the possession of Michel’le Toussant Knight 8200 Wilshire Boulevard – at the time the home of Death Row Records’ Company Offices The home of Michel’le Toussant Knight The home of Reggie Wright Jr. While information has been scarce for years about the affidavit and search warrant, we are in possession of the thirteen-page document. In this week’s episode, Don Sikorski dissects not only the search warrant, but the confidential informants whose information was used by LAPD in this investigation. One name will be familiar to Dosser listeners - find out who LAPD Detective Miller was referring to during his testimony in the civil trial when he stated that “the information he provided us was very good.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we get deeper into the FBI Files data dump, one correlation came to mind: at every step of the investigation by the FBI and Phil Carson, he had to constantly communicate to his bosses and many investigators within the FBI. He had to provide the path he wanted to take to get further evidence and information that would lead to a prosecutable case. This episode we dissect an electronic communication from April 22nd of 2004. It was defined as a restricted document and the Synopsis as written was to communicate investigative leads, and witnesses which Phil Carson wanted to pursue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here at Dossier HQ, it is with a melancholy sadness that we end our years long quest to get disgraced former LA Times journalist Chuck Philips to come clean regarding his knowledge of the players and forces behind the murders of Biggie & Tupac. As many of our listeners know, Philips died in late January with Dossier Producers hot on his trail. Don Sikorski and the rest of the team have been in relentless pursuit of Philips for over five years, and our disappointment in the Grim Reaper catching up to Philips before we did is profound. So with that we mourn Philips' secrets, we mourn his persistence to somehow wedge himself in between Suge Knight & Death Row, the LA Times, the FBI and Phil Carson, and the LAPD in such a way, that his back story and mystery takes on even more added subterfuge and red herrings. In this special bonus episode, Don Sikorski gives Chuck Philips the proper sendoff as only The Dossier can. Rest Easy Chuck. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The FBI investigation documents are broken out into a few categories: the last two episodes really looked at the idea of evidence, but more importantly witnesses, and informants that hold information.   The documents that we find more interesting, and really speak to the cover-up or a lack of effort on the part of the LAPD are contained in internal FBI memos that were circulated among the higher-ups at the LA Field Division.   Call it political, call it back-room deal making, call it having an inside track to understanding years after the murder of Biggie, the high-profile names that had to do a sinister job of managing what would become a huge mistake by one of America’s biggest police departments.   Names like famed Chief of Police Bill Bratton, and his hatchet man Mike Berkow, and in these documents you start to see the influence of the Criminal Division of the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office.   If it wasn’t bad enough that the Wallace Family was suing the city for $400 million dollars for wrongful death, here comes FBI Agent Phil Carson wanting access to the Murder Books, wanting access to detectives at Robbery/Homicide, wanting information and more importantly just wanting the truth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don Sikorski continues dissecting what we’re calling the ‘Origin Document’ of the FBI’s investigation into Biggie’s murder, and this is where it gets interesting. FBI agent Phil Carson is outlining to his FBI bosses, the confidential informants, confidential sources, and witnesses to interview. Now, one caveat: in the world that any FBI agent steps into there are red herrings, the hiding and misdirection of truth, and to be clear, these documents are not gospel; but they do show the directions they were looking in and what people who were insiders of Death Row, the LAPD and this dark underworld were saying transpired. These documents contain information from upwards of 15 People, 15 sources of information - NOT one informant, or source. Needless to say, this Origin Document led to the FBI opening a full field investigation into potential LAPD involvement in the murder of Christopher Wallace. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Season One of The Dossier, retired FBI agent Phil Carson walked listeners through the origin of his investigation into the murder of Biggie. After receiving approval from his bosses at the LA Field Division, agent Carson began a months long fact finding mission, as he gathered evidence and spoke to witnesses. He then wrote an Electronic Communication (EC) to his superiors and broke down what he’d learned, requesting that the FBI open a full field investigation into the matter. In this episode, Don Sikorski breaks down Carson’s EC to his bosses. It’s the official origin document of the investigation of potential police involvement in the murder of Christopher Wallace. For more information, exclusive content, background materials and more, please go to www.patreon.com/dossier Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Detective Frank Lyga had already been through more in the last few years than most officers deal with during a career. From the Gaines shooting to the multiple investigations into the incident, to the theft of his cocaine and the scrutiny that followed…Lyga needed a break.   That wasn’t remotely what he got, however.   First, he had to face off with powerful attorneys Johnnie Cochran & Carl Douglas in the wrongful death suit filed by the Gaines family. His reputation was already in tatters, as Cochran and company played the media like a fiddle, planting stories about Lyga that portrayed him as a wild-eyed racist cop.   Former detective Lyga takes Don Sikorski inside the civil suit, from his deposition with Carl Douglas to the controversial settlement, he gives listeners a front row seat into the politics that took place behind the scenes.   That was far from Lyga’s only problem, as the Gaines incident had fractured the LAPD along racial lines – and he was in the eye of the storm. Frank discusses what all the swirling controversy did to him, both mentally and physically. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After being cleared by LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Detectives, the District Attorney’s office and THREE Shooting Boards, Detective Frank Lyga thought he could finally breathe a sigh of relief.  That feeling would not last long. Two weeks after LAPD Chief Bernard Parks announced that he’d been cleared of any wrongdoing in the shooting death of Kevin Gaines, two pounds of cocaine belonging to one of Detective Lyga’s cases would mysteriously vanish. Suddenly, Frank was considered a crooked cop, a thief and drug dealer who’d gotten away with murder.  After months of being under 24-hour surveillance by Internal Affairs, he would be called into a secret meeting with Rampart Task Force Detectives Mike Hohan and Brian Tyndall. In this week’s episode, Lyga takes Dossier host Don Sikorski through that secret meeting, which included a stunning piece of information picked up by detectives during a Title 3 wiretap on Raphael Perez’ phone. He also discusses a previously unknown connection to Perez and his partner in crime, David Mack. The Dossier II: The Secret Biggie FBI Files is a production of Criminal Minded Media, Action Park Media and DCP Entertainment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Detective Lyga’s career twisted in the wind following the shooting death of Kevin Gaines, he would face a multitude of attacks from inside and outside the LAPD. It was just days after the incident that the Gaines family would hire Johnny Cochran as their attorney, who along with Carl Douglas immediately began to paint Lyga as an “out-of-control racist cop.” At the same time, the Officer Involved Shooting (OIS) investigation continued, headed by LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Detectives, while the District Attorney’s office considered charges stemming from the incident. Newly appointed LAPD Chief Bernard Parks would put Detective Lyga through three separate Shooting Boards, something never done to an LAPD officer before or since. Frank Lyga would find an ally inside the department, from one of the LAPD officers investigating the Gaines shooting — Robbery Homicide Detective Russell Poole. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When any police department gets into trouble, leadership will do their best to triage the problems right away. At the biggest police departments like the LAPD or NYPD, a lot of times these internal task forces are developed, wherein seasoned investigators along with a version of Internal Affairs decide to roll up their sleeves and go after their own. But do they really? In these circumstances, sometimes begrudgingly, police departments will put together joint task forces that include FBI agents, and that is where the fun really starts. Because if you know anything about law enforcement, you know that no cops really like the FBI. My knowledge about Rampart, and some of the investigative bodies comes from Phil Carson and what he talked about on Season 1 of The Dossier. He was brought in as an FBI agent in the Public Corruption Division of the FBI to work with LAPD investigators as a part of RAMFIT. But again, I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves here. Let’s take this step by step, to really find out WHAT the LAPD did right after they realized their own officers were robbing banks, stealing coke, beating people up, planting guns and drugs - and oh yeah, they also are working inside Death Row Records for Suge Knight. SO WHAT DID THEY DO?? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the immediate aftermath of the death of Kevin Gaines, the story of the cop versus cop shootout in broad daylight would become world news within 24 hours of the incident.   While Frank Lyga received support in the hours after the shooting all the way up to Chief Willie Williams, soon after the narrative would begin to change. Especially as the Gaines family hired Johnny Cochran, and then-Head of Internal Affairs Bernard Parks pulled his personnel package. As former detective Lyga takes us through those initial hours and days following the shooting, for the first time on record he tells Don Sikorski what he now believes regarding Kevin Gaines’ motivations & actions on that fateful day.  That includes an eerie coincidence regarding the gas station where Gaines’ life would end on March 18th, 1997. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you say the name Rampart to anyone, maybe they have heard and identify it with an immense police scandal inside the Los Angeles Police Department. In this podcast, I believe if you counted, it has been mentioned 100s of times. There also is case to be made that when people say RAMPART, they might tell you they know what the story is, BUT DO THEY REALLY understand and know the various aspects of it? Now coming up on its 25 year anniversary, I felt the need to really go back in time for my own personal knowledge to examine each aspect of it. In the words of famed journalist and author Randall Sullivan, Rampart might be the biggest LIE that an American police department has ever spun. Even more importantly, I wanted to undertake this exercise because I have a feeling very soon, Rampart will be back in the American cultural zeitgeist with television specials or documentary series, everyone in TV loves an anniversary, so for me I am just getting a head start. With the Dossier, what I have tried to do is base my reporting and investigating on a road map, and the road map I want to use for these series of episodes on Rampart, is a document titled: The Los Angeles Police Department Board of Inquiry into the Rampart Area Corruption Incident, authored by the illustrious Los Angeles ex-Chief of Police Bernard C. Parks written March 1, 2000. I will be pulling information from the report, written by the police department itself to see, where are the lies, where are the contradictions, and where is the spin. Maybe at this point three years post scandal, the LAPD decided it was time to come clean, or MAYBE this report was the NARRATIVE that Parks wanted to be cemented in History. We will find out together some of those answers and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

March 18th, 1997 - The events of that afternoon would have far reaching effects that are still felt to this day. Detective Frank Lyga’s life and career were never the same. That could also be said for the Los Angeles Police Department, which immediately faced a racial divide among fellow officers that only grew more intense once Gaines’ family hired attorney Johnny Cochran. It also served as the match that would eventually turn into the flame that became the Rampart Scandal and engulfed the city of Los Angeles. In greater detail then ever before, Frank Lyga takes listeners through the events of that fateful day, second by second. As Don Sikorski spoke to Lyga about the incident, it became clear just how much the granular minutia of that day are burned into his memory forever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since March of 1997, former LAPD Detective Frank Lyga has been an enigma, followed by whispers and innuendo regarding his involvement in the shooting death of fellow LAPD officer Kevin Gaines. With the exception of a 23 year old interview with PBS Frontline, the notoriously press shy Lyga has never gone on the record about his time at the LAPD with anyone inside the media. Because of that, very little is known about the man outside of what transpired on March 18th, 1997. That’s about to change. In part one of a series of exclusive interviews with Don Sikorski, former detective Lyga gives us his origin story. He talks about what led him to joining the LAPD, as well as his career as a police officer prior to the events that changed his life in an instant. The Dossier II: The Secret Biggie FBI Files is a production of Criminal Minded Media, Action Park Media and DCP Entertainment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was in 1995, that the relationship between Chuck Philips and his obsession with Suge and Death Row Records started. Suge Knight was cold and calculating, and any journalist allowed around him at that time would have been part of a quid pro quo or they would have been intimidated by Suge with threats of violence. Suge trusted Chuck, but more importantly, Suge understood the power of the LA Times, and what it could do for him, Death Row Records, and his stable of artists. It might be hard to pinpoint when Chuck decided to start manipulating the truth and go down a deep and dark rabbit hole inside the East Coast vs. West Coast strife. But in a puff piece on Dr Dre, a series of paragraphs starts to indicate to the reader what would become Chuck’s obsession. That was the battle between Hip-Hop and the Cops in the LAPD, NYPD, FBI, and even DEA.  In Chuck's writing, I think this is where — and I am not being hyperbolic — his career in journalism shifted. ~ Don Sikorski Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Randall Sullivan has built a journalistic legacy over the course of his career. He was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone for over 20 years, and his work has been published in places like the Washington Post, Esquire & Guardian.   He also has authored numerous books, including The Curse of Oak Island, The Price of Experience, Untouchable, The Miracle Detective, LAbyrinth & Dead Wrong.  As Randall and Don continue their conversation, they touch on a number of topics related to the murder of Biggie, Rampart & much more… Here’s Part 2 of Don Sikorski’s interview with Randall Sullivan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2002, Randall Sullivan decided to publish LAbyrinth, what I consider the best piece of journalism ever written about the LAPD cover up of the murder of Biggie.  I can still vividly remember reading the book and realizing that I too wanted to become a reporter, an investigator, a writer. In some ways, you can make a case that Randall’s work inspired me and was a pivotal moment in my life. To imagine that almost 20 years later that I would become Randall’s friend and co-worker is staggering to think about. He remains a hero, and he remains a beacon of intense reporting and writing.  I will never be able to write as eloquently as Randall, but I will say my investigative skills have improved. It’s hard to believe that I would end up an Executive Producer of City of Lies, which was based on LAbyrinth. A full circle moment, to be sure. For Season 2 of The Dossier, I felt the need to go back to Randall, have a conversation and get some insight.  Here’s Part 1 of my interview with Randall Sullivan. The Dossier II: The Secret Biggie FBI Files is a production of Criminal Minded Media, Action Park Media and DCP Entertainment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It must be five years now that I have kept a color-coded binder of information under my desk inside my home office. The binder was sent by a fellow television producer, and it was very thorough. The full Dossier is a catalogue of the work of a journalist who has worked for the LA Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Rolling Stone, Spin, the Village Voice, the hip-hop bible Source Magazine, and many others. The name of this journalist is Chuck Philips. What if I explained to you, I know for a fact that Chuck Philips has information, evidence, tape recordings, and most likely a treasure trove of documents that would answer the questions on who killed Tupac Shakur, who killed Biggie Smalls, who at the LAPD had enough power to cover it up, and why? The Dossier II: The Secret Biggie FBI Files, is a production of Criminal Minded Media, Action Park Media and DCP Entertainment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After coming across Waymon Anderson’s name in numerous LAPD, FBI and civil trial documents, Don Sikorski tries to unpack his story in relation to the murder of Biggie. We take a closer look at documents from a Habeas Corpus hearing in 2008, and the testimony Waymon Anderson gave under oath in open court. Sikorski is re-joined by fellow Dossier producer John Anagnopoulos to discuss the relationship between Anderson and disgraced former LA Times journalist Chuck Philips. Episode note - We would like to thank RJ Bond for the audio excerpts of his prison interview with Waymon Anderson. The Dossier II: The Secret Biggie FBI Files is a production of Criminal Minded Media, Action Park Media and DCP Entertainment. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In June of 2005, the Wallace Family Civil Trial was in court, the wheels of justice were spinning. On a Friday afternoon Perry Sanders told the Court and the judge that he'd received a telephone call from someone claiming to be a former officer of the LAPD. This person in the phone call provided detailed information about the existence of evidence concerning the Biggie murder. The judge directed the Wallace family lawyers to provide to the City of LA, all available information about this development and directed the City of LA to conduct a thorough investigation. The trial was temporarily adjourned. As a result of the search of Robbery-Homicide undisclosed evidence was discovered, much of which was in the desk or cabinet of Detective Steven Katz, the lead detective in the Biggie Murder investigation. The documents centered around interviews by numerous police officers of Kenneth Boagni, who had been Rafael Perez’s cellmate for some extended period of time. Kenneth Boagni re-joins Don Sikorski to discuss a number of topics related to ’The Forgotten Files’ in this week’s episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices