and eights. Rampart ties to Death Row Records The Rampart Corruption Task Force investigators discovered that hip hop mogul Suge Knight, owner of Death Row Records, had hired several of the corrupt Rampart officers for security at various times including Nino Durden, Kevin Gaines, David Mack, and Rafael Pérez. Knight was hiring off-duty Rampart policemen to work for Death Row as security guards for substantial amounts of money. After Gaines was killed, investigators discovered Gaines drove a Mercedes-Benz and wore designer suits, and they found a receipt in his apartment for a $952 restaurant tab at the Los Angeles hangout, Monty's Steakhouse. Ties to the Bloods According to Frank Lyga, who shot him, Kevin Gaines was flashing Blood gang signs and waving a gun. Ties to the murder of The Notorious B.I.G. On April 16, 2007, the estate of Christopher George Latore Wallace, a.k.a. The Notorious B.I.G., filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Los Angeles, which also named as defendants Rampart officers Durden, Mack, and Pérez. The lawsuit alleges that Durden, Mack, and Pérez conspired to murder Christopher Wallace, and Pérez and Mack were present on the night of the murder outside the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard, on March 9, 1997. On April 5, 2010, the Wallace family voluntarily dismissed this lawsuit and the claims against the City and the Rampart officers. Perry R. Sanders Jr., a lawyer for the estate, insisted the case was being withdrawn only to avoid interfering with what he called a "reinvigorated" police investigation, and he emphasized that since the suit was dismissed without prejudice, it could be refiled. LAPD investigators Brian Tyndall and Russell Poole also believed Mack and other Rampart police were involved in a conspiracy to kill Wallace. Poole claimed that Chief Parks refused to investigate their claims of Mack's involvement, suppressed their 40-page report, and instructed investigators not to pursue their inquiries. Poole, an 18-year veteran of the force, quit the LAPD in protest, and later filed a lawsuit against the LAPD for violating his First Amendment rights by preventing him from making his information public. Record settlement The city of Los Angeles faced more than 140 civil suits resulting from the Rampart scandal and paid total estimated settlement costs around $125 million. Javier Ovando was awarded a $15 million settlement on November 21, 2000, the largest police misconduct settlement in Los Angeles history. Twenty-nine other