THE DOSSIER

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.

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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??

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Rehashing the day after Biggie was killed is old news, for you maybe it isn’t.

What isn’t old news is Chuck Philips’ article on March 10th of 1997.

In reading this for the first time with fresh eyes, it’s like staring at a painting in the Louvre for three days, and on the fourth, you find a different pattern.

The headline of the article reads “Gangsta Rap Performer Notorious B.I.G. Slain.” Barely 24 hours after the murder of Biggie, the narratives being pushed by the LAPD begin to form through their future mouthpiece – the LA Times & Chuck Philips.

The Dossier II: The Secret Biggie FBI Files is a production of Criminal Minded Media, Action Park Media and DCP Entertainment.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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