City of Lies

Poole discovered that Kevin Gaines, the off-duty Black LAPD officer killed by Frank Lyga, was on Knight's payroll and had Bloods gang affiliations. Through an undercover FBI source, Poole corroborated a connection between Knight and Gaines, leading him to theorize that Knight orchestrated Wallace's murder using corrupt officers within the LAPD to silence Wallace before he could testify in a civil case.

Lieutenant O'Shea refused to credit Poole's theory about Knight's involvement and ordered the Gaines-Lyga case closed. Poole's findings threatened to expose deep institutional corruption connecting the LAPD to Death Row Records, and higher-ups were more concerned with managing the narrative amid citywide racial tensions following the Rodney King beating and O.J. Simpson trial than with pursuing the truth.

Poole chose to resign rather than stay silent about what he had discovered. He was granted his own task force to pursue the Wallace case and planned to testify in Lyga's civil trial about the LAPD cover-up, but the city settled before the trial. Facing isolation from colleagues, professional destruction, and moral impossibility of staying in a department that protected corrupt officers, Poole resigned in disgrace one month before pension eligibility, losing both his career and family.

The city settled to prevent Poole's testimony from becoming public. Had the case gone to trial, Poole would have revealed that David Mack was involved in Wallace's murder and that the LAPD had been covering it up. The settlement avoided exposing the depth of institutional corruption and prevented a potentially embarrassing revelation about the department's connections to Death Row Records.

Both Mack and Muhammad were named as defendants in Voletta Wallace's wrongful death claim, but they were dropped shortly before trial after the LAPD and FBI dismissed them as suspects. This effectively killed any chance of establishing criminal or civil liability for Wallace's murder, despite Poole's evidence linking Mack to the killing.

Jackson had previously written an article that implied Wallace was involved in Tupac Shakur's murder, which was false and hurtful to Wallace's legacy. When he reconnected with Poole and Voletta in 2015, Jackson apologized for that earlier article. Voletta accepted the apology, acknowledging Poole's sacrifice in pursuit of truth.

Kevin Gaines was an off-duty Black LAPD officer with ties to the Bloods gang. Poole discovered during his investigation that Gaines was receiving payments from Suge Knight, suggesting Knight had recruited corrupt officers within the LAPD as part of his network. This connection became central to Poole's theory that Knight orchestrated Wallace's murder using corrupt police officers.

Poole was tracking Pérez after learning he had been stealing cocaine from the LAPD evidence room. While surveilling Pérez, Poole witnessed him shoot a drug dealer. Poole intervened and shot Pérez in self-defense during the confrontation. Pérez was subsequently charged and implicated himself and other officers in various misconducts, providing valuable information about LAPD corruption.

Poole told Jackson that Wallace's earning potential could have reached approximately $1 billion. This figure meant that if Voletta Wallace's wrongful death claim had proceeded to trial and proven the LAPD's complicity in Wallace's murder, the city faced a civil suit that could have bankrupted Los Angeles. This high stakes motivated the city's aggressive efforts to suppress Poole's findings and settle cases quietly.

The murders remained officially unsolved because the LAPD and FBI dismissed key suspects like David Mack and Amir Muhammad, the city settled civil cases to prevent testimony from becoming public, and institutional corruption prevented any prosecution. Poole's investigation was blocked, his evidence suppressed, and he was driven from the force. Despite decades of investigation, the cover-up protected the guilty parties.