An officer with the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) task force, Pérez was involved in numerous crimes and corruption, notably the shooting and framing of Javier Ovando, in addition to the theft and resale of at least $800,000 of cocaine from LAPD evidence lockers.

[3] When Pérez was finally arrested, he implicated 70 other Rampart Division officers in various forms of misconduct, ranging from bad shootings to consuming alcohol while on duty.

[citation needed] Pérez graduated from high school in 1985 and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, where he was stationed in Maine and California.

(The theft was originally suspected to be an attempt at framing fellow officer Frank Lyga in retaliation for the shooting of Pérez's friend, Kevin Gaines.

[citation needed] On November 6, 1997, fellow CRASH officer David Mack and two accomplices stole $722,000 during a robbery at a Bank of America branch near the University of Southern California campus.

[citation needed] Pérez, who legally changed his name to Ray Lopez, was arrested in July by Department of Motor Vehicles investigators while visiting his federal parole officer in Inglewood.

[19] The credibility of Pérez has been undermined by his testimony in several internal affairs investigations in which three officers, including Brian Liddy, were accused of crimes or misconduct, only to subsequently be found not guilty or have the charges against them dropped.

[citation needed] The lawsuit states that Pérez, Nino Durden, their partner former officer David Mack, and "certain unknown persons" were responsible for the death of Christopher Wallace.

The rapper was shot to death on March 9, 1997, as he and Sean Combs left the 11th Annual Soul Train Music Awards after-party held at the Petersen Automotive Museum on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles.

The lawsuit states the killing was committed "in a very efficient, organized and professional manner, suggesting that a high degree of coordination and planning preceded his murder."

Knight is known to have hired off-duty Rampart cops for security such as Kevin Gaines, who was shot to death by fellow LAPD officer Frank Lyga on March 18, 1997.