Pubdate: Tue, 02 May 2000
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053
Fax: (213) 237-4712
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Forum: http://www.latimes.com/home/discuss/
Author: Edward J. Boyer, Times Staff Writer

2 MORE CONVICTIONS OVERTURNED AS A RESULT OF RAMPART FALLOUT

[]Scandal: Men were allegedly framed by LAPD officers for possession of 
firearms. They are turned over to INS for deportation.

Two more convictions of men allegedly framed by Los Angeles police officers 
have been overturned, defense attorneys said Thursday.

Edgar Escobar, 31, and Roberto Candido, 25, had been found guilty of being 
felons in possession of a firearm, convictions authorities later came to 
believe were won with false testimony by Rampart Division CRASH officers.

Acting on writs filed by defense attorneys--and joined by the district 
attorney's office--Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler on Wednesday vacated 
the convictions.

Escobar and Candido have been released from prison and turned over to the 
Immigration and Naturalization Service for deportation, said alternate 
public defender Gary Wigodsky.

The Rampart scandal has so far resulted in the overturning of 81 
convictions won by the district attorney's office.

Suspended Officers Nino Durden and Michael Buchanan arrested Escobar in 
1996, and both officers later testified that they had seen Escobar hand a 
gun to Rudolfo Moreno, Wigodsky said.

Escobar denied that he had a gun, and Moreno testified that he had never 
given the gun to Escobar.

Since then, former Officer Rafael Perez has testified that Durden, his 
former partner, and Buchanan were involved in filing false police reports, 
perjury and evidence planting.

Had defense attorneys been aware of that alleged misconduct, the outcome of 
the trial could have been affected, the district attorney's office said in 
court papers.

Those papers described a "pattern of fabrication" by the two officers, 
saying that pattern could have been used to show that the officers were 
involved in a scheme to give false testimony.

Candido was charged in September 1997 after Buchanan and Officer Daniel 
Lujan said they saw Candido throw a gun in a trash dumpster, Wigodsky said.

Candido denied having a gun and testified that the officers took him to the 
Rampart station, where one hit him in the ribs while he was handcuffed, and 
that Buchanan forced a gun into his hand to get his fingerprints on the 
weapon, Wigodsky said.

A jury was unable to reach a verdict in Candido's first trial, but he 
pleaded guilty just as a second trial was to begin and was sentenced to 32 
months in prison because the conviction was his second strike, Wigodsky 
said Perez had no personal knowledge of Candido's arrest, but he said in a 
sworn statement that it came at about the same time Buchanan had asked him 
and Durden for a spare gun to plant, the district attorney's court papers said.

"Perez did not give Buchanan a gun, but Durden told Perez he gave one to 
Buchanan," the court papers said. Knowing that, Perez believed the gun in 
Candido's case could have been planted, the papers said.
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