Pubdate: Thu, 20 Dec 2001
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Matt Lait, Scott Glover, Times Staff Writers
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rampart.htm (L.A. Rampart Scandal)

LAPD PAIR FOCUS OF CRIMINAL PROBE

Police: Federal and local investigators are pursuing allegations that the 
two officers robbed drug dealers at gunpoint in an ongoing scheme.

Federal and local authorities are investigating allegations that a pair of 
Los Angeles police officers committed a series of armed robberies, stealing 
narcotics and money from drug dealers, according to sources and documents.

Although Officer Ruben Palomares was earlier named as a suspect in the 
crimes, authorities are now probing whether he and Officer William Ferguson 
were involved in a criminal partnership similar to that of Rafael Perez and 
Nino Durden, the former LAPD officers at the center of the so-called 
Rampart scandal.

The investigation of Palomares and Ferguson is unrelated to the Rampart 
case, and comes just as that probe is winding down. Law enforcement sources 
familiar with the investigation into the alleged activities of Palomares 
and Ferguson said other officers, both from within the LAPD and from 
outside agencies, are under scrutiny as part of the probe. The sources, who 
requested anonymity due to the confidential nature of the investigation, 
declined to elaborate on its scope or current status.

Attorneys for Palomares and Ferguson, both of whom are suspended without 
pay, denied that the two were involved in any crimes together. Neither has 
been charged in the alleged rip-offs.

"I think they're out there pounding the pavement, chasing ghosts," said 
attorney Robert Rico, who represents Ferguson. The lawyer for Palomares 
declined comment.

Federal investigators, along with the LAPD, launched the probe in June 
shortly after Palomares was arrested while allegedly attempting to buy 10 
kilos of cocaine from undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents in 
San Diego.

One of the men with Palomares that day immediately confessed to the drug 
deal, according to several law enforcement sources. He also told 
authorities that he was with Palomares during the commission of several 
other crimes, including the attempted armed robbery of a drug dealer and a 
murder in Huntington Park. He did not implicate Ferguson in the slaying.

The cooperating witness, 26-year-old Alvin Moon, picked Ferguson out of a 
photo lineup and alleged that he participated in some of the robberies of 
drug dealers, according to several sources familiar with the case. Moon 
told investigators that the stolen drugs were then given to two other 
men--cousins of Palomares--to sell on the street, according to confidential 
court documents reviewed by The Times.

Palomares, 32, is in custody in San Diego awaiting trial. Ferguson, 29, has 
been relieved of duty without pay for more than a year pending an internal 
disciplinary hearing into unrelated misconduct charges.

Police Commission President Rick Caruso said he was "angered and troubled" 
by the alleged actions of Ferguson and Palomares.

"The investigation is going to take us wherever it needs to take us. My 
biggest concern right now is to make sure [LAPD detectives] have all the 
resources they need to fully investigate this and get to the bottom of it."

Moon pleaded guilty in federal court earlier this month in connection with 
the San Diego cocaine deal. His attorney, Jeremy Warren, declined to 
comment on whether Moon is cooperating with authorities.

According to sources familiar with Moon's initial statements to 
investigators, he said he was with Palomares, Ferguson and others when they 
burst into a Los Angeles-area automotive shop in search of a large stash of 
narcotics. Moon said he believed the shop was targeted based on information 
either Ferguson or Palomares obtained while working for the Los Angeles 
Police Department.

Although they came up empty-handed on that occasion, Moon told authorities 
that he had heard boasts that the officers had acquired large quantities of 
narcotics during other robberies, according to one source, who spoke on the 
condition of anonymity.

Federal Authorities Pursue Racketeering Case

According to several law enforcement sources, federal authorities are 
pursuing a racketeering case against the officers under the theory that the 
robberies, the murder and perhaps other crimes were part of a continuing 
criminal enterprise.

The alleged crimes are believed to have been committed over the last two 
years, authorities said. During that time, Ferguson was assigned to the 
LAPD's Southeast Division. Palomares was assigned to the Training Division 
and later the Northeast Division.

As part of the investigation, authorities have conducted several searches. 
Within hours of Palomares' arrest in San Diego, investigators seized half a 
dozen unregistered assault weapons and a money-counting machine from the 
Diamond Bar home he shares with his girlfriend, who is also an LAPD officer.

Law enforcement sources said evidence suggests that Palomares was 
generating significant income beyond his police salary of no more than 
$60,000. During the DEA drug sting in San Diego, Palomares is alleged to 
have provided half of the $130,000 to buy the 10 kilograms of cocaine.

Since the search of Palomares' home in June, state Department of Fish and 
Game agents, at the request of investigators, searched Ferguson's boat 
after a fishing trip off San Diego. That search turned up nothing, 
according to Ferguson's attorney.

Investigators have also searched the home of the brother of Palomares' 
girlfriend, after Moon claimed that it was once used as a location to store 
stolen narcotics. That search also was fruitless, said the attorney, Rico.

Rico said Moon had a motive to falsely implicate Officer Ferguson. He said 
the two were at a barbecue at Palomares' house last spring when they got 
into a fistfight over some rude comments Moon allegedly made about some of 
the guests.

"He had reason to get back at Bill [Ferguson]," the lawyer said.

But several law enforcement sources involved in the investigation say Moon 
has proven so far to be a credible witness, based in part on the 
information he provided regarding the killing of 23-year-old Erick Mendoza 
of Huntington Park last December.

Informant's Story Matches Security Video

At the time, police had no suspects in the case. Moon, after his arrest in 
the drug sting, volunteered that Mendoza was punched multiple times by 
Palomares, a Golden Gloves boxer who once sparred with ex-world champion 
Oscar De La Hoya. After the barrage, Palomares' cousin Oscar Loaiza fatally 
stabbed the young man, according to Moon.

Moon said the killing followed an argument between Palomares and the victim 
outside a late-night restaurant, where the officer allegedly drew a gun.

Moon's statement dovetailed with a security videotape of a man brandishing 
a weapon. Police have since identified the man on tape as Palomares and 
consider the murder solved. Loaiza is being sought by authorities.

Although the investigation into Palomares and Ferguson does not stem from 
the Rampart investigation, both officers spent time in the troubled 
division during the same period in the late 1990s that Perez said criminal 
activity and misconduct flourished.

In fact, Perez, the ex-cop-turned-informant, identified Palomares as a 
corrupt officer during interviews with LAPD detectives.

"I would look at everything Palomares has done, every arrest that he's made 
and scrutinize it very carefully," Perez told investigators during a 
debriefing in November 2000.

Perez also implicated Palomares in an allegedly unjustified shooting of a 
drug dealer in the Rampart Division in 1998. According to Perez, Palomares 
and his then-partner intimated to him that they had planted a shotgun on 
the previously unarmed man to justify their actions. That shooting remains 
under investigation.

Perez said nothing about Ferguson in his statements to investigators.

According to court records, Ferguson was arrested for burglary in January 
1991. He was 18 at the time and pleaded no contest to misdemeanor attempted 
burglary. He was sentenced to three years' probation, records show. Though 
a felony conviction bars an applicant from being hired by the LAPD, a 
misdemeanor does not necessarily do so.

After a stint in the Marines, Ferguson joined the department in 1997. From 
the start, the young officer was the subject of several misconduct 
investigations, first during his probationary term at Rampart and later 
during his assignment in the Southeast Division.

Young Officer Was in Trouble From Start

Ferguson has faced departmental disciplinary charges on four occasions for 
alleged offenses ranging from forging a supervisor's signature to filing 
false reports and threatening to plant evidence on a suspect. He was 
exonerated of misconduct charges at two internal disciplinary hearings and 
suspended for 15 days at another in which he was found guilty of 
"inappropriately [signing] a supervisor's signature" to an investigative 
document.

The last--and most serious--case against Ferguson is pending. He faces 15 
counts of misconduct stemming from the events leading up to, and after, a 
Feb. 8, 1999, police shooting. Investigators allege that Ferguson lied 
about the circumstances of the shooting in which he fired at, but missed, 
an alleged drug dealer. They also accused him of falsely arresting 
witnesses to the shooting on drug charges a week later.

Concerned that Ferguson was engaged in possible criminal activity, LAPD 
investigators searched his locker and found a replica handgun that, in the 
opinion of one detective, was most likely possessed by Ferguson to be used 
as "planted evidence."

According to a court affidavit filed at the time of the search, Ferguson's 
supervisors believed he exhibited a "pattern of conduct that is consistent 
with criminal police misconduct during narcotics investigations. The 
misconduct includes manufacturing evidence and unreasonable and"or illegal 
entries into private residences."

Civil Suit Cost City $1.7 Million Last Month

Last month, the city agreed to pay $1.7 million to settle a civil lawsuit 
filed by the man at whom Ferguson shot, and others who claimed they were 
tormented by the officer. The settlement came after Ferguson and his 
partner, Jeffrey Robb, known on the streets as Batman and Robin, refused to 
testify under oath, citing their constitutional right against 
self-incrimination.

Attorney Rico, who represented Palomares before becoming Ferguson's lawyer, 
said the two officers are friends, but he declined to provide details about 
their relationship.

Two acquaintances of Palomares, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, 
said Ferguson often hung out at Palomares' Diamond Bar home, drinking beer 
and lounging by the pool.

Ferguson also appeared to be friends with another of Palomares' cousins, 
Gabriel Loaiza, who was was arrested along with Palomares after the alleged 
cocaine deal in San Diego. Earlier this year, Ferguson attempted to use his 
clout as an LAPD officer to get Loaiza a job as a security guard, according 
to a source who also asked not to be identified.

Gabriel Loaiza pleaded not guilty in the San Diego cocaine case. His lawyer 
declined to comment on Moon's allegations.

According to Assistant U.S. Atty. Randy Jones, Gabriel Loaiza was 
Palomares' "right-hand man" and a wannabe police officer who had job 
applications pending with several law enforcement agencies.

"He wanted to become a police officer so he could get a badge [and] do the 
type of rip-offs Mr. Palomares was doing," the prosecutor said during a 
June court hearing.
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MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens