Pubdate: Sat, 18 Sept 1999 Source: Associated Press Copyright: 1999 Associated Press Author: John Rogers, Associated Press Writer VETERAN NARC WHO STOLE DRUGS FROM LAPD BROUGHT SCANDAL TO LIGHT LOS ANGELES - The scandal that rocked the Los Angeles Police Department this week with tales of drug thefts, shootings of innocent victims and the framing of suspects was broken open when a cop-turned-drug thief decided to turn snitch as well. Former Officer Rafael Perez, who pleaded guilty Sept. 8 to stealing $1 million worth of cocaine, has been cooperating with investigators under terms of a plea bargain. He is in jail pending an Oct. 22 sentencing. So far, investigators say, the former undercover narcotics officer has told of handcuffing and shooting a man, planting evidence, lying in court, and witnessing still other police abuses during a raid in which one person was shot to death and another wounded. His information has resulted in one gang member who was serving a 23-year sentence for assault on a police officer being freed from prison Thursday and placed under police protection. Authorities say Javier Francisco Ovando, who was paralyzed after being shot during the October 1996 confrontation with Perez and his partner, is also cooperating with their investigation. Another case, in which one man was shot to death and one wounded during a police raid, is being investigated, and 10 officers and a supervisor who worked at the department's Rampart station have been suspended with pay. Officers at the station, just west of downtown, police an 8-square-mile neighborhood containing one of the city's largest immigrant communities. Asked if the scandal could broaden, officials said it's too early to tell. "At this point, I don't think any of us know," Police Commission President Gerald Chaleff said Friday. But Police Chief Bernard Parks said more than 200 letters have been sent to defense attorneys, telling them evidence in cases Perez was involved in may have been tainted. The letters went out a year ago, when Perez was initially arrested, district attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said. No one responded, but she expects to hear from several attorneys now that Perez has been convicted. Meanwhile, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced this week that it would conduct its own investigation. And attorneys for Ovando's girlfriend said Friday they would sue the Police Department on behalf of the couple's 2-year-old daughter, Destiny, who was born after Ovando was sent to prison. "Someone from the LAPD attempted to execute him, he's in a wheelchair," attorney Gregory Smith said of Ovando. "Obviously his daughter will never have a father who can play with her and pick her up and dance with her when she gets older." He didn't specify the amount of damages he would seek, but called it a "large money case." "It's a bad situation for the city and the department," Parks said of what his investigators have called the worst scandal since the 1930s, a time when the department was notorious for corruption and renegade officers were known to sometimes bomb the homes of people who stood up to them. It began to come to light last year, when Perez, 32, was charged with stealing eight pounds of cocaine from an evidence room. He subsequently told investigators he and a former partner handcuffed and shot Ovando, planted a gun on him and framed him with their testimony in court. Although a gang member, Ovando had no criminal convictions. Investigators say Perez also told them a July 1996 raid he took part in was "dirty." Officers who arrived at a building planning to arrest two armed gang members wound up firing 10 rounds, killing one man and wounding another. The wounded man and another person who was not hurt were charged with assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer. As the allegations burst forth this week, police officials maintained that the department has been relatively free of corruption for decades, and attorneys for Ovando's family agreed that was true. "There are many fine officers in the LAPD, I think we're looking at a small minority here," said attorney Dennis Chang at a news conference where the planned lawsuit was announced. "But it is the LAPD that investigates the LAPD and it's the LAPD, through its review board, that prosecutes the LAPD," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea