Pubdate: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 Source: Houston Chronicle (TX) Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle Page: 18A Contact: http://www.chron.com/ Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html Related: For how this relates to drug policy, see: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99.n1033.a04.html INVESTIGATION TO ZERO IN ON L.A. POLICE Wide-Ranging Corruption Is Alleged LOS ANGELES -- Allegations that rogue cops shot unarmed suspects, planted evidence and lied about it will be scrutinized by a special board of inquiry, Police Chief Bernard Parks said Tuesday. The probe also led a judge to suspend an injunction against the 18th Street gang that barred the gang from gathering. The injunction was based on declarations by some of the same officers now caught up in the corruption case. Deputy District Attorney David Demerjian said 15 people have been arrested for violating the injunction. He claimed the quality of life in the community will deteriorate as soon as gangs hear it was stayed. The upending of the injunction -- part of a strategy for controlling gangs' street activities -- was the latest repercussion of the investigation focusing on officers working in the Rampart neighborhood west of downtown. Parks later appeared before City Council members, who sought assurances that the Police Commission's inspector general will have access to the department's internal investigation and asked that the probe not limit itself to the Rampart station. At the center of the investigation is Rafael Perez, a former Rampart station narcotics officer convicted of stealing $1 million worth of cocaine from a police evidence room. In an effort to obtain a lesser sentence, Perez has talked to investigators, telling them of suspects being framed for crimes they didn't commit, of officers lying in court to win convictions and, in some cases, of officers shooting unarmed suspects, then accusing them of assault. Calling corruption at the Los Angeles Police Department "a cancer ... that has gone on a long time without being treated," Perez said he and other officers routinely abused their power to win praise from their superiors. Perez said that ambitious officers join the LAPD's anti-gang and other specialized units, "trying to do the right thing, thinking they're doing the right thing, trying to impress supervisors ... and stopping at nothing to do that." As he fulfilled his lifelong dream of being a narcotics officer, Perez, 32, said he knew "no limit." Perez is cooperating with investigators as part of a plea bargain agreement in which he is expected to receive a five-year prison sentence for stealing about 8 pounds of cocaine from the LAPD's evidence room. He already has implicated himself and his former partner in a shooting that left an unarmed man in a wheelchair and wrongfully imprisoned, and has described as "dirty" at least one other Rampart shooting in which a man was killed. Investigators are probing allegations ranging from illegal shootings and drug dealing to excessive use of force and "code of silence" offenses. On Monday, police sources confirmed that a captain from the Rampart station was among those facing punishment in connection with the scandal. Capt. Richard Meraz, the station's second-highest officer, has been cited for failing to supervise officers under his command, sources said. According to those sources, Meraz has come under fire because a supervisor in the station at one point brought an officer to the captain and said the officer had witnessed the alleged beating of Ismael Jimenez inside the Rampart station. Meraz's response, the sources said, was to say he did not want to hear any details. If true, those accusations could land Meraz in serious trouble, though he is not a suspect in any of the alleged criminal wrongdoing under investigation. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake