The panel supports a jury's verdict that the LAPD and city violated the rights of the three men by arresting and charging them without adequate evidence during their division's corruption scandal. A federal appeals court upheld a $15 million jury verdict for three Los Angeles police officers who alleged they were falsely arrested and prosecuted as part of the Rampart corruption scandal. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said there was evidence to support the jury's verdict that the city and the Los Angeles Police Department violated the officers' constitutional rights by arresting and charging the men without an adequate investigation. [continues 482 words]
OK, we aren't big fans of needless paperwork and don't care to share too much information about our personal finances. But, come on, who does the police union expect to fall for their empty threats that 600 well-paid drug cops will bail from their jobs if forced to comply with new financial disclosure rules aimed at heading off a repeat of the Rampart scandal? In a radio commercial, Tim Sands, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, says drug cops face possible "identity theft" if they must turn over detailed tax returns, bank account information and other details of their financial holdings every two years. The new rules, approved last month by the police commission, are called for in the ongoing federal consent decree, which gave federal judge Gary Feess the power to oversee how the department is run in the aftermath of the Rampart scandal that rocked the department a decade ago. [continues 278 words]
The Commission Is Trying to Get Out From Under a Court Order for Reform. Critics Say the New Policy Is Invasive and Won't Work. The Los Angeles Police Commission approved a plan Thursday to require hundreds of anti-gang and narcotics officers to disclose detailed information about their personal finances, triggering an immediate court challenge by the police officers union and a debate at City Hall over whether to overrule the panel. At issue in the rapidly intensifying dispute is what LAPD Chief William J. Bratton and the five-member commission hope will be one of the final pieces of a broad reform campaign that began after the Rampart corruption scandal and has kept the department under federal oversight since 2000. [continues 1086 words]
It's Hard to See How Combing Through Police Officers' Finances Would Be a Useful Tool for Fighting Corruption. The Los Angeles Police Department recently entered its eighth year under a federal consent decree that imposes strict mandates on operations and record keeping. The LAPD has modernized its procedures to root out corruption and purge from its ranks a Rampart-era culture of excessive force and false arrest. Full compliance with the decree is within reach, and it is tempting to urge the Police Commission to finish the job today by completing one final piece -- requiring full disclosure of personal and family finances by those officers in specialized units who in theory could be bribed because of greed or financial distress. [continues 340 words]
Gang and Narcotics Officers Won't Stand for a Financial Snooping Requirement. Violent crime is down in L.A. by 7.8%, property crime by 3.4%. That's the good news. The bad news is that, as of this morning, up to 800 gang and narcotics officers who helped make that drop possible are deciding whether to leave their jobs -- all because of the inability of a federal judge to make a sensible decision. Here's the deal. According to the provisions of the federal consent decree, LAPD officers at the rank of lieutenant or below who work in either gang or narcotics details have to sign disclosure agreements documenting all their personal finances and giving the department access to their financial records. The idea is to ensure that these officers are not stealing money, drugs or other "valuable contraband." The provision has never been enforced -- until now. [continues 763 words]
Some 500 LAPD gang and narcotics officers are threatening to retire or change jobs if the city follows through on a proposal forcing them to reveal their personal finances, union officials said. A financial-disclosure proposal set to be considered by the five-member civilian police commission Thursday would be the last major hurdle to comply with a seven-year old federal consent decree meant to root out police corruption. Under the proposal, all gang and narcotics officers with the rank of lieutenant or below must provide a detailed list of their finances including all their properties, past-due credit card debts, outside income, stocks, bonds and checking accounts. [continues 434 words]
Rafael Perez, the disgraced LAPD officer at the center of the Rampart corruption scandal, pleaded no contest Tuesday to perjury for lying on a driver's license application. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 30 to three years' probation. His plea was entered in Los Angeles County Superior Court in Torrance. Perez was arrested in July for using the name Ray Perez on a license application in June 2005, the Department of Motor Vehicles said. Perez, 39, has since changed his name to Ray Lopez, according to a district attorney's office statement. [continues 60 words]
Policeman from the Rampart Division, which was plagued by scandal in the late '90s, is accused of making false arrests. A veteran Rampart Division officer was charged Friday with making false arrests, culminating an elaborate sting operation by the Los Angeles Police Department. Authorities allege that Edward Beltran Zamora arrested two undercover officers -- who were posing as suspects -- on suspicion of possessing drugs, when surveillance video showed that they did not. The six-month operation by the LAPD's Ethics Enforcement Section began after officials noticed an unusual pattern to Zamora's arrests, they said. [continues 573 words]
Under fire for hiring recruits who experimented with hard drugs in their youth, Los Angeles Police Department officials went on the offensive Tuesday, saying drug use on the force has not increased since employment standards were relaxed in 2004. Chief William J. Bratton told the Police Commission that while officers have undergone 30,000 random drug tests over the last decade and a half, only 15 tested positive. In fact, the numbers have been declining since the department dropped its total ban on hiring anyone who had used or encountered hard drugs. That change permitted the hiring of six officers who admitted once having had a limited use of cocaine in their distant pasts. [continues 576 words]
Arrest in Rampart occurs as a federal judge is about to rule on lifting or continuing a consent decree based on scandals in that police division. A veteran Rampart Division police officer was relieved of duty Friday after being accused of lying about a drug arrest. His suspension comes days before a judge is to decide whether to lift federal oversight of the department imposed because of a corruption scandal at the station six years ago. Los Angeles Police Department Chief William J. Bratton suspended the officer after a six-month sting operation by internal affairs investigators. As part of the sting, officials set up a situation late Tuesday in which Officer Edward B. Zamora, 44, arrested an undercover detective, according to two sources. [continues 724 words]
"The erosion of background standards comes back to haunt the city," Councilman Bernard Parks says. Two city councilmen said Monday they will ask the Los Angeles Police Department to freeze hiring policy changes allowing new recruits on the force who have used drugs in the past. Councilman Bernard Parks, a former LAPD chief, said he and Councilman Dennis Zine, a former police officer, will ask their colleagues later this week that the changes be reviewed by the City Council and the Police Commission before they are implemented. [continues 435 words]
Those 20,000-strong mega-raves at the Orange Show Fairgrounds in San Bernardino are no more. Big downtown events are fewer and farther between. Superstar DJs are finding fewer and fewer gigs on the rave circuit. And fans of euphoric trance and emotional ecstasy are relegated to a handful of smaller, legit venues, places such as Pomona's Glass House, downtown L.A.'s Orion, and Qtopia in Hollywood. Not like it was. At Qtopia, for example, raving is still alive but not so well. The promise of techno-hippie pastures filled with hugs and uplifting tunes has given way to kids crashed out on the dirty concrete and vibing to infantile trance. On a recent Saturday night at the club, all the trappings of e-culture are in evidence, but little of the original uplift. Green lasers pierce man-made fog as ravers begin hitting the ground with ecstasy-induced fatigue. Pot smoke clouds a concrete patio outside, nearly every single inch of which is covered in graffiti art. Cholos, skaters, and club kids bounce to the sound. [continues 3412 words]
There were moments yesterday when I had to keep looking around me -- at the desk with the federal judge sitting way up there, at the Great Seal of the United States etched into the green marble, at the blue-blazered federal marshals -- to remind myself where I was, and what I was doing there: This wasn't an awards ceremony, it was a criminal sentencing for a felon. Through Judge A. Howard Matz's courtroom have come cases of prostitution, bribery, Rampart lies, stolen dope, crooked lawmen and a lawsuit over Britney Spears and roller skates. Many words have been used to describe the felons who have stood where defendant Scott Imler stood yesterday, but the words I heard yesterday weren't words I'm used to hearing about a criminal -- and especially not from the judge who was about to sentence him. [continues 1280 words]
A former LAPD officer awaiting sentencing on drug trafficking charges is suspected of running a criminal network with friends, relatives and other police officers who stole drugs, money and property in home-invasion style robberies, sometimes while wearing police uniforms, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Ruben Palomares, a former officer in the Rampart Division, and his cohorts allegedly used police squad cars while committing some robberies, the newspaper reported, citing law enforcement documents and people with knowledge of the investigation. Palomares, 33, is expected to be sentenced Wednesday on separate drug charges. He pleaded guilty last year and could receive 15 years in prison. His attorney declined to comment Sunday, pending sentencing of his client. [end]
LOS ANGELES -- The police corruption scandal that has cost the city $40 million in legal settlements flared up again this week. The new chief ordered an outside investigation, and newly reported testimony suggested that corrupt officers are still on the beat. Police Chief William Bratton, who took office in October, criticized an internal review of the scandal as unacceptably flawed, and he called for an independent probe of the allegations that officers planted guns and drugs, lied under oath, and shot unarmed suspects. [continues 88 words]
LOS ANGELES - The police scandal that cost the city $40 million in settlements and led to dozens of convictions being overturned flared anew this week when the police chief blasted an internal report and newly reported testimony suggested that corrupt officers were still on the beat. Police Chief William Bratton criticized a departmental review of the scandal as so flawed he won't approve it and called for an independent investigation into the allegations of officer cover-ups, evidence planting, lying under oath and shootings of unarmed suspects. [continues 410 words]
New Chief Orders Independent Probe LOS ANGELES -- The police corruption scandal that cost the city $40 million in legal settlements flared up this week when the new chief, William Bratton, ordered an outside investigation. Meanwhile, newly reported testimony suggested that corrupt officers are still on the beat. Bratton, who took office in October, criticized an internal review of the scandal as unacceptably flawed and called for an independent probe of the allegations that officers planted guns and drugs, lied under oath, and shot unarmed suspects. [continues 177 words]
An ex-Rampart unit member also suspected many others routinely committed crimes. In interviews with state and federal authorities, the onetime partner of corrupt ex-Los Angeles Police Officer Rafael Perez accused nine fellow officers of serious misconduct and said he suspected that many officers in the Rampart Division's anti-gang unit routinely committed crimes, according to confidential transcripts. Former Officer Nino Durden, in sometimes tearful testimony, said sergeants in two different shootings instructed officers to lie about the circumstances of the incidents to make their actions appear more tactically sound when reviewed by police superiors. The officers, he said, went along with the fake stories to protect themselves and colleagues from possible administrative charges. [continues 2438 words]
Bratton asks for an outside panel to review how the LAPD handled the scandal, fearing it could 'bleed this department to death.' Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton called Tuesday for an independent "blue ribbon committee" to account for the LAPD's handling of the Rampart corruption scandal, saying that efforts to do so by department officials have been "totally inadequate." In calling for the formation of the panel, Bratton told members of the city's civilian Police Commission that the Rampart scandal still hangs over the Los Angeles Police Department and that if it isn't addressed, it has the potential to "bleed this department to death." [continues 931 words]
L.A. Rampart Scandal
