Touting their effort to crack down on a violent San Fernando Valley street gang linked to the slaying of a Burbank police officer, authorities announced Tuesday the arrests of nearly two dozen people whom they said were "associates" of the Vineland Boyz gang. But after the news conference at which the arrests were announced, several law enforcement officials close to the case said the success of the operation had been overstated and disputed the number of suspects who actually had ties to the street gang. [continues 648 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]
Crime: Ex-Rampart Drug Agent Caught In Sting Faces 15-Year Minimum And Remains A Suspect In Murder, Robberies And An On-Duty Shooting. SAN DIEGO -- A former Los Angeles police officer who once worked a narcotics assignment in the troubled Rampart Division pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal cocaine-trafficking charges. Ruben Palomares, 32, faces a minimum of 15 years in federal prison for attempting to buy 10 kilograms of cocaine from agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration during an undercover sting operation in June, according to attorneys in the case. [continues 629 words]
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. [continues 1726 words]
Parole: Terms Of The Disgraced Officer's Release Are Kept Private. Prosecutors Plan Appeal. After nearly three years behind bars, disgraced former Los Angeles Police Officer Rafael Perez was discharged from the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi on Tuesday morning and placed on parole, authorities said. The terms of Perez's parole, as well as where he will live, were not disclosed by prison officials. A judge said Monday that Perez could be allowed to live out of state while under parole because of concerns about his safety. [continues 486 words]
Court: Whistle-Blower In The LAPD Rampart Scandal Kept 'His End Of The Bargain,' Jurist Says. Rafael A. Perez, the former Los Angeles police officer whose allegations of police misconduct plunged the LAPD into a wrenching period of investigation and reform, was ordered released from prison Monday by a judge who ruled that he lived "up to his end of the bargain" by cooperating with authorities. Citing concerns about Perez's safety, state prison officials declined to say precisely when or where the former Rampart Division officer would be set free. They would only confirm that they will comply with Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry's order to release Perez within 24 hours of Monday morning's ruling. [continues 1279 words]
Courts: Defendant Is Accused Of Using His Position At The LAPD To Steal Drugs And Money. SAN DIEGO--A Los Angeles police officer who was arrested last week on charges of trying to buy 10 kilograms of cocaine has been using his position at the LAPD to rob suspects of drugs and money for at least two years, a federal prosecutor charged in court Thursday. LAPD Officer Ruben Palomares, 31, and four other men allegedly bought the 10 kilograms of cocaine as part of a more ambitious scheme to steal 50 kilograms from the drug supplier in the future, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Randy Jones. [continues 1105 words]
Crime: Effects Of Prop. 36's Diversion Of Offenders From Jail To Treatment Are Called Monumental. Officials Say They Need More Time And Money. As Los Angeles County officials prepare for the July 1 implementation of a new law that dramatically changes the way drug offenders are treated by the courts, two matters have become abundantly clear: They need more time and they need more money. "It's a monumental undertaking," said Los Angeles County Public Defender Michael P. Judge, who serves on local and statewide planning groups gearing up for the changes required under Proposition 36, which was passed by voters in November. "Even after the deadline, it's going to be a work in progress. It could take years before all the issues are eventually settled." [continues 949 words]
Rampart: Nino Durden Confesses Numerous Crimes In Agreements That Could Lead To The Prosecution Of More Police Officers. The former partner of disgraced ex-Los Angeles Police Officer Rafael Perez acknowledged his guilt in a wide range of state and federal crimes Friday in plea deals that potentially open the door to prosecutions of Perez and other Rampart Division officers. Nino Durden, who is expected to serve a seven-year, eight-month sentence in federal prison, confirmed Perez's assertion that the two officers shot an unarmed man and then planted a weapon on him to cover their tracks. Durden admitted that he and Perez lied in court to help send Javier Francisco Ovando, who now uses a wheelchair, to prison on a 23-year sentence. [continues 1838 words]
Rampart: Defense Attorneys Often Are Not Given Key Information. Scandal Intensifies Calls For Reform. The sensational revelations emerging from the LAPD's Rampart corruption scandal have sparked a bitter legal debate that promises to alter the landscape of the criminal justice system in Los Angeles County for years to come. At issue is exactly what defense attorneys are entitled to know--and when they are entitled to know it--about the credibility of the police officers who investigate, arrest and testify against their clients. [continues 2370 words]
Rampart: An Inmate Says The Jailed Ex-officer Boasted Of Having The Power To Implicate People, 'Innocent Or Not.' In yet another challenge to the credibility of ex-Los Angeles Police Officer Rafael Perez, LAPD officials have belatedly turned over the statement of a jailhouse informant who told authorities that Perez once boasted of having the power to wreak havoc on the lives of those who crossed him, according to documents reviewed by The Times. "If someone pisses me off, I'll throw their name into a hat and they'll get investigated--innocent or not," Perez allegedly told his cellmate as another prisoner listened in. The allegation comes from Hank Rodriguez, another jailed ex-L.A. officer, according to the confidential documents that are the object of a court order forbidding their release. Rodriguez claims that he spent time in the cell next to Perez's after he was jailed on a parole violation stemming from a DUI conviction. Documents also show that Rodriguez was fired from the LAPD in 1974 after being accused of forgery. [continues 547 words]
Courts: Suit By 41 Current And Former Officers And Others Claims A Code Of Silence Is Enforced By Retaliation Against Those Who Report Misconduct. Officials Decline To Comment. More than 40 current and former Los Angeles police officers filed a class-action lawsuit Thursday, alleging that LAPD officials support the department's so-called code of silence by retaliating against those who report misconduct. Among the plaintiffs in the lawsuit is Officer John Goines, a veteran motorcycle officer who broke ranks with LAPD officials by saying in a deposition last month that he believed the March 1999 fatal shooting of Margaret Mitchell, a mentally ill homeless woman, was unwarranted. Since his comments became public, Goines has been harassed by other officers, including a supervisor, his attorney alleges. [continues 942 words]
A Superior Court judge has overturned the 1997 drug sales conviction of a North Hollywood man because jurors never were told that the prosecution's chief witness, a Los Angeles police officer, had been relieved of duty for allegedly using drugs himself. The convicted man, James Bryant, who has been serving a 12-year prison sentence, is expected to be freed as early as next week. Judge Darlene Schempp said in a hearing Monday that jurors probably would have acquitted Bryant "had the truth been known about Officer [Gustavo] Raya." [continues 1267 words]
Rampart: Bitter talks lead to disclosure to defense. Four men implicated in crimes or misconduct remain on duty. Prosecutor's office says more names will be forthcoming. After days of contentious negotiations, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti on Friday gave the public defender and the Indigent Defense Panel 3,242 pages of transcribed interviews with ex-Officer Rafael Perez and the names of 28 LAPD officers implicated in crimes or misconduct connected to the ongoing Rampart corruption scandal, four of whom remain on active duty. [continues 1020 words]
*LAPD: Examination of saliva on rock cocaine allegedly spit out by suspects contradicts policemen's testimony in arrests in Rampart, two other divisions. Bolstering allegations of widespread misconduct and corruption within the Los Angeles Police Department, DNA analysis in four different drug cases contradicts the testimony of officers who claimed they witnessed suspects spit rock cocaine out of their mouths. The previously unpublicized cases, which involved arrests made in three LAPD divisions--Rampart, Southwest and Hollenbeck--strongly suggest that the officers filed false reports and perjured themselves in court in an effort to frame innocent people, according to interviews, court files and confidential documents obtained by The Times. [continues 1645 words]
Two sergeants are among those to be charged in alleged planting of a gun to frame a suspect, sources say. More charges possible against the three, other colleagues. In the first prosecutions arising from the ongoing Los Angeles Police Department corruption scandal, the district attorney today will file criminal charges against two sergeants and an officer, according to high-ranking law enforcement sources. Arrest warrants will be sought for Sgts. Edward Ortiz and Brian Liddy and Officer Paul Harper for their roles in the arrest of an 18th Street gang member, who allegedly was framed on a weapons charge in April 1996, sources said. [continues 1279 words]
Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn said Monday that at least 71 more criminal convictions may have to be overturned because of credibility problems with LAPD officers implicated in the department's ongoing corruption scandal. The misdemeanor cases--many of them involving drug and gun arrests--are in addition to the 99 felony convictions that authorities previously identified as being tainted by alleged police misconduct. "We want to make sure that people aren't suffering under this cloud of having a conviction if they don't deserve one," Hahn said in an interview with The Times. "A criminal conviction is a criminal conviction, even if it is a misdemeanor. It can seriously affect your life." [continues 848 words]
In an effort to coax forward additional informants in the ongoing LAPD corruption probe, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti said Tuesday that he will offer confidentiality to police officers who witnessed their colleagues' crimes or misconduct but failed to report the activity to their superiors. The offer is aimed at officers who know of corrupt acts but who are reluctant to cooperate with police investigators for fear of losing their jobs because the LAPD can fire those who fail to report misconduct in a timely manner. [continues 985 words]
In a significant breakthrough in the Rampart corruption investigation, a Los Angeles police officer implicated in the scandal has corroborated testimony from former Officer Rafael Perez about an alleged beating by police in 1998, sources close to the criminal probe said. The development is considered good news by prosecutors and detectives who have been searching for witnesses to substantiate the allegations of Perez, an admitted perjurer, who has testified that a band of Rampart officers planted evidence to arrest innocent people, beat suspects, covered up unjustified shootings and perjured themselves, among other abuses. [continues 780 words]
'We're starting from scratch,' one official says. CRASH program will be scrapped and restructured for better oversight. Officers will be limited to three-year stints. Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks on Friday abolished the department's anti-gang CRASH units like the one at the center of the LAPD's growing corruption scandal. The existing anti-gang units and other specialized details must disband in two weeks, Parks said. Those units will then be completely restructured to ensure better oversight and control. [continues 1227 words]
