Pubdate: Sun, 30 Apr 2000 Source: Orange County Register (CA) Copyright: 2000 The Orange County Register Contact: P.O. Box 11626, Santa Ana, CA 92711 Fax: (714) 565-3657 Website: http://www.ocregister.com/ Author: The Associated Press FEDERAL PROSECUTOR EXPANDS LAPD INVESTIGATION PROBE: The government will review all federal prosecutions involving Los Angeles officers who have been implicated in the scandal. LOS ANGELES - the federal government has ordered a review of all federal prosecutions involving city police officers implicated in the continuing corruption probe. The review was ordered about two weeks ago and announced Friday by U.S. Attorney Alejandro Mayorkas, who said he believed "only a handful" of potentially tainted cases were involved. Federal Public Defender Maria E. Stratton said she hopes the U.S. Attorney's Office will work with public defenders to identify more cases. The Public Defender's Office has started its own review of about 1,000 cases dating back to 1993, she said. The U.S. Attorney's Office also has asked the Immigration and Naturalization Service to stop the deportation of a Guatemalan citizen who contends corrupt officers terrorized him and his girlfriend. Jorge Toscano was scheduled to be released Thursday from an Imperial Valley prison and transferred to the INS for deportation. In an April 17 letter to the INS, Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney Consuelo Woodhead said Toscano could be a potential witness to federal civil-rights violations by police officers. Toscano's attorney, Stephen Yagman, says his client was beaten and robbed in 1997 by disgraced former officer Rafael Perez and his partner, Nino Durden. Perez, in a plea agreement, cooperated with authorities and told of widespread corruption in the Police Department's Rampart station in exchange for a lighter sentence for stealing cocaine from an evidence room. To date, 67 convictions have been overturned. About 30 officers have been relieved of duty, fired or suspended. Perez has admitted that he and Durden stole money from Toscano and his girlfriend, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday, citing transcripts of Perez's interviews with investigators. Meanwhile, a new trial is being sought for a man who says corrupt officers framed him. Jorge Sisco-Aguilar, 28, is serving a 70-month sentence at the Leavenworth federal penitentiary in Kansas for being an illegal immigrant in possession of a gun. The man says former Rampart anti-gang officers Paul Harper and Mark Wilbur framed him. Harper was one of three officers arrested Monday in the first criminal charges brought in the corruption probe.