Pubdate: Wed, 16 Feb 2000 Source: Daily News of Los Angeles (CA) Copyright: 2000 Daily News of Los Angeles Address: P.O. Box 4200, Woodland Hills, CA 91365 Fax: (818)713-3723 Feedback: http://www.DailyNews.com/contact/letters.asp Website: http://www.DailyNews.com/ Author: Beth Barrett and Greg Gittrich Bookmark: MAP's shortcut to Rampart items: http://www.mapinc.org/rampart.htm. GANG MEMBER SAYS HE WAS FRAMED After 18 months on the run from Rampart Division officers he claimed beat him, a gang member has surrendered on a felony charge and will go to court today, hoping he will finally be exonerated. Gabriel Aguirre, 23, was arrested several days after being beaten by two former officers, Rafael Perez and Ethan Cohan, when he persisted in pursuing a citizen's complaint against them, his attorney, Samuel Paz, said Tuesday. Aguirre had been been charged previously with assault on another gang member, a charge he denies. However, his arrest was on suspicion of assaulting police officers, charges that were later dropped, Paz said. Aguirre turned himself in Monday. "The officers threatened to kill him, that's why he left," Paz said. Sources close to the investigation into the widening Los Angeles Police Department corruption scandal said a preliminary review of physical and other evidence in the Aguirre case has called into question the officers' official accounts. Paz detailed the alleged beating of Aguirre without having first reviewed Perez's confidential testimony, obtained by the Daily News last week. The stories matched almost exactly. According to the transcript of Perez's testimony, he and Cohan went to an abandoned apartment building March 26, 1998, to arrest Aguirre on the assault with a deadly weapon charge. They found the 18th Street Gang member asleep. "Cohan probably kicked him, probably at least 20 times," Perez testified. "I mean, just really kicking him real hard." Cohan's attorney, Jim Trott, said he hadn't heard about the incident, but argued that Perez's testimony is not trustworthy. "Perez failed a polygraph. He wanted to shave time off his sentence, so take what he says for what it's worth," Trott said. After the attack, Cohan crafted a story to justify Aguirre's injuries, Perez said. Cohan claimed he saw Aguirre drinking a beer in a second-floor hallway and identified himself as a police officer. Aguirre then fled, the story went. As Aguirre raced down a fire escape with the cops chasing him, Cohan said, the man slipped and fell on his shirtless back, drawing blood. The tale ended with Aguirre running back into a room and being apprehended, Perez said. "The entire report is a, uhm, it's a fabrication of what actually occurred," Perez testified. As blood dripped down Aguirre's face, Perez said, the officers collaborated with a sergeant to cover up the beating. The sergeant, Perez said, suggested the cops pour some beer on the fire escape to make it appear the man had slipped and fallen because of the liquid, Perez testified. This type of scenario was typical. Perez said cops routinely gave their supervisors the straight story before crafting a "baloney story." The beer had been spilled. The cops had their story straight. But there was one problem. Another person witnessed the beating, Perez said, a fact investigators confirmed. According to Perez, the witness was forced to get on his knees in the far corner of the room while the assault took place. The cops then forced the witness to write a statement that said, in part, that he was sleeping alone in a room when he heard footsteps. Perez said Aguirre filed a personnel complaint against him for shoving him into the wall during the attack. But the complaint never resulted in any discipline. "It was my word against his," Perez said. Aguirre was charged later with assaulting the officers during the beating incident. These were the charges that were later dropped, Paz said. A month before the incident, Cohan had at least peripheral knowledge of another former officer, Brian Hewitt, allegedly beating gang member Ismael Jimenez in the Rampart detectives' station interview room, according to records. It was Cohan who removed the handcuffs from the battered Jimenez, walked him out of the interview room and set him free, records show. Capt. Richard Meraz assigned Hewitt and his partner to desk duty when an investigation began into the beating, but Cohan was allowed to remain in the field. Meraz, the highest-ranking officer implicated in the widening Rampart scandal, is currently before an LAPD Board of Rights facing discipline on a charge that he failed to take appropriate action "after becoming aware of misconduct" by Cohan in the station house beating. Meraz maintains he acted responsibly, saying Cohan did not tell him about Jimenez's medical condition. Hewitt and Cohan were fired last year by Chief Bernard C. Parks after separate disciplinary hearings found them guilty of charges related to the station house beating. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck