Pubdate: Mon, 03 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
Bookmarks: LAPD corruption: http://www.mapinc.org/rampart.htm
Corruption: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm

WHISTLE-BLOWING PROSECUTOR REASSIGNED

LAW: Memos show he wanted to indict officers in the Rampart Division scandal.

LOS ANGELES - A prosecutor who urged his superiors to file conspiracy 
charges against several police officers was pulled of the task force 
investigating corruption days later, the Daily News of Los Angeles reported 
Sunday.

District Attorney Gil Garcetti had denied on a radio talk show that Deputy 
District Attorney George Rosenstock sought approval to indict officers 
involved in a station-house beating.

But when faced Saturday with confidential memos obtained by the Daily News, 
Garcetti's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons acknowledged Rosenstock wanted to file 
the first criminal charges against officers other than Rafeal Perez, the 
central figure in the Rampart Division scandal.

Perez turned informant after his arrest in August 1998 when he was caught 
stealing 8 pounds of cocaine from a police evidence room. Since then he has 
given investigators a litany of wrongdoing in the Rampart station's 
anti-gang unit, saying fellow officers repeatedly falsified evidence, 
framed innocent people and lied under oath to win convictions.

Police Chief Bernard Parks and others have criticized Garcetti for not 
moving swiftly enough to file charges against crooked officers. Garcetti, 
who faces a November run-off election, has said he won't jeopardize cases 
by filing them without sufficient evidence.

Gibbons said top prosecutors were aware of Rosenstock's memos, but insisted 
Garcetti never was.

"There was no reason for them to notify (Garcetti). It was just a memo, 
basically a prosecutor's assessment of what needed to be done," Gibbons said.

Gibbons said Sunday that neither she nor Garcetti would comment further on 
the memos.

Rosenstock's first memos about filing charges against Rampart officers are 
from December, according to the Daily News. By February, he wrote that he 
had a solid conspiracy case against officers involved in the Feb.26, 1998, 
beating of Ismael Jimenez.

Within days, Rosenstock was pulled off the task force.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jo-D