Pubdate: Sat, 03 Feb 2001
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2001 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191
Fax: (619) 293-1440
Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/
Forum: http://www.uniontrib.com/cgi-bin/WebX
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rampart.htm (L.A. Rampart Scandal)

JUDGE REFUSES TO TRANSFER EX-LAPD OFFICER TO PRISON

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Corrupt former police Officer Rafael Perez will remain 
in local custody because moving him to state prison would place him in 
potential danger, a judge ruled yesterday.

Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry denied a prosecution request for the 
key witness in the Los Angeles Rampart police corruption case to be moved 
to prison to serve out his sentence for stealing cocaine from a police 
evidence room.

"Mr. Perez is in likely danger from all kinds of interests, and I'm most 
comfortable leaving him where he is," Perry said. "I'm not gonna move him."

Perez was not at the hearing. He is scheduled to be released in early June.

Prosecutors have said the convicted ex-cop-turned-informant whose 
confessions and accusations broke open the Rampart scandal no longer is 
needed for the investigation.

The move came after Perez's attorney, Winston McKesson, told prosecutors 
his client "will not be made available to testify at continuing (Los 
Angeles Police Department) Board of Rights (hearings) or for further 
interviews until further notice," according to a letter.

Perez became the central figure in the biggest Los Angeles Police 
Department scandal in decades after pleading guilty to stealing 8 pounds of 
cocaine from a police evidence room. In exchange for a lighter sentence, he 
agreed to tell prosecutors what he had seen as an officer in an anti-gang 
unit in the department's gritty Rampart Division near downtown.

Perez was sentenced a year ago and his statements about officers lying 
under oath and abusing innocent people helped lead to the suspensions of 
dozens of officers, the overturning of about 100 tainted cases and the 
arrests of five officers.
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