San Bernardino County sheriff's narcotics officer Hank Jackson doesn't get it. He says, "The general population is kind of against the seizure process" of drug-trafficking assets (June 26 Daily Bulletin). Not true. The general public wants drug trafficking stopped, and punishment fairly meted out to those guilty of it. What the general public is afraid of is a police process run amok, with the property of innocent people taken, for example, because a $100 bill in their pocket, tainted with traces of cocaine by a previous holder of the bill provides law enforcement agencies the reason to seize assets. [continues 131 words]
The case of a Los Angeles police officer who was to have learned his punishment Wednesday for misconduct during an arrest was postponed until July 24 pending a ruling on a defense motion. LAPD Officer Humberto Tovar was found guilty Monday on allegations involving a 1996 drug arrest he made with then-Officer Rafael Perez. Perez now alleges that their suspect, Toby Semick, was framed. Tovar was to have learned his punishment Wednesday, but the matter was postponed pending a ruling on a defense motion. [continues 195 words]
Damages: City Council Is Told It Has Little Choice In Case Where Police Stormed The Wrong House In South-Central And Prosecutor Failed To File A Key Motion. First, the Los Angeles Police Department's Southwest CRASH unit raided the wrong house--allegedly traumatizing two senior citizens, a baby, a teenage boy and a number of other adults there. Then the city attorney's office neglected to file a key motion in its effort to defend the city against the lawsuit brought by the victims of the faulty raid. [continues 532 words]
LOS ANGELES - A drug conviction thrown out Tuesday by a court commissioner was the 91st criminal case to be overturned on the basis of information obtained in the investigation into the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart corruption scandal. Superior Court Commissioner Michael G. Price dismissed the conviction of Porfirio Acosta, 41, who was arrested by then-LAPD Officer Rafael Perez in July 1997 on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sale. Perez, who was cooperating with investigators to obtain a lesser sentence on his own cocaine theft charges, told investigators that he had fabricated parts of his report on Acosta's arrest and that he searched the man's car and home without Acosta's consent. Afterward, according to prosecutors, Perez induced Acosta to sign a consent form. Acosta pleaded no contest to the charge in October 1997 and was sentenced to four months in jail. When he failed to surrender to begin serving his term, a warrant was issued for his arrest. The dismissal of the case was in response to a writ filed by the district attorney's office. [end]
Police department seeks to promote decades-old plan in wake of Rampart scandal. CULVER CITY--Critical eyes from local residents have prompted one local police department to offer community meetings of reassurance in the wake of the LAPD's Rampart scandal. "It's a sad trend," said Culver City Police Department Lt. Tom Gabor. "I reassure them that there's no possibility that [corruption] is systemically happening in Culver City." The Culver City Police Department held a discussion Tuesday about its 24-year-old "rotation" system designed to obstruct corruption. [continues 358 words]
Courts: Russell Newman, jailed for seven years, says officers planted drugs and a gun on him. A Los Angeles man whose drug conviction was overturned after he spent more than seven years in jail, on Tuesday filed the latest lawsuit growing out of the Los Angeles Police Department's ongoing scandal. Russell E. Newman, 42, charges that the city of Los Angeles violated his civil rights when former LAPD Officer Rafael Perez and other officers in the department's anti-gang unit allegedly framed him in 1991 on charges of selling cocaine. [continues 316 words]
[]Police: Sources say mayor and chief hope for a less restrictive pact with Justice Department. As Los Angeles city officials prepare to resume their negotiations over police reform with the U.S. Department of Justice today, Mayor Richard Riordan and Police Chief Bernard C. Parks are expressing misgivings about entering into a consent decree to forestall a civil rights lawsuit. While Parks lobbied behind the scenes at City Hall, Riordan said publicly that he does not believe a federally imposed court order is needed to address "pattern or practice" abuses within the department. [continues 385 words]
At least two of the 11 Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department employees caught up in a massive credit card fraud scheme are also suspected of having sold black tar heroin inside the Twin Towers Jail, sheriff's investigators told The Times on Thursday. One of those under suspicion of drug dealing, according to investigators, is a retired Los Angeles police officer who joined the Sheriff's Department in November 1997. Black tar is a smokable form of heroin. As a result of their suspicions, investigators brought trained dogs to the jail Wednesday as deputies searched employees' lockers. The department carried out 21 search warrants Wednesday, mostly at the homes of four deputies and seven civilian employees suspected of participating in two massive credit card fraud scams. The searches failed to uncover narcotics at any of the locations, officials said. But the drug allegations are among the new leads that investigators are following in the unfolding crisis in the Sheriff's Department, which runs the largest jail system in the country. [continues 817 words]
LOS ANGELES--A Superior Court judge on Tuesday overturned four more cases tainted by alleged police misconduct, including those of two juveniles arrested by officers from the Police Department's Southeast Division. The judge's action brings to at least 79 the number of cases that have been thrown out in the LAPD's unfolding corruption scandal, according to a district attorney's spokeswoman. The juveniles were arrested by Southeast Division Officers William Ferguson and Jeffrey Robb, who both once worked in the Rampart Division. According to court papers, the officers filed a false report in connection with the arrest last year. Both juveniles were ordered released from custody immediately, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. Gibbons declined to provide details about the case, citing the defendants' ages. The judge also overturned the drug convictions of Juan Rojo, 41, and Gricelda Orellana, 42, Gibbons said. Those cases involved ex-Officer Rafael Perez and two former partners, Gibbons said. [end]
SCANDAL: The police chief says problems on the force have been exaggerated. He says federal help with reforms is unneeded. LOS ANGELES - In his first public statement since federal authorities threatened him with a lawsuit two weeks ago, Police Chief Bernard C. Parks said he doesn't need the federal government to help him reform the police department. Internal efforts to curb officer misconduct are in place and simply need time to succeed, Parks told the Daily News of Los Angeles in an interview published Sunday. He denied patterns of abuse and said problems on the police force have been overstated. [continues 196 words]
OK, so we carefully asked officers X,Y,Z and Q if they had any involvement with the charges Officer Perez has leveled against the LAPD ["3 LAPD officers' lawyers say informant overplayed," News, May 16]. They told us no, and their word is good enough for me. They also promised that nothing else like this would ever happen on their watch. So, you see, it's all better now. It's obvious that bum Perez was lying to save his own behind. Besides, they couldn't find any corroborating evidence. [continues 95 words]
LOS ANGELES--A Superior Court judge Wednesday overturned the felony convictions of two more men whose prosecutions involved former Los Angeles Police Department officer-turned-informant Rafael Perez. Wednesday's actions, which involved two men sent to prison in 1996, brought to 84 the number of convictions that have been vacated since the LAPD's Rampart corruption scandal began. In one case, Superior Court Judge Larry P. Fidler granted the prosecutors' request to overturn the conviction of Salvador Luis Arias, 25, who was arrested by Perez and his then-partner Nino Durden for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Arias subsequently was sentenced to four years in prison for violating probation on a 1994 drug conviction. Perez since has said that he was lying when he said he saw the man holding an assault rifle and found ammunition in his pocket. Fidler's action terminated Arias' parole. [continues 76 words]
The Pressure Is On, So City Leaders Must Go The Extra Mile To Show Accountability And Commitment. The Department of Justice's decision to get involved in cleaning up the Los Angeles Police Department has given police reform advocates a reason for hope. Police reform has proved to be an elusive goal for those of us who have struggled over the years to give the citizens of Los Angeles the very best in law enforcement--safety, fairness, professionalism and service. Let's admit we came up short. [continues 741 words]
Over the past seven years, Mayor Richard Riordan has invested more of his energy and reputation in the Los Angeles Police Department than in any other civic institution; now, the U.S. Justice Department effectively has told him that it no longer trusts him or the rest of the city's civilian leaders to run the LAPD without outside help. In fact, it is hard to imagine a more direct or scathing repudiation of Riordan's administration than that delivered by the federal government last week. Moreover, the Justice Department's brusque ultimatum to the city--agree to reforms or face a lawsuit--also ends what has been the Riordan administration's attempt to deal with the Rampart scandal largely as a public relations crisis. [continues 1666 words]
As Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks sat stone-faced last Monday during a closed-door meeting with city officials and lawyers from the U.S. Justice Department, a press release summing up the reason for Parks' grim demeanor was being distributed. "The LAPD," read the release, "is engaged in a pattern or practice of constitutional violations through excessive force, false arrests, unreasonable searches and seizures, and . . . management deficiencies have allowed this misconduct to occur . . . on a regular basis." Later that day, the Justice Department revealed that it was also investigating charges that the LAPD has regularly discriminated against racial and ethnic minorities in enforcing the law. [continues 1288 words]
The credibility of ex-officer Rafael Perez, the main informant in the Los Angeles Police Department's corruption scandal, has been further undermined by his testimony in several internal affairs investigations in which three officers accused of crimes or misconduct were found not guilty or the charges were dropped. "Perez has not shown himself to be a credible witness," said Capt. Roger K. Coombs, who presided over a disciplinary hearing this week in which Perez alleged that two former partners helped him frame a suspect on drug and gun charges. [continues 1162 words]
The estimated bill for investigations has nearly doubled in two months, with no end in sight. The Rampart scandal's cost to Los Angeles County government has nearly doubled over the past two months, and officials now say they will need 25 cents out of every new dollar available to the county for next year--money that otherwise could go to chronically underfunded areas such as public hospitals or child-abuse investigations. Moreover, the Rampart-related $11.4-million price tag is expected to grow, as additional allegations of corruption are unearthed in other Los Angeles police divisions. [continues 948 words]
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The District Attorney's Office searched the homes of 17 Los Angeles police officers Friday morning as part of its months-long investigation into one of the worst police corruption scandals in the city's history. Meanwhile, sources told the Los Angeles Times the scandal was to reach a new level Monday when Justice Department officials arrive to meet with local authorities and tell them they will bring a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Police Department unless a number of reforms are agreed to. The sources would not say what reforms will be demanded, the Times reported in a story for Saturday's editions. [continues 475 words]
Just a day before federal authorities arrive in Los Angeles for meetings with city officials on the Rampart scandal, Mayor Richard Riordan on Sunday said he is "committed" to making a computerized officer tracking system operational within 12 months. The computer system, known as TEAMS II, would address a long-standing complaint by Los Angeles Police Department critics that the city does not have an adequate way to track problem police officers. City Council members Friday took steps to provide funding for the computer system and earlier last week selected a contractor. [continues 397 words]
*Police: Sources say Justice Department will brief local officials on whether violations fall into a pattern of abuse. Meanwhile, officers' homes are searched. As search warrants were served on the homes of more than a dozen Los Angeles police officers linked to an ongoing criminal corruption probe, sources said Friday that federal authorities are prepared to bring a civil rights lawsuit against the LAPD unless the city and the department agree to a host of reforms. U.S. Department of Justice officials have concluded after a four-year investigation that they have enough evidence of alleged civil rights violations at the hands of Los Angeles Police Department officers to file a so-called pattern and practice lawsuit against the entire department. [continues 1465 words]
