Just how great a problem Los Angeles will confront in defending itself against lawsuits spawned by the Rampart police corruption scandal is illustrated by a meeting held Saturday afternoon at Johnnie L. Cochran Jr.'s mid-Wilshire law office. Among the two dozen attorneys gathered at the 10th floor suite were some of the city's most accomplished civil rights lawyers--including Mark Rosenbaum of the American Civil Liberties Union and Connie Rice of the Advancement Project--as well as a bevy of skilled veterans of the police "brutality bar," including Cochran, R. Samuel Paz, Antonio Rodriguez and Carol A. Watson, as well as Carol Sobel, who has spearheaded major employment discrimination litigation against the LAPD. [continues 1655 words]
New units will be created soon LOS ANGELES -- The chief of the Los Angeles Police Department directed the department yesterday to disband the semiautonomous anti-gang units at the heart of the city's police corruption and brutality scandal. The units, called Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, or CRASH units, were formed in the late 1970s in the administration of Chief Daryl Gates in response to the city's growing problem with street gangs. More recently, such units have come under scrutiny for giving officers too much independence, which, if unchecked, could lead to the abuse of power. [continues 518 words]
'We're starting from scratch,' one official says. CRASH program will be scrapped and restructured for better oversight. Officers will be limited to three-year stints. Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks on Friday abolished the department's anti-gang CRASH units like the one at the center of the LAPD's growing corruption scandal. The existing anti-gang units and other specialized details must disband in two weeks, Parks said. Those units will then be completely restructured to ensure better oversight and control. [continues 1227 words]
One Government Expert Sees Greater Than Usual 'Irresponsibility' By Leaders As They Jockey For Position And Seek To Please Voters LOS ANGELES - One of the worst scandals in Los Angeles history has done more than ruin the reputation of the Police Department -- it has left city officials, county prosecutors and the police chief jockeying for political and public approval. Unraveling revelations of brutal misconduct, police abuse and lax supervision of cops could be a difficult task not only because of the magnitude of the allegations of wrongdoing in the Los Angeles Police Department, but also for the infighting that is taking place. [continues 634 words]
Given the propensity for large jury awards, the city must take steps now to prepare itself. Although the city attorney publicly says that the city's liability in cases arising from the Rampart scandal should be no more than $125 million in settlement costs, it is far more likely that the city could face a payoff of well more than $1 billion. This is especially worrisome in a place like Los Angeles, where a jury last July ordered General Motors to pay a record $4.9 billion to six people injured while riding in a 1979 Chevrolet that was rear-ended by a drunk motorist speeding at 70 mph. Because the Chevrolet had passed all federal and state safety tests, the judge reduced the award to a mere $1 billion, but it was still an average award of $170 million per person. [continues 565 words]
20 LAPD Officers Relieved Of Duty LOS ANGELES - Officers in an anti-gang unit at the center of the LAPD corruption scandal believed they were waging a life-or-death struggle with the drug pushers and street hoodlums they encountered daily, according to an internal report released Wednesday. The unit "routinely made up its own rules and, for all intents and purposes, was left to function with little or no oversight." The rogue actions and rule-bending attitude of its officers became known as the "Rampart Way," referring to a district near downtown considered the toughest in the city.Operated as an entity [continues 701 words]
A Culture Of Chaos Reigned In Rampart Division LOS ANGELES - Anti-gang officers at the center of the Police Department corruption scandal believed they were waging a life-or-death struggle with the drug pushers and street hoodlums they encountered daily, according to an internal report released Wednesday. The unit "routinely made up its own rules and, for all intents and purposes, was left to function with little or no oversight," the report said. The department's Board of Inquiry concluded the unit "developed its own culture and operated as an entity unto itself." [continues 678 words]
With the LAPD taking full responsibility for the Rampart scandal, Chief Bernard C. Parks won broad support Wednesday to move forward with reforms but the debate intensified over whether he can succeed without an outside commission and expanded civilian oversight. A Board of Inquiry report compiled by 300 command officers and investigators was formally released, putting the official stamp on its finding that a pervasive culture of "mediocrity" had poisoned the department and given rise to the worst corruption scandal in its history. [continues 1458 words]
Confronted by the Los Angeles Police Department's stinging self-analysis, city leaders Wednesday reeled, argued and puzzled over what to do next, a debate that thrust the divided Police Commission into the biggest quandary of its recent history. How the commissioners resolve that dilemma may determine the future of civilian oversight of a department that historically has been one of Los Angeles' most powerful and controversial institutions. With its work analyzing the events surrounding the Rampart police scandal barely begun, the commission already is showing signs of strain, both internally and in its relationship with Mayor Richard Riordan, who appoints its five members. [continues 1442 words]
Department Probe Finds Disgraced Unit Had Little Supervision, Discipline LOS ANGELES -- Officers in an anti-gang unit at the center of a police corruption scandal believed they were in a life-or-death struggle that entitled them to break the rules, according to an internal report released yesterday. The unit "routinely made up its own rules and, for all intents and purposes, was left to function with little or no oversight," said the report from the Police Department's Board of Inquiry. [continues 348 words]
LOS ANGELES, March 1 - The leadership of the Los Angles police today revealed that the worst corruption scandal in the history of the department was caused, in large part, by its own poor management and a culture of mediocrity - creating the very conditions necessary for dirty cops to run wild. In the past five months, the LAPD and Los Angeles have been rocked by revelations that a cadre of rogue officers in an anti-gang unit operating in the city's toughest neighborhood planted evidence, beat handcuffed gang members, lied under oath and shot unarmed suspects 96 all during the city's highly publicized war on gangs during the 1990s. [continues 733 words]
Police: Breakdowns that allowed corruption are still uncorrected, study finds. The chief concedes that mediocrity became a way of life at all levels of the department. The Los Angeles Police Department failed time and again to take steps that might have headed off the worst corruption scandal in its history, according to a sweeping self-indictment prepared by the department's own leaders. In a letter accompanying the long-awaited Board of Inquiry report into the corruption centered in the department's Rampart Division, which will be released today, Police Chief Bernard C. Parks called the scandal a "life-altering experience for the Los Angeles Police Department" in which corrupt officers took advantage of lax supervision to carry out criminal acts. [continues 1764 words]
Rampart: U.S. attorney's office and agents opposed helping deport 18th Street gang members. Involvement in local scandal may increase push for outside probe. Immigration and Naturalization Service agents ordered to deport immigrants detained by anti-gang officers in the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division told investigators the assignment was "rammed down our throats" over the objections of the U.S. attorney's office after pressure from the FBI, according to federal documents. The 27 INS agents, who were interviewed for an internal immigration service report, create a composite picture of an unpopular program launched by overzealous INS managers over the objections of agents in the INS' own Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force - known by the acronym OCDETF. They said they repeatedly told John McAllister, the INS assistant district director for investigations, that their involvement in the program did not conform to their congressional mandate to combat large-scale drug trafficking. LAPD's cooperation in the effort may have violated a special city order that restricts police inquiries into residents' immigration status. [continues 1076 words]
The epicenter of Los Angeles' Latino power structure may be the bustling immigrant neighborhoods patrolled by the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division. The Pico-Union, Westlake and Echo Park districts are represented by what reads like a Who's Who of rising Latino political stars: Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, state Senate Majority Leader Richard Polanco, Rep. Xavier Becerra and County Supervisor Gloria Molina. For the past six months, these leaders have been repeatedly pounding on their core issues--improving access to health care, extending rail to the Eastside and solving the turmoil in the school district. [continues 1209 words]
Rampart Scandal Uncovered Lax Security LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Police Department limited access to criminal evidence after a cocaine theft by one of its own led to one of the largest scandals in city history. Police officers are no longer allowed to remove drugs, guns or money from evidence lockers, spokeswoman Lt. Sharyn Buck said. "We now only let them take photographs of the evidence," Buck told the Daily News of Los Angeles for Sunday's edition. The department cracked down on access to evidence following the August 1998 arrest of Rampart station Officer Rafael Perez, who was sentenced Friday for stealing eight pounds of cocaine. [continues 237 words]
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The Police Department limited access to criminal evidence after a cocaine theft by one of its own led to one of the largest scandals in city history. Police officers are no longer allowed to remove drugs, guns or money from evidence lockers, spokeswoman Lt. Sharyn Buck said. "We now only let them take photographs of the evidence," Buck told the Daily News of Los Angeles for Sunday's edition. The department cracked down on access to evidence after the August 1998 arrest of Rampart station officer Rafael Perez, who was sentenced Friday for stealing eight pounds of cocaine. [continues 250 words]
With tears in his eyes, the disgraced policeman at the center of a massive corruption scandal apologized as he was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for stealing cocaine. Rafael Perez, who has admitted framing innocent people, doctoring crime scenes and lying in court, offered a message to rookie cops: "Whoever chases monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster himself." Perez was sentenced under a plea bargain that grants him immunity for other crimes he has admitted to investigators. He was also given credit for the time he has already spent in custody. [continues 221 words]
Donning a 99-cent-store disguise, dirty cop Rafael Perez nonchalantly stole cocaine from an LAPD evidence room for several months without arousing suspicion, only to be caught because of his own carelessness and arrogance, the Daily News has learned. Perez made one severe error in March 1998, following his largest narcotics heist -- he failed to replace the dope he had taken with household flour as he had done in the past. According to confidential transcripts of Perez's testimony to investigators and several sources close to the corruption investigation, Perez had used the flour scam at least three times before, eventually stealing a total about $1 million worth of cocaine from the Los Angeles Police Department. [continues 1358 words]
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Some Rampart residents said Saturday that they've always distrusted the LAPD, even before Rafael Perez revealed rampant corruption within the ranks. A day after the former officer, whose confessions broke open the worst police corruption scandal in the city's history, was sentenced, some residents of the mostly Hispanic, lower middle-class neighborhood said they've been accustomed to police misconduct. "We don't like the police around this area. They're very discriminatory," said Raymond Lopez, a hairdresser who's worked in the neighborhood west of downtown for 15 years. [continues 510 words]
As local governments around the nation gear up to take full fiscal advantage of huge windfalls of tobacco settlement money - preparing to use the fund for everything from new infrastructure to new school programs - Los Angeles is getting to know the full cost of police corruption. The scenarios for the city are infuriating, no matter how many times you shuffle the deck and deal the cards. Here are some of the options available to pay for the anticipated huge legal costs of settling with those who were falsely arrested, charged, incarcerated, and/or injured by corrupt Los Angeles officers in the infamous Rampart scandal. [continues 300 words]
