A former LAPD officer awaiting sentencing on drug trafficking charges is suspected of running a criminal network with friends, relatives and other police officers who stole drugs, money and property in home-invasion style robberies, sometimes while wearing police uniforms, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Ruben Palomares, a former officer in the Rampart Division, and his cohorts allegedly used police squad cars while committing some robberies, the newspaper reported, citing law enforcement documents and people with knowledge of the investigation. Palomares, 33, is expected to be sentenced Wednesday on separate drug charges. He pleaded guilty last year and could receive 15 years in prison. His attorney declined to comment Sunday, pending sentencing of his client. [end]
LOS ANGELES -- The police corruption scandal that has cost the city $40 million in legal settlements flared up again this week. The new chief ordered an outside investigation, and newly reported testimony suggested that corrupt officers are still on the beat. Police Chief William Bratton, who took office in October, criticized an internal review of the scandal as unacceptably flawed, and he called for an independent probe of the allegations that officers planted guns and drugs, lied under oath, and shot unarmed suspects. [continues 88 words]
LOS ANGELES - The police scandal that cost the city $40 million in settlements and led to dozens of convictions being overturned flared anew this week when the police chief blasted an internal report and newly reported testimony suggested that corrupt officers were still on the beat. Police Chief William Bratton criticized a departmental review of the scandal as so flawed he won't approve it and called for an independent investigation into the allegations of officer cover-ups, evidence planting, lying under oath and shootings of unarmed suspects. [continues 410 words]
New Chief Orders Independent Probe LOS ANGELES -- The police corruption scandal that cost the city $40 million in legal settlements flared up this week when the new chief, William Bratton, ordered an outside investigation. Meanwhile, newly reported testimony suggested that corrupt officers are still on the beat. Bratton, who took office in October, criticized an internal review of the scandal as unacceptably flawed and called for an independent probe of the allegations that officers planted guns and drugs, lied under oath, and shot unarmed suspects. [continues 177 words]
An ex-Rampart unit member also suspected many others routinely committed crimes. In interviews with state and federal authorities, the onetime partner of corrupt ex-Los Angeles Police Officer Rafael Perez accused nine fellow officers of serious misconduct and said he suspected that many officers in the Rampart Division's anti-gang unit routinely committed crimes, according to confidential transcripts. Former Officer Nino Durden, in sometimes tearful testimony, said sergeants in two different shootings instructed officers to lie about the circumstances of the incidents to make their actions appear more tactically sound when reviewed by police superiors. The officers, he said, went along with the fake stories to protect themselves and colleagues from possible administrative charges. [continues 2438 words]
Bratton asks for an outside panel to review how the LAPD handled the scandal, fearing it could 'bleed this department to death.' Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton called Tuesday for an independent "blue ribbon committee" to account for the LAPD's handling of the Rampart corruption scandal, saying that efforts to do so by department officials have been "totally inadequate." In calling for the formation of the panel, Bratton told members of the city's civilian Police Commission that the Rampart scandal still hangs over the Los Angeles Police Department and that if it isn't addressed, it has the potential to "bleed this department to death." [continues 931 words]
- - D.A. Says Many Would Depend On The Testimony Of Perez And Durden, Who Aren't Credible Los Angles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley announced Monday that dozens of cases against officers implicated in the LAPD's Rampart Division scandal would not result in criminal prosecution. Cooley said he made the decision based on his review of 82 Rampart-related cases that detectives submitted to prosecutors. The district attorney's office decided to not prosecute the cases because of insufficient evidence and because the statute of limitations had expired. Further, many of the cases involved the two main players in the scandal -- Rafael Perez and Nino Durden -- who had entered into plea bargains that protect them from further prosecution. [continues 794 words]
LOS ANGELES (AP) - A confidential police department report has found that a retired deputy chief for several years helped launder money from his son's sprawling cocaine ring, a newspaper reported Friday. The Los Angeles Times reported that the police department probe found that Deputy Chief Maurice Moore, who retired earlier this year, allegedly retrieved, delivered, stored and laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit profits. Moore allegedly acted on behalf of his son, who ran the drug operation from federal prison, according to the LAPD's internal investigation. [continues 180 words]
LOS ANGELES -(AP)- A confidential police department report has found that a retired deputy chief for several years helped launder money from his son's sprawling cocaine ring, a newspaper reported Friday. The Los Angeles Times reported that the police department probe found that Deputy Chief Maurice Moore, who retired earlier this year, allegedly retrieved, delivered, stored and laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit profits. Moore allegedly acted on behalf of his son, who ran the drug operation from federal prison, according to the LAPD's internal investigation. [continues 674 words]
Police: Report Supports Claim That Former Deputy Chief Aided Son's Drug Ring. He Denies It. A recently retired deputy chief from the Los Angeles Police Department was, for at least seven years, an active player in his son's cross-country cocaine ring, helping to launder hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit profits, a confidential LAPD report alleges. Deputy Chief Maurice Moore, who retired earlier this year as one of the LAPD's highest-ranking officials, allegedly retrieved, delivered, stored and then laundered drug money through real estate transactions for his son, who orchestrated the operation from federal prison, according to the LAPD's internal investigation, a copy of which was obtained by The Times. [continues 1496 words]
Law: Judges Are Refusing to Review Cases Involving Tainted Officers If Inmate is No Longer in Custody. When Jorge Armando Torres was arrested four years ago on suspicion of selling $10 of rock cocaine, he told his attorney that the LAPD officers were lying. But facing a trial where his word would be pitted against that of two Rampart Division officers, he agreed to a plea bargain. Since Torres finished serving nine months in county jail, judges have overturned nearly 150 convictions in cases that relied on evidence from allegedly corrupt Rampart cops. In almost all these cases, the convicts were released from prison, parole or probation. [continues 1602 words]
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA -- The disgraced former officer at the center of the police department's corruption scandal was sentenced Monday to 2 years in federal prison for violating the civil rights of an unarmed man he and another officer shot in 1996. Rafael Perez, 34, declined to speak when U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder accepted his plea agreement on one count of conspiracy and one count of possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Perez, a former member of the Los Angeles Police Department's anti-gang unit, agreed to the plea deal in December. He admitted fabricating a story about a shooting that left Javier Francisco Ovando paralyzed and confessed that he testified falsely at the man's trial. The firearm with the obliterated serial number was used to frame Ovando. [continues 88 words]
Crime: Ex-Rampart Drug Agent Caught In Sting Faces 15-Year Minimum And Remains A Suspect In Murder, Robberies And An On-Duty Shooting. SAN DIEGO -- A former Los Angeles police officer who once worked a narcotics assignment in the troubled Rampart Division pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal cocaine-trafficking charges. Ruben Palomares, 32, faces a minimum of 15 years in federal prison for attempting to buy 10 kilograms of cocaine from agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration during an undercover sting operation in June, according to attorneys in the case. [continues 629 words]
Police: Federal and local investigators are pursuing allegations that the two officers robbed drug dealers at gunpoint in an ongoing scheme. Federal and local authorities are investigating allegations that a pair of Los Angeles police officers committed a series of armed robberies, stealing narcotics and money from drug dealers, according to sources and documents. Although Officer Ruben Palomares was earlier named as a suspect in the crimes, authorities are now probing whether he and Officer William Ferguson were involved in a criminal partnership similar to that of Rafael Perez and Nino Durden, the former LAPD officers at the center of the so-called Rampart scandal. [continues 1726 words]
Scandal: LAPD Reexamines Unsolved Crimes As Allegations Emerge Against The Pair. Calling an investigation into allegedly rogue Los Angeles police officers "very sensitive and significant in nature," a top LAPD official said Thursday that detectives are taking a fresh look at several unsolved crimes once thought to be the work of common thugs, but now suspected to have involved some of the LAPD's own. Deputy Chief J.I. Davis said detectives also were reopening several internal affairs investigations involving officers who are now implicated in the brewing scandal. [continues 542 words]
Two police officers are being investigated for allegedly committing a series of armed robberies, stealing narcotics and money from drug dealers. Authorities believe Officer Ruben Palomares, who was arrested in June in San Diego for the crimes, was partners with fellow Officer William Ferguson. Investigators liken the alleged crime duo's activities to those of Rafael Perez and Nino Durden, the former LAPD officers whose arrests launched the Rampart scandal. Anonymous law enforcement sources have told the Los Angeles Times that other officers, both from within the LAPD and outside agencies, are also being investigated, but they declined to provide details. [continues 327 words]
Men Were Prosecuted On Corruption-Related Offenses; Now File A Federal Civil Rights Lawsuit LOS ANGELES -- Three Los Angeles police officers who were put on trial last year for corruption-related offenses have filed a federal civil rights lawsuit alleging they were falsely arrested, maliciously prosecuted and treated like "common criminals" by the LAPD and District Attorney's Office, their lawyer said Thursday. "This ordeal has been devastating for them," said Etan Z. Lorant, who represents Officer Paul Harper and Sgts. Brian Liddy and Edward Ortiz. "They want vindication." [continues 542 words]
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 13 -- With morale sapped and hiring growing more difficult at the Los Angeles Police Department, the force's newly installed civilian oversight body has announced it will focus on recruitment in an effort to restore some luster to the tarnished department. The department has about 8,900 officers, well below its authorized level of close to 10,200. This is in spite of an extensive campaign to bring in new recruits. Bernard Parks, the department's chief, has said that the biggest problem is the strong economy and the fact of better paying jobs elsewhere. But many experts have rejected that, saying that low morale within the force is a critical factor. [continues 355 words]
Gritty Tales Of Corrupt Cops Had Been Filmed Before, But David Ayer Felt L.A.'S Tale Hadn't Been Told Screenwriter David Ayer's new film, "Training Day," deals with a corrupt Los Angeles Police Department narcotics officer (Denzel Washington) who works the gang-infested, treacherous terrain of the Rampart Division. On "Training Day," he's teaching the secrets of survival--and a lot more--to a young officer (Ethan Hawke). A Los Angeles native, Ayer based his script in part on his experiences growing up here. Here's how Ayer, 29, came to write "Training Day." The Warner Bros. film opens Sept. 21. [continues 1556 words]
Los Angeles -- The police station at the heart of one of the city's most embarrassing scandals is making its way to national television. FX, the cable television network owned by Fox, said Friday it plans to air a new series called "Rampart," focusing on the "morally ambiguous world" of some fictitious Los Angeles officers. The real-life inspiration so not pleased. "Shows like these capitalize on sensational headlines without realizing what harm that can do, "Sgt, John Pasquariello, an LAPD spokesman, told the LA Times. The hour-long weekly series is tentatively scheduled to air next spring, according to Kevin Reilly, president of entertainment for FX. [end]
