By Tina Daunt, Henry Weinstein,
Matt Lait, Scott Glover and Jim Newton.
LA TIMES STAFF WRITERS

LOS ANGELES, CA-Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky branded the Rampart (neighborhood) police scandal an "assault on democracy" Thursday, as local officials intensified their calls for an independent investigation into the Los Angeles Police Department's deepening corruption crisis. The Rampart situation - in which officers allegedly conspired to put innocent people in jail and to cover up unjustified shootings and beatings - warrants a U.S. criminal civil rights investigation because there is evidence of "a widespread pattern and practice of federal civil rights violations" by Rampart officers, said lawyer Merrick J. Bobb, an expert on police misconduct who advises the Board of Supervisors and the Los Angeles Police Commission. (The FBI did begin an investigation into civil rights abuses by LAPD in March, 2000. WFI Editor)

Evidence of such a pattern has already led some legal experts to warn that the cost of settling suits growing out of the scandal will be significantly more than the $125 million initially projected by the city attorney. In fact, City Hall insiders now say the cost will virtually preclude any new initiatives in the next city budget. City officials already have begun the grim process of figuring out how Los Angeles will pay for the expected onslaught of liability claims and lawsuits. "This is a black cloud," said Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who heads the council's Public Safety Committee. "Clearly we need to proceed with knowledge and caution." Chief Legislative Analyst Ronald F. Deaton told members of the council's Budget and Finance Committee to start saving money now to help cover the costs. "We have serious liability issues facing the city," he said. "We have to put money aside."

As reported Thursday (02/10/2000) in the Los Angeles Times, disgraced former Officer Rafael Perez, who is providing information in exchange for a lesser sentence on cocaine theft charges, has told investigators that more than 30 current and former anti-gang officers at the Rampart station were "in the loop," constituting a secretive group that routinely engaged in illegal shootings, beatings, perjury, false arrests, witness intimidation, and other misconduct. More than 70 LAPD officers are under investigation for either committing crimes or knowing about them and helping to cover them up, according to one document produced by members of a special task force probing the scandal. That document and others were obtained by the Los Angeles Times, along with the nearly 2,000-page transcript of Perez's months-long interrogation. (The chief of police and Mayor Riordan have both publicly claimed that they believe that the abuses were restricted to the anti-gang unit at the Ramparts station, but in an unexpected action during March, Chief of the LAPD, Chief Parks, disbanded all the anti-gang units throughout the City of Los Angeles, showing that there is probably reasonable evidence that abuses occurred in every precinct. WFI Editor)

POLYGRAPH UPSETS PEREZ ATTORNEY

So far, 32 criminal cases have been reversed as a result of the investigation, and 20 officers have been relieved of duty, suspended or fired or have quit. Thursday, Perez attorney Winston Kevin McKesson expressed outrage that the Los Angeles Times had published stories based on documents he has yet to see. McKesson was particularly upset at reports that Perez failed a polygraph examination. The lawyer said the test was either incompetently administered or "was done to ensure a false positive result. There's something going on here, and we don't like it." In fact, sources close to the investigation said Perez tested as deceptive even in areas where his allegations have been corroborated. (Additionally, another officer came forward in March, to back up the allegations made by Perez. WFI Editor)

Dr. Edward I Gelb, a forensic psycho-physiologist and polygraph expert hired by McKesson, said Perez was given a "mixed issue" test in which he was asked questions about different topics. The problem with such a test, Gelb said, is that if one question makes the subject nervous, that reaction may color his other responses as well. For example, if a suspect is asked about a burglary, robbery and rape and reacts to the robbery, "he's failed the whole test," Gelb said. "That doesn't necessarily mean he committed the rape." In fact, officials at various levels of government do not appear overly preoccupied with the polygraph issue.

Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, said his agency is looking into the Rampart matter, but he declined to comment on the scope of the investigation. Other sources close to the U.S. attorney's office said that so far the agency is permitting the LAPD and the district attorney's office to take the lead. Federal authorities can enter the case on their own initiative, if they believe civil rights violations have occurred.

Meanwhile, Police Commission president Gerald L. Chaleff said he will ask his panel to revisit all the LAPD shootings on which it has ruled. "The Police Commission has ultimate responsibility for ruling on the propriety of police shootings," he said. "If Mr. Perez's statements are true, then it is clear that this commission and its predecessors have been misled. There can be no effective civilian oversight in such a situation." (These statements by the head of the "civilian" Police Commission illustrate the power the police have to suppress civilian efforts at oversight. It is precisely this kind of control that makes the state itself a police state, dominated by the law enforcement institutions; it should be understood, however, that in a modern class-based society, it would be impossible to disband the police without serious consequences; by the same token, police should not be in a position to dominate the society, but only to serve it by carrying out the laws enacted by a civilian government. WFI Editor)

Yaroslavsky called the alleged actions of the Rampart officers "an assault on democracy, an assault on our judicial system, an assault on our way of life. I never would have believed it was possible to think that LAPD officers would deliberately frame people and then celebrate about these actions over a beer." Along with district attorney candidate Steve Cooley, Yaroslavsky has called for an outside investigation into the scandal.

One city official said he thought that one factor eroding confidence in the investigation (into the Ramparts division scandal by LAPD) is the sniping between LAPD chief Parks and the district attorney's office. Publicly, the chief is pushing for more convictions to be overturned and more criminal charges to be lodged against officers. In turn, the district attorney's office has said that more work needs to be done before taking those actions. "This is a time where you want the prosecutors and investigators working together as a team to reach a common goal," the official said. "Here, its warfare."

Joining the fight, Public Defender Michael Judge reiterated Thursday (02-10-2000) that the district attorney's office was not providing sufficient information to enable public defenders to conduct meaningful reviews of potentially tainted cases. In late January, chief Parks said that he believed 99 people had been framed - up from previous publicly stated estimates of 23 - and that he thought the district attorney should dismiss cases "en masse."

In response to that announcement, the public defender's office requested the names of officers involved in the other 76 cases in which Parks was urging immediate action. On February 7^th, the district attorney's office declined to release the information, saying "it might harm the entire investigation."

SOURCE: Excerpted from the 11 February, 2000, issue of the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Edition, from an article entitled, "Officials Renew Calls for Outside Probe of Rampart." Reprinted in the public service of the national interest of the American people.