OFFICERS' CORRUPTION TRIAL UNDER WAY IN LOS ANGELES

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 13 - The first of what could be dozens of trials of
police officers stemming from the worst police corruption scandal in this
city's history began today, with a blistering attack by defense lawyers of
the state's case and its potential star witness, Rafael Perez.

Mr. Perez, a 33-year-old ex-marine who is the former Los Angeles Police
Department officer at the heart of a continuing investigation of the city's
Rampart police division, is not on trial, nor was he in court today. But
his name and record dominated the proceedings, despite the efforts of the
prosecution.

"This is not a trial of Rafael Perez," the deputy Los Angeles County
district attorney, Laura Laesecke, told the jury in her brief opening
remarks. "The only people on trial are sitting at the defense table."

Prosecutors said it was uncertain whether Mr. Perez, who is in custody
after pleading guilty to stealing cocaine from an evidence locker, would
even testify in the case.

But lawyers for the four defendants spent more than two hours effectively
putting Mr. Perez on trial, calling him, among other things, "evil" and
"satanic."

"Without his lies," said Barry Levin, a defense lawyer, "there is no case
against any of these officers."

The four defendants - Sergeants Edward Ortiz, 44, and Brian Liddy, 38, and
Officers Paul Harper, 33, and Michael Buchanan, 30, - are charged with
conspiracy to obstruct or pervert justice. And as with dozens of other
officers now under investigation, it was the words of Mr. Perez that first
dragged them into the shadows of suspicion.

For more than a year, Mr. Perez has been telling investigators about
corruption by officers at the Rampart Division, including planting
evidence, stealing money and drugs from suspects and lying under oath to
send the innocent to prison. About 100 convictions have been overturned
since Mr. Perez began talking, and nearly 70 officers are under investigation.

Mr. Perez has himself admitted to committing a long list of crimes while in
uniform. Indeed, he began talking to authorities in exchange for a lighter
prison term after he was caught stealing six pounds of cocaine from an
evidence locker.

Even as the trial began today in downtown Los Angeles, federal agents were
preparing to search a dumpsite in Mexico where a former girlfriend of Mr.
Perez said he had buried three people he and a partner had murdered several
years ago in Los Angeles.

Harland W. Braun, Mr. Buchanan's defense lawyer, told jurors that the
prosecution "has actually made a deal with the devil."

The defendants were all implicated by Mr. Perez, who worked in the tough
Rampart division with them.

Rampart, just west of downtown Los Angeles, is home to dozens of street
gangs and the social problems that help them thrive.

The charges against the defendants stem from a trio of arrests in 1996;
they are accused of planting evidence and giving false testimony.

"The case you are about to hear," Ms. Laesecke, the prosecutor, told the
jurors, "is about four men who took the law into their own hands."

She said they falsified evidence and lied in court. They are also accused
of planting a gun on a gang member. "They agreed," she said, "to hide the
truth."

Ms. Laesecke's opening remarks lasted less than 15 minutes. The defense
took more than two hours to lay out its case, using charts and enlarged
photographs, but all the time returning to Rafael Perez.

"Mr. Perez is a glib person," said Joel Isaacson, Mr. Harper's defense
lawyer. "He has a good line and he's a good-looking guy. But with any luck,
he is the most evil person you will ever lay eyes on."

Before the start of the trial, the presiding judge, Jacqueline A. Connor,
weakened the prosecution's case by excluding the testimony of about two
dozen witnesses.

The scandal could end up costing the city hundreds of millions of dollars
in civil lawsuits. Earlier this year, a federal judge ruled earlier that
the department could be sued using the government's anti-racketeering
statute, which was created to deal with organized-crime figures.

Besides allowing one of the largest police departments in the United States
to be regarded as a criminal enterprise, the decision increases the city's
potential liability, since the law permits a longer statute of limitations
and could triple the damage awards.