LAPD SUPERVISORS MISSED CLUES OF CORRUPTION, CHIEF SAYS

LOS ANGELES - Overworked supervisors missed signs that should have tipped
them to corruption in a local police station, Los Angeles Police Chief
Bernard Parks says.

Moreover, at least four officers linked to the scandal never should have
been hired because they had been arrested or had outstanding debts, Parks
said.

"There's generally a lack of oversight by command supervision going all the
way up through the department," Parks said yesterday, outlining the widening
investigation of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) scandal to the
City Council.

Parks said "telltale signs" of poor performance, such as suspicious
paperwork, were missed by supervisors - not only at the Rampart Division at
the center of the investigation, but throughout the 10,000-member police
force.

As a result of the investigation, more than 30 convictions have been
overturned.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office is preparing to seek the
reversal of eight more convictions tainted by alleged police misconduct.

At least 20 officers have been relieved of duty, suspended or fired or have
quit since the scandal broke last fall.

The corruption came to light after former Officer Rafael Perez was convicted
of stealing cocaine from a police-evidence locker. Perez, hoping for a more
lenient sentence, said officers in the Rampart Division near downtown framed
and brutalized people and even shot unarmed suspects. Lawsuits involving
such claims could cost the city $125 million, according to one official
estimate.

The head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Los Angeles office talked
to Parks this week to discuss the FBI's role in the burgeoning
investigation.

"I'm just afraid that the pressure is coming to build. I want to map out a
course of action," Assistant FBI Director James DeSarno Jr. said.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer's office last week dispatched, with
Parks' consent, a single agent to the LAPD's internal-affairs unit to
scrutinize the probe. More agents are likely to be assigned.

"While memories are fresh, we'd like to be part of this investigation as it
develops rather than going back and plowing the same ground at a later
date," an official in the attorney general's office said.

Parks has said 99 defendants in 57 cases involving Perez may have been
framed through perjury or false arrest. But sources said that figure is far
too low. In fact, hundreds of convictions - regardless of validity - are
expected to be tossed out.

According to documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times, 70 officers are
under investigation for either committing crimes are knowing about crimes
and helping to cover them up.

Parks said at least four officers never should have been hired because
background checks showed previous arrests or financial problems.

"They were misdemeanor arrests, alcohol ... domestic violence, things like
that," he said. "Those are the kinds of things that are red flags for us.