L.A. IS SUBJECT TO RICO STATUTE IN POLICE CASE

LOS ANGELES, April 20 (AP) -- The judge presiding over about 100 federal
police corruption lawsuits has ruled the city's police department can be
sued as a racketeering enterprise.

The ruling by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Feess could lead to a sharp
increase in the city's financial liability from the police corruption
scandal in which some members of the Rampart station's anti-gang unit
allegedly robbed, beat, framed and shot suspects.

Legal experts say the ruling is groundbreaking because no police department
or major police official has ever been held liable under the federal
Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

Feess's ruling, issued last week, came in a lawsuit filed by Los Angeles
resident D'Novel Hunter, who claims he spent four years in prison after
being framed on a drug charge by former officer Rafael Perez.

Perez, the central figure in the scandal, told of misdeeds by Rampart
police in exchange for a lighter sentence for stealing cocaine from an
evidence room.