JUDGE REFUSES TO TRANSFER EX-LAPD OFFICER TO PRISON

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Corrupt former police Officer Rafael Perez will remain
in local custody because moving him to state prison would place him in
potential danger, a judge ruled yesterday.

Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry denied a prosecution request for the
key witness in the Los Angeles Rampart police corruption case to be moved
to prison to serve out his sentence for stealing cocaine from a police
evidence room.

"Mr. Perez is in likely danger from all kinds of interests, and I'm most
comfortable leaving him where he is," Perry said. "I'm not gonna move him."

Perez was not at the hearing. He is scheduled to be released in early June.

Prosecutors have said the convicted ex-cop-turned-informant whose
confessions and accusations broke open the Rampart scandal no longer is
needed for the investigation.

The move came after Perez's attorney, Winston McKesson, told prosecutors
his client "will not be made available to testify at continuing (Los
Angeles Police Department) Board of Rights (hearings) or for further
interviews until further notice," according to a letter.

Perez became the central figure in the biggest Los Angeles Police
Department scandal in decades after pleading guilty to stealing 8 pounds of
cocaine from a police evidence room. In exchange for a lighter sentence, he
agreed to tell prosecutors what he had seen as an officer in an anti-gang
unit in the department's gritty Rampart Division near downtown.

Perez was sentenced a year ago and his statements about officers lying
under oath and abusing innocent people helped lead to the suspensions of
dozens of officers, the overturning of about 100 tainted cases and the
arrests of five officers.