FED JUDGE ASSIGNED ON LAPD REFORMS

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A federal judge was selected to oversee the
implementation of reforms aimed at ending brutality, racial profiling and
other alleged abuses by the Los Angeles Police Department.

The reform package, agreed to by city and federal officials after weeks of
negotiations, is to be implemented by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Feess
Jr., who was picked at random Friday.

The package includes the appointment of an independent monitor by March who
will be charged with overseeing the LAPD for five years to ensure the
reforms are carried out.

The reforms include improved training for police, an improved computer
system to better monitor officers' performance, new controls on the LAPD's
anti-gang unit, and a ban on making traffic and pedestrian stops based on
race or ethnicity.

Feess, 52, was appointed to the federal bench by President Clinton just
last year. Since then, however, he has handled the pretrial disposition of
nearly 100 lawsuits filed by people who said they were victimized by police
in the worst corruption scandal in the city's history.

Since the scandal broke last year, more than 100 convictions have been
thrown out and 20 officers have left active duty amid accusations that
anti-gang officers shot, beat and planted evidence on innocent people, then
lied in court to help convict them.

The alleged abuses took place in the city's poor, largely minority Rampart
section. Four former Rampart officers are on trial for allegedly conspiring
to frame innocent people.