PEREZ'S CREDIBILITY UNDER NEW ATTACK

Rampart: An Inmate Says The Jailed Ex-officer Boasted Of Having The Power
To Implicate People, 'Innocent Or Not.'

In yet another challenge to the credibility of ex-Los Angeles Police
Officer Rafael Perez, LAPD officials have belatedly turned over the
statement of a jailhouse informant who told authorities that Perez once
boasted of having the power to wreak havoc on the lives of those who
crossed him, according to documents reviewed by The Times.

"If someone pisses me off, I'll throw their name into a hat and they'll get
investigated--innocent or not," Perez allegedly told his cellmate as
another prisoner listened in. The allegation comes from Hank Rodriguez,
another jailed ex-L.A. officer, according to the confidential documents
that are the object of a court order forbidding their release. Rodriguez
claims that he spent time in the cell next to Perez's after he was jailed
on a parole violation stemming from a DUI conviction. Documents also show
that Rodriguez was fired from the LAPD in 1974 after being accused of forgery.

Rodriguez alleged to Rampart task force investigators in March that, in the
presence of fellow inmates, Perez adopted "a gang member type of attitude."
According to the informant, he periodically broke into rap tunes and
boasted of having a book and movie deal.

Winston Kevin McKesson, Perez's attorney, said his client has never met
Rodriguez.

"This is pure folly," McKesson said. "Just more people coming out of the
woodwork." He noted that there are several officers Perez does not like
whom he has not implicated in the scandal.

It is not known whether authorities have confirmed that Rodriguez was in a
cell next to Perez's. Nor is it known whether they have located or
interviewed the cellmate to whom Rodriguez alleges Perez boasted of having
the power to make problems for those who made him angry.

In general, information from jailhouse informants is viewed with
skepticism. Often such informants trade fabricated information to win some
benefit in their own cases, or to ingratiate themselves with authorities.
In the late 1980s, the California Legislature passed a law requiring that
jurors be warned to view informants' testimony with suspicion.

Though Rodriguez made the allegation more than five months ago, his
statement was misplaced by LAPD investigators until earlier this month,
according to a letter from LAPD Cmdr. Dan Schatz, who is overseeing the
Rampart probe.

Schatz wrote the letter after Superior Court Judge Jacqueline A. Connor
told him she wanted a detailed explanation for the delay in turning the
information over to prosecutors, who are preparing to go to trial with a
case against four of Perez's former colleagues in the Rampart Division. As
a result of the LAPD's failure to provide the information, prosecutors did
not turn the allegations over in a timely manner to defense attorneys
representing the accused officers.

That is a potentially serious oversight because the defense attorneys might
be able to use Rodriguez's allegations to undermine Perez's credibility,
should he be called as a witness.

Perez, the central figure in the ongoing LAPD corruption scandal, has
agreed to cooperate with authorities in exchange for a lighter prison
sentence for stealing cocaine. He has implicated dozens of officers in
crimes and misconduct. To date, nearly 100 convictions have been overturned
largely as a result of his information.

While police officials contend that they have corroborated 70%-80% of
Perez's allegations, his credibility has come under sharp attack from
defense attorneys representing LAPD officers he has accused of crimes.

Perez's credibility was further challenged when it was disclosed last week
that one of his former lovers alleges that he was involved in crimes with
David Mack, a convicted bank robber and ex-LAPD officer. That witness
alleges that the pair killed two people in a "crash pad" apartment near the
Rampart police station where Perez once worked. Investigators served a
search warrant last week on another Rampart officer whose 1986 BMW the
witness alleges was used to dispose of the bodies.

The woman, whose identity is being withheld by The Times at the request of
authorities, claims to have witnessed a major cocaine transaction between
Mack and Perez in 1992.

Perez has denied any criminal involvement with Mack, his former friend and
partner.