2 OFFICERS ACCUSED OF CORRUPTION WERE NOT PROSECUTED

LAPD: One quit and one was fired over alleged offenses similar to those
figuring in Rampart scandal. But the department did not refer their cases to
the district attorney.

Two Los Angeles police officers accused of drug-related corruption similar
to that uncovered in the ongoing Rampart scandal were forced to leave the
LAPD, but their cases were never turned over to the district attorney for
criminal prosecution, a Times investigation has found.

In one case, Mark Haro, a training officer from the department's Central
Division, resigned after an LAPD disciplinary panel found him guilty of
possessing illegal drugs, paying a street informant with crack cocaine and
pressuring one of his rookie trainees to falsify an arrest report.

In the other case, an officer who worked undercover narcotics assignments in
the San Fernando Valley was fired after an LAPD trial board found him guilty
of more than two dozen offenses, including illegal drug possession and
threatening his wife with a loaded gun. The board, in its written finding,
found Officer Gustavo Raya guilty of "major violations of law."

Despite the findings against the two officers, the LAPD did not refer either
case to prosecutors for possible criminal charges, according to officials
with both the city attorney's and district attorney's offices.

Cmdr. David J. Kalish, an LAPD spokesman, said a preliminary review of
department records "failed to determine whether either of the cases had been
presented for criminal prosecution."

"It would certainly be of interest to us if they were not presented," Kalish
said. "It's possible that they fell through the cracks."

In addition to raising questions about the department's resolve in bringing
allegedly corrupt officers to justice, both cases suggested more widespread
problems within the LAPD, problems unrelated to whistle-blowing ex-Officer
Rafael Perez, the convicted drug thief-turned-informer at the center of the
Rampart scandal.

The officers' alleged crimes and misconduct occurred in 1995 and 1996, the
same time frame in which Perez has alleged that many of the abuses occurred
in the Rampart Division, where he was an anti-gang officer. But internal
investigations of the officers languished. Haro resigned in 1998; Raya was
fired last year.

If the charges against Haro and Raya are true, as the LAPD has determined,
the implications are staggering.

Haro allegedly chastised a trainee because she did not know how to work "in
the gray area," and therefore would never make a good narcotics officer.
Although this trainee complained to her superiors, it is unclear how many
others embraced the lesson and took what they learned to other divisions of
the LAPD.

"He's certainly not what we're looking for in a training officer," said
Capt. Jim Tatreau, who oversaw Haro's so-called Board of Rights hearing, the
equivalent of a trial in the LAPD.

Raya, who was found guilty of using marijuana and cocaine while off duty,
allegedly admitted to stealing the drugs from people he arrested while on
duty. Disclosure of that information could result in the reexamination of
hundreds of Raya's cases, sources said.

Public Defender Michael P. Judge said that any conviction based on the
testimony of Haro or Raya should be reviewed.

"This situation illustrates why the criminal justice system cannot rely upon
the Los Angeles Police Department to provide important information [about
officer misconduct] in a timely manner," Judge said. "There was a delay of
several years before this information was brought to light, and even then it
was only as a result of an investigation by the media."

Kalish said the LAPD's policy requires that all cases involving "potential
criminality are presented to the proper prosecutorial agency."

Haro, 37, denied any wrongdoing in a recent interview with The Times. He
said he resigned from the LAPD because it was clear that his career was
over, even if the charges against him were false. Raya, 40, declined to
comment, citing the advice of an attorney.

According to LAPD documents, Haro was a training officer who had little
regard for department rules or state laws. At a Jan. 21, 1998, disciplinary
hearing, he was found guilty of 10 counts of misconduct, including failing
to book drugs as evidence, possessing illegal drugs, paying an informant
with crack cocaine, lying to investigators and coercing a probationary
officer to falsify an arrest report.

"It is the opinion of the board that the actions by Officer Haro . . . at
least on their face, are criminal acts," Tatreau, the board's chairman, said
in a ruling.

Before Tatreau could finish reading the board's verdict that day, Haro got
up from his chair and left the room. He resigned before the department could
fire him.

Department 'Sting' Failed

Most of the charges against Haro involved events that occurred in mid-August
1996 when he was partnered with Melody Ann Hainline, a young probationary
officer less than a year out of the Police Academy.

On Aug. 11, 1996, the two were on patrol when they arrested a woman on
suspicion of possessing crack cocaine. Hainline told LAPD investigators that
Haro tried to have her fabricate her observations in the arrest report, to
say that they saw the woman toss the drugs to the ground instead of finding
them cupped in her hand. Why he allegedly wanted Hainline to fabricate the
report in such a fashion is unclear. In any case, she refused.

Later that day, Haro again tried to pressure Hainline into committing
misconduct, this time to pay one of his informants with cocaine that had
been seized earlier, according to LAPD documents. Again, Hainline refused.

The next day, Haro and Hainline detained another suspect who allegedly had
rocks of crack cocaine in his mouth. Additional rocks were found in a
container on the ground near the man. Though the suspect was questioned, he
was released, documents show. At that point, Haro still had the drugs in his
possession, Hainline alleged.

Shortly after the suspect's release, Hainline said, Haro started to tell her
that she would "never be a good dope cop because she won't live in the gray
area," according to LAPD documents. "You have to give a little to get a
little," Haro was quoted as saying.

Then, Hainline said, Haro threw the crack cocaine he had seized out the
patrol car window.

Hainline reported Haro's actions to a supervisor. Department officials
initially tried to catch Haro in misconduct by setting up a "sting." That
attempt failed, however, when Haro and another partner found a radio
transmitter on an undercover officer who was posing as a drug dealer.

When Haro was confronted with Hainline's allegations about misconduct, he
denied that those incidents ever occurred.

A year later, however, facing disciplinary charges, Haro changed his story
and told investigators that he was conducting an "integrity test" on
Hainline to see if she would succumb to misconduct. As her training officer,
Haro said, he wanted to "humble her and make her teachable," according to a
written account of the disciplinary panel's findings.

The panel members said Haro's explanation "strains credibility." If his
story were true, the members reasoned, Haro should have "supported
[Hainline] for redeeming her integrity." Instead, his initial denial
"allowed her to become a pariah with her peers."

The board, in a divided opinion, also found Haro guilty of paying an
informant with crack cocaine about a week after Hainline made her initial
complaint. That charge was supported by the taped testimony of the
informant.

The informant, however, recanted his allegations when he was tracked down by
Haro and taken for a ride across town to see the officer's defense
representative, according to LAPD documents. The informant never did testify
in person.

Board members were suspicious about Haro's contact with the informant and
said the informant had expressed fear to department investigators that
implicating an officer would put him in danger.

"What was going through [the informant's] mind regarding his predicament?"
the board's report rhetorically asked.

Witnesses Found Credible

In an interview with The Times, Haro--a muscular former member of the LAPD
boxing team--again insisted that he was testing Hainline's integrity and
that it was she who was lying about the circumstances involving the
incidents. In fact, Haro said, he had been granted approval to conduct the
sting by a sergeant.

That sergeant, he said, denied ever having done so when questioned by
Internal Affairs.

The charges against Raya, LAPD officials found, "paint the picture of a
person in a serious downward spiral . . . someone who long ago abandoned the
law enforcement code of ethics," according to a three-page document
supporting the department's decision to fire the officer.

Raya was found guilty of 25 of the 27 counts against him, including drug
possession and use, threatening his wife with a loaded gun and improperly
accessing the department's computer to obtain information on a male
acquaintance of his girlfriend.

Raya also was found guilty of several administrative offenses, such as
failing to return narcotics to a department evidence facility on the same
day they were checked out--a requirement designed to guard against drugs
being lost or stolen.

"It was clear to the board that you took shortcuts at work and may have
influenced other officers with whom you trained to do the same," the June
30, 1999, document stated.

The board said that Raya admitted to sometimes storing narcotics in his desk
drawer--a violation of department policy--and that several officers in the
Valley Bureau's narcotics unit were disciplined for the same offense.

Raya's then-girlfriend testified that she routinely smoked marijuana with
him and once used cocaine with him in Las Vegas. She told the board that
Raya had admitted to her that he obtained the drugs by stealing them from
suspects.

The bulk of the evidence against Raya came from his wife and
then-girlfriend, whom he had been seeing simultaneously, without either
woman knowing about the other, department documents said.

According to the written finding, board members found both women credible.
Raya's wife's allegations that he had threatened her at gunpoint were
corroborated by a family pastor who testified that she had told him about
two of the alleged incidents.

Raya's alleged conduct took place between 1994 and 1996, according to
department documents. He was relieved of duty in October 1997 and fired last
June.

"Considering the counts that had been sustained against you, it would be
exceedingly difficult to find any command officer who would be willing to
have you within their command," the board found. "Additionally, it would be
equally difficult to find an officer who would be willing to work with you.
Finally, it is doubtful that any city attorney or district attorney would
file a criminal case against a suspect involving you as the arresting
officer."