2 MORE CASES OVERTURNED IN RAMPART SCANDAL

LOS ANGELES--A Superior Court judge Wednesday overturned the felony
convictions of two more men whose prosecutions involved former Los Angeles
Police Department officer-turned-informant Rafael Perez.

Wednesday's actions, which involved two men sent to prison in 1996, brought
to 84 the number of convictions that have been vacated since the LAPD's
Rampart corruption scandal began.

In one case, Superior Court Judge Larry P. Fidler granted the prosecutors'
request to overturn the conviction of Salvador Luis Arias, 25, who was
arrested by Perez and his then-partner Nino Durden for being a felon in
possession of a firearm. Arias subsequently was sentenced to four years in
prison for violating probation on a 1994 drug conviction. Perez since has
said that he was lying when he said he saw the man holding an assault rifle
and found ammunition in his pocket. Fidler's action terminated Arias' parole.

The judge also overturned the conviction of Gerald Joseph Peters, 32, who
pleaded guilty in 1996 to possession of cocaine and was sentenced to two
years in state prison. Perez told investigators that Peters' arrest report
was fabricated and that two other officers involved in the arrest did not
see Peters drop a film canister containing cocaine, according to the writ.
Peters was released from his parole on the 1996 conviction.