MAN FILES LAWSUIT IN RAMPART SCANDAL

LOS ANGELES - A Guatemalan national who says he and his girlfriend were
beaten, robbed and terrorized by Rampart Division police officers
filed a $20-million civil rights lawsuit against city officials
Thursday in federal court.

Jorge Toscano contends in his suit that former officer Rafael Perez,
the central figure in the Rampart police corruption scandal, and his
partner, Nino Durden, beat and robbed him on April 1, 1997.

Perez and Durden, joined by LAPD officers Arturo Rico and Kulin Patel,
then threatened to kill him or turn him in to immigration authorities
unless he agreed to finger neighborhood drug dealers, the suit charges.

Toscano's girlfriend, Cynthia Diaz, filed her own lawsuit over the
incident in January.

Perez, who blew the whistle on fellow anti-gang officers after he was
caught stealing cocaine from a police evidence locker, has admitted
that he and Durden stole the couple's money, according to police
transcripts.