6 CONVICTIONS ARE VOIDED IN SCANDAL

*Rampart: Prosecutions Of The Men Were Tainted By Alleged Police
Misconduct. Number Of Felony Cases Thrown Out Rises To 73.

A Superior Court judge Thursday vacated the convictions of another six
people whose cases were tainted by allegations of misconduct by Los Angeles
police officers implicated in the ongoing Rampart corruption scandal.
Seventy-three felony convictions have been thrown out since the scandal
erupted.

Simultaneously, City Atty. James K. Hahn's office notified defense lawyers
who represent 234 defendants in misdemeanor cases that their clients'
convictions are being reviewed because they involved officers caught up in
the scandal.

Hahn mailed notification letters to the public defender, the alternate
public defender and 50 private defense attorneys, the latest step in an
extensive ongoing review of criminal cases that Hahn ordered in the wake of
Rampart.

The implications of the review were clearly on the mind of Superior Court
Judge Larry Paul Fidler when he granted prosecutors' requests for writs of
habeas corpus seeking the dismissal of charges against five of the men and
a writ filed by a private defense attorney representing the sixth.

"I want to get to the bottom of this," Fidler said. "The integrity of the
criminal justice system" has been called into question by the Rampart crisis.

The convictions vacated Thursday were those of:

* Alfredo Gomez, who pleaded guilty Nov. 25, 1997, to being an active gang
member in possession of a gun and was sentenced to 16 months in state
prison. He served that time and was released on parole but currently is in
prison for violating it. On March 30, prosecutors said, he was charged with
four counts of murder.

* Carlos Martinez Pena and Manuel Espinoza Ferrera, who pleaded guilty Feb.
25, 1997, to possession of cocaine base for sale. Both men were sentenced
to 180 days in Los Angeles County Jail and three years of probation.

Fidler terminated Pena's probation, which had been extended to January 2001
because of an alleged parole violation; Ferrera's probation already had
expired.

The arrest report alleged that former LAPD Officer Rafael Perez, who is now
acting as an informant as part of his own plea bargain on cocaine theft
charges, and his then-partner, Nino Durden, saw Pena and Ferrera drop
canisters of rock cocaine outside a hotel room. Perez, however, has since
said the cocaine was recovered from inside the room, which he and Durden
entered without a search warrant or consent, according to the prosecutors'
writ.

* Enrique Mena, who pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a gun
Nov. 6, 1997. He was sentenced to three years in state prison and deported
to Mexico nearly a year ago after serving his sentence.

Perez told investigators he believed that an arrest report in Mena's case
prepared by another Rampart Division officer contained fabrications. Perez
based his allegation on the manner in which the division's anti-gang unit
habitually conducted its operations.

In the July 8, 1997, report, Rampart officers alleged that they saw Mena
outside an apartment with a firearm sticking from his waistband.

* Edward Yumol Villanueva, who pleaded guilty Nov. 7, 1996, to possession
of a firearm by a felon.

He was sentenced to two years in state prison and was on parole when his
conviction was thrown out. Perez alleged in a July 1996 arrest report that
he witnessed Villanueva put two guns in the trunk of a car. The ex-officer
has since told investigators that he falsified the report.

* Russell Newman, who was convicted of the sale of a controlled substance.
He was sentenced to 12 years in state prison July 15, 1992, and served more
than half his term before being paroled.

Newman was convicted largely on Perez's testimony that the defendant sold
the officer a "rock" of cocaine.

"It's just fortunate that in this case he was able to get some relief from
misconduct of a dirty cop," said Newman's attorney, Matthew G. Kaestner.