SLOPPY LAPD EVIDENCE RULES LED TO COKE THEFT

Donning a 99-cent-store disguise, dirty cop Rafael Perez nonchalantly stole
cocaine from an LAPD evidence room for several months without arousing
suspicion, only to be caught because of his own carelessness and arrogance,
the Daily News has learned.

Perez made one severe error in March 1998, following his largest narcotics
heist -- he failed to replace the dope he had taken with household flour as
he had done in the past.

According to confidential transcripts of Perez's testimony to investigators
and several sources close to the corruption investigation, Perez had used
the flour scam at least three times before, eventually stealing a total
about $1 million worth of cocaine from the Los Angeles Police Department.

Shortly after Perez's arrest in August 1998, the LAPD overhauled its
policies governing access to evidence. Cops are no longer permitted to
remove narcotics, guns or money from evidence lockers, said Lt. Sharyn
Buck, a spokeswoman for the department.

"We now only let them take photographs of the evidence," Buck said.

Before the changes were made, LAPD officials -- like those in many other
police jurisdictions -- allowed all materials to be signed in and out
through a flawed "honor system," according to sworn statements by Perez and
investigators interviewed by the Daily News.

"I could have been anybody," Perez recalled in his first interview with
investigators last September. "I could have sent a civilian person in
there. ... They don't check I.D. Anybody can walk in there."

"I can get a halfway respectable-looking person, put a badge around his
neck and tell him to go check it out. And they're gonna give it to him."

A high-ranking source close to the widening LAPD corruption probe said
preliminary reviews of the department's former chain-of-custody procedures
confirm Perez's bluster.

"It was on the honor system," the source said. "It was for the convenience
of the officers going to court."

Perez, who agreed to become an informant in exchange for a lighter sentence
for stealing the cocaine, was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for
the March 1998 heist, in which he scammed the department out of eight
pounds of cocaine.

After being credited with time in custody, he is likely to be released
within 10 to 16 months.

The disguise

Perez has told investigators he began stealing dope from the Rampart
Division evidence room in December 1997.

At the time, a "courier system" allowed cops to sign out drugs and other
cataloged evidence for use in court cases. Following the proceedings, the
officer returned the materials to the evidence room and received a receipt.

For the most part, the narcotics -- which had been tested when initially
booked as evidence -- were not retested after officers came back from
court, sources said.

Perez tended to request cocaine that was scheduled to be destroyed in the
near future because department policy only required random samplings of
drugs prior to their destruction, said an investigator who asked not to be
named.

In addition, Perez reduced the likelihood that anyone would pick up on his
thefts by writing other cops' names on the evidence room sign-out sheet and
wearing a low-budget disguise, official documents reveal.

He told investigators his typical getup featured "Coke bottle glasses," a
"really big jacket" and a baseball cap pulled tightly over his head.

During the March 2, 1998, theft, Perez even left his badge at home, using
only the badge holder to gain entrance into the evidence room, confidential
transcripts obtained by the Daily News show.

After getting dressed up, Perez said, he would sign out the drugs, stash
the dope at a remote location, and then stuff the evidence containers with
flour and return them to be destroyed.

The clerks in charge of the evidence room never checked to see whether the
drugs were needed in court. Shortly after Perez's scam was discovered in
mid-March 1998, bags of flour were found in the evidence room, sources said.

Upon hearing the details of Perez's scheme, Deputy District Attorney
Richard Rosenthal made an unusual observation during an interview session
with the ex-cop last December.

"I don't necessarily want to say brilliant," Rosenthal said, "but (this)
was an excellent idea, if you're going to do something like that."

`Righteous dope'

Perez, however, was not by any measure a master thief.

During his first few thefts, Perez said he meticulously weighed the flour
and cocaine to avoid detection, then grew impatient and "sort of just
guess-timated."

Perez also refused to settle for just any cocaine and sought out the best
dope being held in the evidence room.

"It was dope that I was either familiar with or had some involvement with,"
he told investigators. "And I knew that it was going to be righteous dope."

Believing he would never get caught, Perez said, he failed to switch the
drugs with flour twice. "I said there's no way they would ever find out,"
he testified. "I mean, if you really think about it ... who would have ever
known?"

On one occasion, Perez admitted, he got a bit spooked, and burned the
container he stole from the evidence room, making it impossible to replace
the cocaine with flour. No one noticed.

The second slip-up involved his March 1998 theft, which was a much bigger
operation. Perez told investigators he spent so much energy trying to
figure out how to sign out the eight pounds of cocaine that he didn't think
about how he would get the flour back into the evidence room.

"That was absolutely an impulsive thing," he said. "It was just something
that like, wow, I can do this. I didn't think about returning it."

The bogus name Perez used that day also led directly back to him. He used
the badge number for another Officer Perez, sources close to the 1998
investigation said.

When that officer was cleared, a full investigation was launched thatled
back to Perez. He was arrested in August 1998 and investigators eventually
learned that he had given the missing dope to the mother of one of his
unauthorized informants, who also happened to be one of his girlfriends.

The mother was tired of using her family members as suppliers; she felt she
wasn't making enough money, Perez said.

Not unusual

Policies like the LAPD's new, stricter guidelines governing access to
evidence are increasingly common, said Dave Sylstra, a senior consultant to
the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training.

Law enforcement departments across the state have abandoned the practice of
letting officers sign out drugs, guns and other evidence from evidence
rooms for use during courtroom testimony.

"Money, dope and guns are the three things that typically get people in
trouble," Sylstra added.

Still, the LAPD's former practice of trusting officers with evidence is not
unusual statewide, with some prosecutors and judges requiring that the
actual evidence be presented in court.

"There is a presumption that if you book it and take custody of it, you
will maintain the chain of custody and properly handle it," Sylstra said.

Each law enforcement agency in the state is responsible for setting its own
standards to ensure the chain of custody is maintained.

The fallout

Since Perez began talking to investigators last September, he has alleged
that he and other cops shot and brutally assaulted gang members, framed
innocent people, and lied in court to win convictions.

The LAPD has had no greater corruption scandal in its history.

The FBI officially entered the police corruption investigation last week at
the request of LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks.

Investigators initially thought the corruption involved misconduct only
within Perez's former anti-gang unit in the Rampart Division, but recently
have widened the scope of the probe to include other divisions. To date,
the investigation has resulted in the suspension or dismissal of 20 cops
and the reversal of 40 criminal convictions.

At least 15 civil lawsuits have been filed against the city, seeking
hundreds of millions of dollars in damages, and an increasingly public rift
has developed between Parks and District Attorney Gil Garcetti, with the
chief and Mayor Richard Riordan pushing prosecutors to file charges against
dirty cops.

While Perez failed a polygraph test, Parks has said 50 detectives working
across the country have substantiated enough of his story to request that
the convictions of 99 defendants be overturned. Thousands of other cases
are being reviewed.

A special LAPD Board of Inquiry, set up by Parks, is expected to release
next week the findings of its investigation into the management and policy
failures that allowed the rampant corruption to occur and go unnoticed for
at least three years. The board's report is expected to call for sweeping
changes in the Police Department.