GANG MEMBER SAYS HE WAS FRAMED

After 18 months on the run from Rampart Division officers he claimed beat
him, a gang member has surrendered on a felony charge and will go to court
today, hoping he will finally be exonerated.

Gabriel Aguirre, 23, was arrested several days after being beaten by two
former officers, Rafael Perez and Ethan Cohan, when he persisted in pursuing
a citizen's complaint against them, his attorney, Samuel Paz, said Tuesday.

Aguirre had been been charged previously with assault on another gang
member, a charge he denies.

However, his arrest was on suspicion of assaulting police officers, charges
that were later dropped, Paz said.

Aguirre turned himself in Monday.

"The officers threatened to kill him, that's why he left," Paz said. Sources
close to the investigation into the widening Los Angeles Police Department
corruption scandal said a preliminary review of physical and other evidence
in the Aguirre case has called into question the officers' official
accounts.

Paz detailed the alleged beating of Aguirre without having first reviewed
Perez's confidential testimony, obtained by the Daily News last week. The
stories matched almost exactly.

According to the transcript of Perez's testimony, he and Cohan went to an
abandoned apartment building March 26, 1998, to arrest Aguirre on the
assault with a deadly weapon charge. They found the 18th Street Gang member
asleep.

"Cohan probably kicked him, probably at least 20 times," Perez testified. "I
mean, just really kicking him real hard."

Cohan's attorney, Jim Trott, said he hadn't heard about the incident, but
argued that Perez's testimony is not trustworthy.

"Perez failed a polygraph. He wanted to shave time off his sentence, so take
what he says for what it's worth," Trott said.

After the attack, Cohan crafted a story to justify Aguirre's injuries, Perez
said. Cohan claimed he saw Aguirre drinking a beer in a second-floor hallway
and identified himself as a police officer. Aguirre then fled, the story
went.

As Aguirre raced down a fire escape with the cops chasing him, Cohan said,
the man slipped and fell on his shirtless back, drawing blood. The tale
ended with Aguirre running back into a room and being apprehended, Perez
said.

"The entire report is a, uhm, it's a fabrication of what actually occurred,"
Perez testified.

As blood dripped down Aguirre's face, Perez said, the officers collaborated
with a sergeant to cover up the beating.

The sergeant, Perez said, suggested the cops pour some beer on the fire
escape to make it appear the man had slipped and fallen because of the
liquid, Perez testified.

This type of scenario was typical. Perez said cops routinely gave their
supervisors the straight story before crafting a "baloney story." The beer
had been spilled. The cops had their story straight. But there was one
problem. Another person witnessed the beating, Perez said, a fact
investigators confirmed.

According to Perez, the witness was forced to get on his knees in the far
corner of the room while the assault took place. The cops then forced the
witness to write a statement that said, in part, that he was sleeping alone
in a room when he heard footsteps.

Perez said Aguirre filed a personnel complaint against him for shoving him
into the wall during the attack. But the complaint never resulted in any
discipline.

"It was my word against his," Perez said.

Aguirre was charged later with assaulting the officers during the beating
incident. These were the charges that were later dropped, Paz said.

A month before the incident, Cohan had at least peripheral knowledge of
another former officer, Brian Hewitt, allegedly beating gang member Ismael
Jimenez in the Rampart detectives' station interview room, according to
records.

It was Cohan who removed the handcuffs from the battered Jimenez, walked him
out of the interview room and set him free, records show.

Capt. Richard Meraz assigned Hewitt and his partner to desk duty when an
investigation began into the beating, but Cohan was allowed to remain in the
field.

Meraz, the highest-ranking officer implicated in the widening Rampart
scandal, is currently before an LAPD Board of Rights facing discipline on a
charge that he failed to take appropriate action "after becoming aware of
misconduct" by Cohan in the station house beating.

Meraz maintains he acted responsibly, saying Cohan did not tell him about
Jimenez's medical condition.

Hewitt and Cohan were fired last year by Chief Bernard C. Parks after
separate disciplinary hearings found them guilty of charges related to the
station house beating.