KEY LAPD SCANDAL FIGURE PROTECTED, DOCUMENTS SHOW

LOS ANGELES - Fellow officers and supervisors repeatedly tried to protect
the central figure in the city's police corruption scandal by warning him
he was under investigation, according to transcripts of testimony.

In the documents, disgraced former officer Rafael Perez said at least three
Los Angeles Police Department sergeants in the Rampart division told him
about the federal and police probes of his activities.

So far, 32 criminal cases have been reversed as a result of the
investigation and 20 officers have been relieved of duty, suspended, fired
or have quit.

Perez, a former member of the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums
anti-gang unit, was convicted of stealing eight pounds of cocaine from an
evidence locker.

To secure a lesser sentence, he has told prosecutors he and other officers
in the anti-gang unit framed and sometimes shot innocent people.

Warnings about the investigation centering on Perez started soon after he
stole the cocaine on March 2, 1998, and lasted until his arrest nearly six
months later, according to the transcripts.