L.A. POLICE CHIEF SAYS CORRUPTION TAINTED AT LEAST 57 CASES INVOLVING 99
PEOPLE

LOS ANGELES - Investigators have linked 57 tainted prosecutions involving
99 people to the former police officer at the center of an ongoing police
corruption probe.

"We currently in the department no longer have faith in these prosecutions
and have gone forward and requested the district attorney to resolve these
issues as soon as possible," Police Chief Bernard Parks said Wednesday
during a press conference.

The announcement dramatically raised the toll in one of the worst police
scandals in city history. Parks said the investigation also will expand
beyond the tainted convictions linked to former Officer Rafael Perez, the
former Rampart station anti-gang officer who is now an informant.

Corruption investigators have interviewed 52 of the 99 defendants and all
should have their convictions voided, Parks said. He added that efforts
were continuing to contact the others.

Parks said the 52 cases includes some already sent to the district
attorney. There have been 22 convictions previously overturned and District
Attorney Gil Garcetti estimated his office would soon seek reversals of 24
to 36 more cases.

"I believe at this time it's in the best interest of the city to dispose of
these charges against the 52 defendants en masse vs. a case-by-case or
small-group process that can only prolong the obvious," Parks said.

The district attorney's office called its own press conference shortly
after the chief's announcement but added little new information.

"The investigation is ongoing, there are outstanding defendants and
outstanding witnesses that still need to be interviewed," said Victoria
Pipkin, a spokeswoman for Garcetti.

Prosecutors believe the tainted cases eventually will number in the
hundreds as the probe unfolds, she said.

Meanwhile, Garcetti is expected to return to court next week to seek
additional dismissals, Pipkin said.

And Parks said his department's investigation will now expand to include
other officers who worked in the city's Rampart station near downtown.

Perez is cooperating in exchange for a lighter sentence for stealing
cocaine from a police evidence locker. So far the corruption probe has led
to the resignation or suspension of 20 officers, with Parks saying three
should be prosecuted.

In a related matter, the district attorney's office Wednesday gave attorney
Steven Yagman a list of people convicted in cases involving Rampart station
officers.

Yagman, who specializes in police misconduct cases, said he will post the
list on his office Web site in the hope it will inform people who may be
able to get their convictions overturned or seek civil damages for being
wrongly jailed.