LAPD CHIEF CALLS FOR MASS DISMISSAL OF TAINTED CASES

Rampart: Parks urges prosecutors to proceed as quickly as possible for 99
corruption victims identified so far. He also seeks charges against two
officers and a former officer.

Significantly broadening the scope of the Rampart corruption scandal,
Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks disclosed Wednesday that 99
people are believed to have been framed by disgraced
ex-officer-turned-informant Rafael Perez and his former partners.

Parks, in his most detailed update on the scandal since it broke in
September, also called upon Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti to move forward
as quickly as possible to dismiss cases "en masse" instead of
prolonging the investigation and delaying "the obvious." He said at
least three wrongly convicted people remain behind bars. Others have
either served their time, been paroled or been placed on probation,
officials said.

LAPD investigators have traveled across the country and to Guatemala
and El Salvador in efforts to corroborate Perez's admissions and
allegations, Parks said. So far, detectives have found and interviewed
52 apparent victims. "The department feels that the criminal cases
involving these 52 defendants have been severely tainted and cannot be
salvaged," Parks said at a hastily arranged news conference at the
LAPD's downtown headquarters. "I believe at this time it is in the
best interest of the city to dispose of these charges . . . en masse,
versus a case-by-case process."

Parks also publicly pressed Garcetti's office to file criminal charges
against two current officers and one former LAPD officer linked to the
Rampart corruption. District attorney's officials say that such
charges are premature and that further investigation is needed.

Immediately after the chief's news conference, district attorney
officials held their own news conference, reaffirming their commitment
to aggressively investigate the corruption, free anyone wrongly
convicted, and prosecute officers who abused their authority.

Victoria Pipkin, a spokeswoman for Garcetti, said prosecutors may seek
to overturn yet another batch of convictions as soon as next week. So
far, 23 cases have been thrown out as a result of the investigation.
Those cases are among the ones Parks identified Wednesday night.

Privately, the chief's statements were construed by some district
attorney officials as an attempt to minimize and put a quick end to
the ongoing scandal, which has badly tainted the department's image.

"He wants this thing gone," said one district attorney official who
spoke on condition of anonymity. "There's a lot more investigation
that needs to be done, but he doesn't want to hear it. He just wants
this thing over with."

The man at the center of the LAPD's worst corruption case in 60 years
is Perez, a 32-year-old former Marine. He is working with authorities
in hopes of getting a lighter sentence for stealing eight pounds of
cocaine from LAPD facilities while he worked as an officer at the
Rampart station.

As part of his plea deal, Perez told authorities that he and his
onetime partner, Nino Durden, shot an unarmed gang member, planted a
gun on him and then testified in court that he attacked them. Javier
Francisco Ovando, who was paralyzed in the shooting, has since been
released from prison and has filed a lawsuit against the city.

The investigation has uncovered evidence of unjustified shootings,
beatings, drug dealing, false arrests, witness intimidation, perjury
and planting of evidence. To date, 20 officers have resigned or been
relieved of duty, suspended without pay or fired in connection with
the scandal.

At his news conference, Parks said Perez has identified 57 cases,
involving 99 defendants, in which he and his former
partners--particularly Durden--allegedly fabricated evidence and
perjured themselves.

Parks said the department has not been able to interview all of the
people who were allegedly framed by Perez and his partners. He said at
least one victim has died, others have refused to be interviewed, some
have been deported, and a couple have not been located.

The cases at issue occurred between 1995 and 1998, Parks said. Most of
Perez's victims were convicted on false drug or weapons charges, he
added.

One reporter asked the chief how investigators could believe Perez, an
admitted thief and perjurer. Parks said detectives don't take the
former officer at his word.

"We go out in the field and we interview witnesses and we interview
suspects without their [knowing] what Perez has told us," he said. "We
use that and other evidence to validate" Perez's claims.

The number of tainted cases may grow as the LAPD corruption
investigation turns to other officers whom Perez has implicated in
crimes or misconduct.

While Parks said he is troubled by the revelations, he praised the
department's task force for aggressively pursuing alleged wrongdoing
and rooting out bad officers.

"The one positive light is the work effort of those officers on this
task force," Parks said, adding that detectives tirelessly worked to
"clear the names of suspects who were convicted of crimes who should
not have been."

That task force, he added, is now 46 officers strong. Detectives have
conducted more than 300 interviews with defendants and witnesses.

Those detectives have also presented prosecutors with cases against
Officers Durden and Michael Buchanan and former Officer Brian Hewitt.

Sources close to the investigation, however, said it could be weeks or
even months before criminal charges might be filed. * * * NAMES
RELEASED The D.A. released the names of people convicted in cases
involving Rampart officers.