PROSECUTORS TO ASK THAT INMATE BE CLEARED

In the latest fallout from the ongoing Los Angeles Police Department
corruption probe, prosecutors said they would ask a federal magistrate to
remove a drug conviction that put a man in prison for five years.

The request was expected to be made today, just one day after a judge cut
three years off a drug dealer's prison sentence because of now-suspect
testimony from former Officer Rafael Perez, who is at the heart of the
scandal engulfing the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart station.

Both cases involve Perez, who pleaded guilty to stealing cocaine from a
police evidence locker and is providing information on police corruption in
an effort to receive a lighter sentence.