RAMPART CASE TAKES ON MOMENTUM OF ITS OWN

LAPD: Since Rafael Perez made initial revelations, investigators have dealt
with growing corruption scandal.

As former Los Angeles Police Officer Rafael Perez faced his second trial on
drug theft charges earlier this year, the confident swagger of the tough
anti-gang cop was gone.

LAPD investigators, who had been dogging him for more than a year, had come
up with new evidence that could put him behind bars for 12 years. He was
haunted by his past misdeeds as a cop. And now authorities were suggesting
that they might even go after his wife, a woman who had stood by him
despite not only his alleged crimes, but also a string of extramarital
affairs.

"He was a broken man," said one detective on the task force investigating
Perez.

Jury selection in the retrial already had begun when Perez decided it was
time to cut a deal. He wanted a reduced prison sentence on the drug case,
immunity for crimes and misconduct in which he was about to implicate
himself, and an assurance that authorities would not make trouble for his
wife, a civilian LAPD employee. In return, Perez promised to finger other
corrupt officers in the department's Rampart Division as part of the deal.

Initially, prosecutors were resistant, insisting that Perez would not be
given immunity for any crime in which someone had been seriously injured.

But that changed when Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Rosenthal heard what the
ex-cop had to say. The prosecutor's jaw dropped as the details spilled out:
Perez and his partner had allegedly shot an unarmed 19-year-old man and
then planted a gun on him to cover it up. Rosenthal would later learn that
the officers then allegedly perjured themselves to frame their victim on
assault charges.

Whether driven by his conscience, as he claims, or motivated merely by
self-interest, Perez lifted the lid on a Pandora's box of alleged police
crimes and misconduct that has become the worst LAPD corruption scandal in
more than 60 years.

LAPD detectives thought that convicting Perez of the drug charges would be
the bittersweet end of an 18-month investigation into one of their own gone
bad. Instead it was only the beginning.

Perez Mistrial Would Lead To Revelations

Sitting in the audience at Perez's first trial on charges of stealing
cocaine from an LAPD evidence room in December 1998, Cmdr. Dan Schatz
looked on as the former officer testified with textbook perfection.

He was confident and articulate and stared straight into the eyes of the
jurors. The hard-charging street cop and former Marine wept as he confessed
to being unfaithful to his wife.

"He was excellent on the stand," Schatz recalled. "He was a lying son of a
bitch, and we were squirming in our seats."

With good reason, as it turned out: A third of the jury believed Perez, and
their doubts about the prosecution's case forced a mistrial.

Angered at first, Rosenthal and the team of detectives assigned to
investigate Perez then dug in their heels, Schatz recalled. "The mistrial
was probably a blessing in disguise," he said.

Had it not been for the hung jury, authorities say, detectives probably
would never have uncovered additional incriminating information against
Perez, prompting him to cooperate with prosecutors.

"We got pissed off," said one source close to the investigation. "We wanted
to pressure him into cooperating or slam him - if he didn't - for the
maximum possible time."

The new artillery for what would have been the second trial consisted
mainly of Perez's financial documents. Rosenthal was prepared to call a
financial expert to the stand who would testify that drug dealing was the
most probable source of tens of thousands of dollars in unexplained income.

Also, since the first trial, detectives had uncovered the theft of two more
pounds of cocaine, leading to additional charges.

"We were going to put on a case where no juror would have an excuse to
acquit him," one task force member said.

Perez's attorney, Winston Kevin McKesson, who successfully defended the
ex-cop in his first trial, said he was confident that his case was stronger
too. It was so strong, he said, that he urged Perez not to cut a deal.

The confession "was something he wanted to do to clear his own conscience,
for no other reason," McKesson said.

Parks Tells Task Force To Press On

Perez's disclosures blindsided the task force detectives: Drug theft was
one thing. What had happened to young Javier Francisco Ovando -the man
Perez and his onetime partner allegedly shot and framed - was quite another.

Brian Tyndall, the top detective on the task force, tried to explain what
he and his fellow investigators were feeling as they built a case against
another cop: "We were disappointed that a police officer would cross the
line," said Tyndall, a brawny robbery-homicide detective whose formidable
appearance belies his good nature.

"But after a while, he's just not a police officer anymore," added Schatz,
the task force commander.

It was Schatz, a taut, silver-haired LAPD veteran, who was left with the
chore of informing Chief Bernard C. Parks of Perez's confession. He
pondered this as he made the five-minute drive from the task force's
semi-secret headquarters at the MTA building near downtown to Parker
Center, and as he rode the elevator to the chief's office on the sixth
floor. There was no easy way, Schatz decided.

When he finally sat across from Parks, he just blurted it out.

"It was a gut shot," Schatz recalled.

There was no visible crack in Parks' stoic demeanor, but Schatz said he
could tell the news hurt. The upshot of the meeting, though, was that Parks
told Schatz to chase leads wherever they went. The task force, which had
been expected to disband after Perez's trial, would press on.

Two blocks away, at the district attorney's office, some top prosecutors
did not share Rosenthal's indignation over the Ovando case. After Tyndall
interviewed Ovando in prison and the gang member corroborated the key
elements of Perez's confession, Rosenthal, a by-the-book prosecutor known
for his uncompromising ethics, argued for his immediate release.

Other top district attorney's officials were resistant, sources said. Perez
was a thief and liar, they argued. Why should he be believed now? No
prisoner should be released before there was a thorough, if time-consuming,
investigation.

In the end, Ovando was released when he was, sources said, because Dist.
Atty. Gil Garcetti and his top advisors learned that Parks was planning to
call a news conference on Perez's admission about the shooting.

Parks hastily arranged the news conference only when he became convinced
that The Times was planning to publish a detailed account of the Ovando
case in the next morning's paper.

Ignoring the counsel of some advisors, Parks went before reporters and told
them of Perez's admission. He also announced that 11 officers had been
relieved of duty in connection with the ongoing Rampart investigation.

The news conference, the chief's top command officers say, was a political
move to show that the department was out in front of the corruption
scandal, as opposed to responding to a story in the newspaper.

The next day Rosenthal filed a writ of habeas corpus seeking Ovando's
immediate release from state prison - at the time, an unprecedented act in
the history of the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

Probe Explodes In Scope

In ensuing weeks, detectives put boxes of Perez's old case files in front
of the ex-cop during lengthy debriefings at a secret location. Perez told
investigators that he and his partner, Nino Durden, had so often planted
drugs or otherwise framed suspects that he needed to see the files to be
reminded of all the tainted cases, according to sources.

As Perez talked, task force detectives began crisscrossing the state in
department planes and helicopters, interviewing prison inmates and
attempting to corroborate or disprove Perez's startling admissions and
allegations.

The task force swelled from nine detectives to nearly 30. They needed more
desks, more computers and more money. The probe, even though focused on
fellow cops, shared the characteristics of any other big investigation:
long days, fast food, neglected loved ones, stakeouts and gallows humor.
And, inevitably, politics.

In the beginning, TV news crews and reporters from across the country
waited outside Parker Center for each development in the case. Chief Parks
and other city officials went on national news talk shows to assure the
public that the department could police its own and was not only pursuing
the criminal investigation, but also launching a massive internal inquiry
to look at systemic problems within the institution.

But the chief also sought to control the damage, telling people not to
assume the worst and wait for the inquiry to be complete before condemning
the entire LAPD.

Garcetti, the county's other top law enforcement official, facing a
reelection challenge, was more vocal about the scope of the problem,
calling it "potentially the most important case" his office has ever handled.

In news conferences, he stressed that his top priority would be setting the
innocent free. But although nearly a dozen cases have been overturned,
those actions were taken only with the reluctant approval of some top
district attorney's officials, sources said.

Up To 30 Officers May Be Fired

To date, what has become known as the Rampart corruption scandal includes
allegations of "bad" shootings, beatings, drug dealing, evidence planting,
false arrest, witness intimidation and perjury.

Officers from the Rampart Division's anti-gang CRASH unit have been
portrayed as mimicking the street gangs they police. Some of the officers
maintained a "crash pad" apartment near the station where they partied like
fraternity boys and sometimes had sex while on duty, sources say. Two of
the suspended officers were accused of raping a suspected drug user they
stopped while on duty. Criminal charges were never filed, but one of the
officers admitted having what he called consensual sex with the woman as
his partner stood by. Both officers were given suspensions.

More than a dozen officers have been suspended since September in
connection with the investigation, which has been fueled largely by Perez's
allegations.

Sources say that number is almost certain to grow. By the time the probe is
concluded, they say, "a handful" of officers could be charged with crimes.
As many as 30 may be fired.

Prosecuting the officers, however, won't be easy.

Consider Durden. Perez has implicated him in the shooting of Ovando, as
well as a string of arrests in which Durden allegedly fabricated evidence
and then perjured himself on the witness stand.

But Durden, though suspended from the LAPD, remains a free man. Parks,
tormented by the department's badly tarnished image, has been clamoring for
an arrest to show that he is serious about rooting out corruption within
the LAPD. One task force detective was recently ordered to formally request
that the district attorney file charges against Durden, even though the
detectives and prosecutors actually working the case knew it was premature,
according to a source.

One reason for the slow going is that detectives are scrambling to
corroborate the allegations made by Perez, realizing that his drug theft
conviction and past perjuries make him a vulnerable witness at best.

So far, Perez's sentencing, at which the terms of his time-shaving plea
agreement would be consummated, has been postponed three times.

McKesson, who has been credited with securing a surprisingly favorable deal
for his client, is growing impatient as well.

He knows that while investigators are attempting to corroborate his
client's allegations, they are also on the lookout for any errors and
omissions in Perez's statements that could allow the deal to fall apart.

McKesson insists that Perez has been forthright with investigators since he
began to cooperate last fall, and that as a result of his cooperation, the
ex-cop "will be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life."

LAPD Scandal Timeline

1998

March 2: Six pounds of cocaine is checked out from property room at LAPD
headquarters, ostensibly for use as evidence in a drug trial.

March 27: Police officials, concerned that the cocaine has not been
returned to the property room, launch an internal investigation.

Aug. 25: LAPD Officer Rafael A. Perez is arrested on suspicion of stealing
the cocaine.

Dec. 23: Perez's trial on cocaine theft charge ends in a hung jury.

1999

Sept. 8: As a jury is being selected for his second trial, Perez pleads
guilty to stealing eight pounds of cocaine from LAPD facilities. He enters
into a confidential plea agreement with prosecutors in which he is expected
to receive a reduced sentence on the drug charges in exchange for
identifying other police officers involved.

Sept. 13: Ex-LAPD Officer David A. Mack, a former partner and friend of
Perez, is sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for a Nov. 6, 1997, bank
robbery in which he and two accomplices escaped with about $722,000, most
of which remains unaccounted for. Perez and Mack partied together in Las
Vegas, spending thousands of dollars, two days after the bank heist.

Sept. 15: In the first public airing of the Rampart corruption scandal,
Chief Bernard C. Parks calls a press conference in which he announces that
Perez has implicated himself and another officer in the shooting of an
unarmed man, Javier Francisco Ovando. Parks says that 12 officers have been
either assigned to home or fired in connection with the ongoing corruption
investigation.

Sept. 16: Ovando, the man shot by Perez and his partner and later framed
for assaulting the two officers, is freed from prison after serving three
years of a 23-year sentence. The Times reports that Perez has identified a
second allegedly dirty shooting in which one man was killed and two others
were injured. The FBI, meanwhile, launches a civil rights investigation.

Sept. 20: In a jailhouse interview, Perez calls corruption at the Los
Angeles Police Department a cancer ... that has gone on a long time without
being treated. That same day, prosecutors announce they are immediately
suspending enforcement of two sweeping anti-gang injunctions affecting more
than 100 members of the notorious 18th Street gang.

Oct. 4: Two Los Angeles police officers linked to the Rampart corruption
probe are subpoenaed to testify before a criminal grand jury focusing on
two allegedly unjustified shootings by Rampart officers.

Oct. 13: Ovando files a lawsuit against the city. Many legal observers say
that the city's liability is greater in the Ovando case than it was in the
case of beaten motorist Rodney G. King.

Nov. 9: Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti calls the corruption
probe potentially the most important case we've ever had.

Nov. 10: In a flurry of court action, a judge overturns criminal
convictions against four men and dismisses a case against another. All of
the actions are taken at the prosecution's request after Perez says the
defendants were framed.

Nov. 17: A court commissioner, acting on a defense attorney's motion,
orders the release from state prison of Ruben Rojas. Perez admitted framing
Rojas on a drug charge. Rojas claimed he was targeted because he was having
sex with one of Perezs mistresses. Perez countered that he framed the gang
member because he thought Rojas was planning to have him killed.

Nov. 30: Judges overturn criminal convictions against four more men, each
of whom was allegedly framed by LAPD officers.

Dec. 14: Officials reveal that about 3,000 criminal cases involving LAPD
officers connected to the Rampart scandal will have to be reviewed.