MORE ALLEGATIONS RAISED ABOUT EX-LAPD OFFICER
* Police: Drug Thefts Predated Those Perez Pleaded Guilty To,
Sources Say. Case Of Man Who Claimed Frame-up Is Reopened.

Former Los Angeles Police officer Rafael A. Perez's. crimes and
misconduct at the LAPD date back at least five years and include the
theft of about 4 pounds of cocaine for which he was never charged,
according to sources.

On Thursday, meanwhile, a federal magistrate judge reopened the case
of a man who has always insisted that Perez and other officers framed
him on drug charges in 1992.

If the man's allegations are proved, it Would mean Perez's misconduct,
and perhaps that of other officers, began much earlier than first
thought and outside the Rampart Division, where the ongoing scandal is
currently centered.

A grand jury will soon begin looking into a wide spectrum of alleged
misconduct by officers at the LAPD's Rampart station that is said to
include unjustified shoot ings, false arrests and planting of
evidence. A dozen officers have been suspended.

In addition to being convicted of stealing about 8 pounds of cocaine
logged as evidence by fellow officers, sources say, Perez has admitted
to stealing cocaine he booked as evidence in his own cases, replacing
the real drugs with bogus substances. He then sold the drugs on the
street through his drug dealer girl-friend, who now is serving a state
prison sentence, sources say.

The alleged thefts and subsequent sales may have gone on for years,
sources say, predating the thefts that occurred in the three months of
1998 to which Perez has pleaded guilty;

Investigators are uncertain how far back Perez may have made the
switches, because evidence in many of his older cases has been
destroyed. However, investigators have tested evidence available from
his old cases and found that, in fact, the seized cocaine was replaced
with other substances, sources say.

Perez, as part of a plea agreement, is cooperating with LAPD
investigators.

He has taken responsibility for various crimes and misconduct,
including his role in shooting an unarmed man and framing him for
assaulting police in 1996.

But some lawyers and convicts contend that Perez's crimes began
several years earlier. Esaw Booker charges that Perez falsely accused
him of being involved in a $20 crack cocaine transaction seven years
ago, while Perez worked undercover with the department's narcotics
unit.

Winston Kevin McKesson, who represents Perez, said his client denies
engaging in crimes or misconduct before he began working at the
Rampart Division's anti-gang 'CRASH' unit in 1994.

Booker has said for years that he was innocent, but his pleas fell on
deaf ears.

"No one would listen to me at that time," said Booker, 54, after
federal Magistrate judge Brian Q. Robbins ordered the reopening of an
evidentiary hearing so Booker's attorney can have the opportunity to
examine Perez in the wake of the ex-officer's startling admissions.

"I shouldn't even be on parole now," said Booker, who spent five years
in prison based on the testimony of Perez and two other officers.
"I'm happy to get an opportunity to get this all behind me," said
Booker, who uses a walker and whose speech is slurred because of a
recent stroke. "Five years I spent in prison. for something I
didn't do." Booker's is among the first of what prosecutors and
defense attorneys predict. will be hundreds of criminal cases that
will be reviewed as a result of the allegations that have undermined
the credibility of Perez and other LAPD officers.

Booker says Perez falsely testified that Booker handed another man a
rock of cocaine that the second man sold to Perez during an
undercover drug operation in West Los Angeles. Booker and the other
man were arrested.

Since his arrest April 14, 1992, 'Booker has maintained that he did
not have any drugs and that Perez and two other officers lied on the
stand in order to convict him, said his former attorney, Jonathan
Ash.. "Even before I got the case file he started writing me these
voluminous well-written letters from prison, proclaiming his
innocence," said Ash, who filed an appeal on Booker's behalf in 1994
and lost.

He said he believed Booker from start. "As a defense attorney, you
can get a bit jaded. But this case just didn't make any sense. It
seemed like Booker really had something." the attorney said. Among
other alleged discrepancies, Booker said he was arrested by Perez and
two African American officers, but the officers who joined Perez in
testifying against him were white . After his conviction, Booker
contends, a private investigator obtained the LAPD logbooks from.the
officers involved, showing that at least one of the officers who
supposedly arrested him was assigned elsewhere that day. LAPD
officials and prosecutors have argued that officers' schedules and
duty assignments can change at a moment's notice, meaning that such
logbook entries are not necessarily reliable.

David R. Reed. Booker's current attorney, argued in court papers
that the evidence "reflects that a police conspiracy occurred in this
case." Booker, who has a lengthy arrest record, has fought tirelessly to
clear his name in this particular case. He even worked as his own
lawyer for a time. His court file is full of neatly printed legal
documents, written in blue ink. One document, written in pencil on
loose-leaf paper, revealed the particular difficulties prisoners can
encounter in waging a legal battle from behind bars. "Dear Clerk:" Booker
wrote, "Due to being in lock upfor reasons beyond my control, I am without
access to a Xerox copy machine and therefore unable to afford the court the
required amount of copies of this motion. I request that the motions be
accepted under the mentioned circumstances."

It was signed, "Respectfully, Esaw Booker."

Ash said Booker bad numerous arrests before the 1992 case and had not
hesitated to. plead guilty when he felt the charges against him were
legitimate. "Booker's statement to me all along was, "Look, I've done
a lot of things, but this one I wasn't guilty of,'" said Ash, who now
practices law in Oregon. Ash described Booker as articulate and
intelligent" and said the two became friends as they worked together
on the inmate's appeal.

"Esaw is finally gonna get some justice," Ash said. "I'm sure he's
gonna walk--he'd better."

Attorney McKesson said Perez "has stated that every single mistake he
made on the police force began after he started working CRASH.

"My client has every incentive to tell the truth, the whole truth and
nothing but the truth," the lawyer added.

McKesson was noncommittal, however, as to whether he would advise
Perez to go back on the stand in the Booker case. "It has yet to be
decided," he said. If Perez declines to testify by invoking his
constitutional protection against self-incrimination, it is virtually
certain that Booker's conviction will be voided.