L.A. COPS ACCUSE A COLLEAGUE

Officer charged: An alleged drug theft rocks a police force that, whatever
other controversy dogged it, long held itself all but immune to graft.

LOS ANGELES -- As a police officer in the LAPD's busiest precinct, near
downtown Los Angeles, Rafael Antonio Perez was responsible for
investigating gang crimes and testifying against suspects in court.

Last month, it was Perez who entered the courtroom in handcuffs and a blue
county jail jumpsuit to hear charges against him: stealing three kilograms
(about 6 1/2 pounds) of cocaine from an evidence locker at the Los Angeles
Police Department.

Perez, 31, a nine-year employee who was arrested by his fellow officers
Aug. 25, pleaded not guilty to charges of drug possession, grand theft and
forgery.

The felony complaint against Perez contends he checked out, and never
returned, the cocaine from the property room March 2 by forging on the
evidence log the signature of another police officer with the same last
name. If convicted, Perez, who is still in jail, faces a maximum sentence
of more than eight years in prison.

Contrary to reputation

While the brazen nature of the theft, according to the charges, is
surprising enough, it is made all the more so by the Los Angeles Police
Department's reputation for being intolerant of graft. The department has
had no shortage of problems over the years, accused by civil rights
advocates and others of poor treatment of minorities, political spying and
use of excessive force, most publicly in the beating of Rodney King. But
even the department's harshest detractors say it is relatively
incorruptible.

``If anything, it's been a consistent theme that the LAPD has done a good
job when it comes to that issue,'' said Paul Hoffman, a civil rights lawyer
and former legal director of the local chapter of the American Civil
Liberties Union.

That has not always been the case. Through the early half of the 20th
century, the department, in tandem with City Hall, was known for accepting
payoffs from gambling dens and prostitution houses, shaking down unions and
business owners, even dynamiting the car of a former officer who had begun
documenting police misdeeds.

A change of heart

Backlash against those years of corruption eventually resulted in the
recall of Mayor Frank Shaw and a revision of the city charter that made the
department virtually autonomous from City Hall. It also brought about the
rise of William Parker, who became chief of the department in 1950 and is
given credit for purging it of corruption.

Another part of his legacy is a paramilitary style of law enforcement that
did not shy from use of force. It was a theme carried on under Chief Ed
Davis, who took over from Parker, and then under Daryl Gates, who was chief
from 1978 until 1992.

``Their credo was, `Bust somebody's head and we'll back you up, but if you
lie, cheat or steal, you're in trouble,' '' said Joe Domanick, author of
the book ``To Protect and to Serve'' (Simon & Schuster, 1994), a critical
history of the department.

New chief's project

To be sure, the department has had some high-profile corruption cases over
the years, including thefts of radios from shops along Hollywood Boulevard
in the 1980s and the convictions of three officers in the late '80s in a
murder-for-hire scheme. The investigation of Perez, one police official
said, has been driven by the current chief, Bernard Parks, who took over
last year.

In a bail hearing last week, Deputy District Attorney Richard Rosenthal
said that in addition to stealing the narcotics, Perez tried to sell a kilo
of cocaine through a confidential informer last December. Rosenthal also
told the judge that Perez lied in court to obtain leniency for two drug
dealers, one of whom he was having a romantic relationship with. The
authorities now suspect that dealer distributed the three kilograms of
stolen cocaine, Rosenthal said.

Perez's lawyer, Winston McKesson, said that his client ``categorically''
denied the charges and that a search of his home revealed no evidence of
drug dealing. McKesson also said that Perez's fingerprints were not found
on the evidence-room ledger that contained the forged signature.

Perez's case is not the only one proving nettlesome for the department's
reputation. Another officer, David Mack, is awaiting trial in federal court
on charges of robbing $722,000 from a Bank of America branch with the help
of a girlfriend who worked at the bank. Mack has pleaded not guilty.

Considered an anomaly

But police officials, who are now investigating ``everything that
surrounds'' Perez, say they believe the cocaine theft is an anomaly.

``The department wanted to show that we can police our own,'' Cmdr. Dan
Shotz said. ``But there's a lot of disappointment, and it's embarrassing.
We got our highs, and this is one of our lows.''

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson