OAKLAND TO FIRE 11 COPS IN SEARCH WARRANT CASE

OAKLAND -- Oakland intends to fire 11 police officers for allegedly
lying to obtain search warrants in drug cases, officials said Thursday.

The two sergeants and nine officers face dismissal in a scandal that
has thrown into jeopardy the prosecutions of dozens of suspects. At
least 12 have already had their cases dismissed because warrants that
police used to obtain evidence were obtained on the basis of lies by
officers, according to attorneys involved in the cases.

The officers told judges that substances seized from drug suspects
had been identified by the Oakland police crime lab as narcotics
when, in fact, they had not, authorities said. Those false statements
were used to persuade judges to issue warrants that police relied on
to gather more evidence.

Some officers also lied to internal affairs investigators looking
into the allegations, City Attorney John Russo said.

The officers "knew or should have known that information in their
affidavits regarding the testing of drugs was false," Russo said.

"These terminations are difficult for the city, but they show that
honesty and integrity are non-negotiable for officers in the Oakland
Police Department," Russo said. "The terminations demonstrate that
the Oakland Police Department's internal review systems and reform
measures are operating soundly and in the interests of justice."

Police spokesman Officer Jeff Thomason would not comment on the
matter Thursday, saying state law barred police from discussing
personnel matters.

However, Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan has said that what the
officers did amounted to procedural errors. Police Chief Wayne Tucker
stressed earlier that internal affairs investigators uncovered the
problem and that officers were being retrained.

"We discovered it; we're fixing it," Tucker said in October.

The city is facing two federal civil rights lawsuits over the
warrants issue. One complaint was filed on behalf of two men whose
East Oakland homes were searched last year.

Jason Hodge, a spokesman for the men's attorney, said Thursday that
Russo's announcement "strengthens and validates our case. The city
does not have a leg to stand on. They had a number of rogue officers
who are basically trampling on the rights of Oakland residents, and
now they're going to have to pay."

The other civil complaint is a class-action lawsuit filed by a group
of plaintiffs, including Reginald Oliver, 39. Prosecutors were forced
to drop a charge of illegally possessing ammunition against Oliver
after discovering that the search warrant for his home had been
obtained by an officer who made intentionally false and/or misleading
statements on an affidavit to a judge, the suit said.

Both suits name Officer Karla Rush, an eight-year officer who sources
said is among those the city wants to fire. The names of the other
officers were not made public.

Mary Sansen, an attorney for the officers, blasted the city Thursday,
saying the blame rests with police commanders who she said failed to
train officers on how to write search-warrant affidavits properly.

"The fact that I have anybody who's being terminated over this case
is just simply outrageous," Sansen said. "Some of my officers have
routinely been denied any form of training. I have clients who are
writing search warrants who have never been to search-writing school,
who have been expected to pick up as they go."

The search-warrant issue was discussed Thursday at a court hearing in
San Francisco before U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson. The judge
is overseeing department reforms in the wake of the Riders scandal,
which involved a group of officers accused of planting evidence and
beating suspects in West Oakland.

Two criminal trials of three former officers ended in mistrials. The
case led to a $10.5 million civil settlement with citizens who said
they were abused by the officers, along with a court order mandating
the reforms that Henderson is overseeing.

An independent monitoring team created as part of the effort said in
a report last week on the warrants issue that, "Although the
detection and investigation of this alleged misconduct reflects well
on the department, the underlying misconduct, if true, is clear
indication that the organizational and community values that have
been integrated into some parts of the department have not yet taken
root throughout OPD."