LAPD CHIEF RESURRECTS COP CORRUPTION SCANDAL

LOS ANGELES -- The police corruption scandal that has cost the city $40
million in legal settlements flared up again this week.

The new chief ordered an outside investigation, and newly reported testimony
suggested that corrupt officers are still on the beat.

Police Chief William Bratton, who took office in October, criticized an
internal review of the scandal as unacceptably flawed, and he called for an
independent probe of the allegations that officers planted guns and drugs,
lied under oath, and shot unarmed suspects.

The Rampart scandal, named for the gang-infested section of the city where
it originated, led to judges overturning convictions or tossing out charges
in about 100 cases.

It broke in 1999 after former officer Rafael Perez was arrested for stealing
cocaine from an evidence locker and talked about a 1996 case in which
officers shot and paralyzed a man.

Some 70 officers were investigated, and nine, including Perez and his former
partner, Nino Durden, have been prosecuted. Both men are in prison.