POLICE ADD OLD CASES TO PROBE OF 2 OFFICERS

Scandal: LAPD Reexamines Unsolved Crimes As Allegations Emerge Against The
Pair.

Calling an investigation into allegedly rogue Los Angeles police
officers "very sensitive and significant in nature," a top LAPD
official said Thursday that detectives are taking a fresh look at
several unsolved crimes once thought to be the work of common thugs,
but now suspected to have involved some of the LAPD's own.

Deputy Chief J.I. Davis said detectives also were reopening several
internal affairs investigations involving officers who are now
implicated in the brewing scandal.

Davis called the news conference in response to a Times article
Thursday, which disclosed that federal and local authorities are
investigating allegations that LAPD officers Ruben Palomares and
William Ferguson committed a series of invasion-style robberies of
drug dealers, stealing narcotics and money. "While the investigation
is both very sensitive and significant in nature . . . it is our duty
to make the public aware that LAPD investigators have been involved in
this ongoing investigation to rid the department of corruption at all
levels," said Davis, who was flanked by a grim-faced Police Commission
President Rick Caruso.

After the news conference, Caruso promised a thorough
investigation.

"We just got through one problem, and now we're back into another
one," Caruso said, referring to the notorious corruption scandal in
the Rampart Division. "We need to go back and look at everything. We
need to fully investigate why this allegedly occurred and make sure we
put things in place to ensure that it doesn't happen again."

Caruso said the allegations were devastating to department
morale.

"The worst kind of criminal is one who's been given the public trust
and violates it," he said. "It impacts every officer in the field. The
good officers don't deserve this."

Attorneys for Palomares and Ferguson, both of whom have been relieved
of duty for more than a year, denied that the two officers were
involved in crimes together.

The investigation into Palomares, Ferguson and others was launched in
June after Palomares was arrested on charges of attempting to buy 10
kilograms of cocaine from undercover DEA agents in San Diego. After
his arrest, a co-defendant in the case implicated him in an unsolved
1999 murder in Bell, as well as the alleged drug rip-offs with Ferguson.

Davis confirmed that detectives are investigating allegations that
LAPD officers were involved in "theft, burglary, robbery and murder."
The probe focuses on the alleged criminal activities of Palomares but
includes "other LAPD officers," he said.

Davis released few details of the probe and identified only Palomares
by name. The deputy chief said detectives were conducting a "thorough
examination" of Palomares' work history, as well as the other officers
under investigation.

Although Ferguson and Palomares spent time in the troubled Rampart
Division during the late 1990s--when ex-officer-turned-informant
Rafael Perez alleged that criminal misconduct by officers was
rampant--the current investigation is not related to the Rampart
corruption probe.

Both officers have previously come under scrutiny at the LAPD. In
interviews with authorities, Perez identified Palomares as being "in
the loop" of corrupt officers who he claimed routinely committed
crimes and misconduct in the Rampart Division. He alleged that
Palomares was involved in an unjustified shooting in which he and his
partner planted a gun on an unarmed man.

Ferguson has faced several disciplinary hearings since he joined the
LAPD in 1997. Last month, the city paid $1.7 million to settle a civil
lawsuit in which he was accused of shooting at an unarmed man and
planting drugs on two of the man's friends. The settlement was reached
after Ferguson and partner Jeffrey Robb refused to testify in the
case, citing their constitutional rights against self-incrimination.