Taylor
Government Period 3
December 20, 2000
Summary
This case began when Raphael Perez, an LAPD CRASH officer, was caught stealing cocaine from a police evidence room. He also admitted to falsifying evidence, planting evidence and an abundance of other crimes. In exchange for plea bargain, he named other policeman in his division who had reportedly done similar things.
Several officers slowly went under investigation, and as the past District Attorney left office, the first of the cases began it’s proceedings under the eye of newly elected district attorney Steve Cooley. They were found guilty of falsifying evidence and obstruction of justice. The judge, Jacklynne Connors, then overturned the verdict. Steve Cooley appealed that overturning on January 12, 2001.
Currently, over 100 guilty cases from that division have now been overturned, and hundreds more are expected. But the man who’s testimony this whole case rides on is becoming less trustworthy every day. Even his ex girlfriend claims that he murdered 3 people, and when confronted, Perez said he would claim 5th Amendment Right.
Corruption in the Los Angeles Police Department is nothing new. It dates back almost as far as the organization. Even a movie was made about it in recent years. (Although some of the facts were exaggerated). Back then they were taking French champaign as bribes from madams, and money from gamblers and bootleggers (during prohibition). The city’s view of the police force darkened, in the 1960’s when demonstrations were as common as the police brutality that went along with it such as the Watts riots. A more recent incident with far greater impact was the Rodney King incident of 1992, where a African American man was pulled over and beaten for no clear reason, by four ��Åwhite, male officers.
The event was amplified when it was caught on videotape by an amateur camera man. And people became even more enraged when, they were set free against overwhelming evidence. Many communities began rioting, people were injured when millions of dollars in damages to their own community business were damaged. The case was then retried and the officers were found guilty.
The Los Angeles rebbelion cost Los Angeles over 50 million dollars in damage, as well as 125 million in legal issues. For almost a year, juries simply would not swallow police testimonies, and many guilty and innocent parties were set free. In cases against police misconduct, jurors gave bountiful settlements.
The District Attorneys office expect the same equivocations from the Rampart Scandal. This case deals with over 30 officers accused of framing and beating gang members, lying under oath, and embezzling seized drugs. The case all stems from the testimony of Rafael Perez, a police officer from the CRASH anti-gang unit. In September of 1999, Perez, was charged with stealing over 1 million dollars worth of cocaine, with the intent to sell from a police evidence locker. He copped to the charges, because he was caught on tape. And, in hopes for a lighter sentence, he gave information to the investigators that his entire unit, (CRASH Anti-Gang unit) were responsible for framing gang members and falsifying evidence on a daily basis. This led way to the Rampart scandal.
Perez was tried and convicted, and faces the parole board a year from this month. So far, he has reported at least 25 officers, who have all been relieved of duty with pay. Including his partner, Nino Durden, who has been accused of shooting Javier Ovlando who was unarmed, and in hand cuffs. He is now paralyzed from the waist down. Nevertheless, he was convicted after the cop duo claimed on the stand that he had a rifle. Perez now admits to framing him, and that he was in fact, unarmed. Ovlando has been released, and is now with his daughter, who was born while he was in jail.
Several informants in jail, have now confirmed that Perez may be making up allegations, claiming “I can just give them (District Attorneys) a name, and they’re in custody the next morning”. The informants also have other information that they say is “too big” to mention. It may involve they still unsolved murder of hip hop super star Notorious BIG, who was killed in Los Angeles in 1997, supposedly by a gang that Perez was associated with, and other recoding artists, producers, entertainment industry executives, and their off duty police security detail.
The first of the actual Rampart cases involves 4 officers, Ed Ortiz, Michael Buchannan and Brian Liddy, who have been accused of obstruction of justice, falsifying police reports, planting evidence, and beating suspects. One officer was acquitted. They claimed that a suspect had hit them with the opening of the door to his pick up truck, when it was proved that there was no car involved. They were found guilty, but the defense attorney filed a report demanding a re-trial. On December 3rd, the judge, Jacklynne Connor, released a 20 page statement. In it she overturned the verdict on they grounds that some of the evidence in the police reports were confusing. This judge’s husband is a police officer in a neighboring division.
But the District Attorney’s office acted quickly. Under the lead of head district attorney Steve Cooley, who began his new job on the day in which Connors letter was written filed an appeal. Steve Cooley was elected this November, taking the place of Gill Garcetti, who has been criticized for his actions in the O.J. Simpson case, the Menendez brother’s case, and his delay in the prosecution of the Rampart cases. Steve Cooley’s primary campaign promise was to act swiftly and justly on all of the Rampart cases. The state has appointed Los Angeles a federal judge to look over all Rampart cases.
So far, more than 100 convictions from the CRASH division have been overturned. And we can expect to see a lot more, according to some attorneys who will be representing some of the gang members claiming they were framed by the division. The city is estimating that they will see over 100 million dollars in police misconduct charges awarded to gang members from the city. As one DA said, “LA taxpayers are gonna pay big for this Rampart thing” because jurors have been awarding such big settlements.
I have now read around 50 articles surrounding the case, between September of 1999, and one that was written last Friday. They all differ slightly in story, but one thing that none of them lack, is a new individual’s story of how he was framed or beaten by cops in the Rampart division.
But most of the cops say that the root of the problem is with upper division officers, who not only overlook this type of activity, but condone it. One cop says, “no matter what happens, the number one priority is the conviction”. Cops are frequently asked to fill in the blanks for prosecutors when they don’t exactly remember what happened.
Mayor Richard Riordan reports that the worst part about this is the sergeants failure to report these incidents, and to let them go on. After the Rodney King incident, Commission was made indicating that “this sort of behavior from upper division officers will not be tolerated”. This report, which collects data from 1986 to 1990, concerning police misconduct charges, found that “in that time more than 1,400 had only one or two allegations. But 183 officers had four or more allegations, forty-four had six or more, sixteen had eight or more, and one had sixteen such allegations”.
I think that hundreds of peoples civil rights were violated by the Rampart division police officers, standing on their righteous branch of “they’re the bad dudes who are gonna end up in jail anyway, so why not nail 'em now”. This was apparently a commonly used phrase among Rampart division officers. They took advantage of so many people’s rights merely because they were either immigrants, poor, or gang members. This is a violation of amendment 4, right against unwarranted search and seizure, Amendment 5, the rights of the accused and the 2nd Amendment rights to bear arms.
In the years to follow, the trial will escalate, become a media frenzy, and die out, only to be made into a television movie, where all the facts will be exaggerated, and be thought of by people as the truth, or “real story”. But only time can tell.
Bibliography
Bentley, Brian One Time Los Angeles
Penguin Books, 1999, page 80
Cloud, John “LA Confidential, for real”
TIME Magazine VOL. 154 NO. 13
SEPTEMBER 27, 1999 ã
Associated Press “LAPD Blues”
LA Times VOL. 156 NO. 22 NOVEMBER 27, 2000
Cohen, Adam “Gangsta Cops” LA Times
VOL. 155 NO. 9 MARCH 6, 2000
Decker, Twilla and Wienstien, Henry
LOS ANGELES TIMES
VOL 156 NO 41 Friday, January 12, 2001
www.hrw.org/reports98/police/uspo73.html
Feldman, Charles “LAPD may be helping Guilty”
Online Extra 10/05/00:
Rosenfield, Jim “New Rampart Info”
Los Angeles Times
VOL 155 NO 24 December 10, 1999
