Veteran Detective to Fight Reprimand

A veteran Los Angeles Police Department detective is receiving a formal reprimand as the result of an Internal Affairs investigation into his relationship with a former Mexico City police chief accused of corruption, the detective told The Times.

Kenneth P. Hamilton, 43, said in an interview that an Internal Affairs investigation determined that he was guilty of two charges of neglect of duty in connection with his personal ties to former Mexico City Police Chief Arturo Durazo Moreno.

Hamilton said he is innocent of the charges and plans to protest the decision through departmental grievance procedures.

Both charges stem from a trip Hamilton took to Puerto Rico with the Durazo family last June. Durazo was the subject of a sealed international arrest warrant at the time and was being sought on charges of extortion, illegal arms possession and tax violations in Mexico.

Durazo was arrested by the FBI June 29 and is in custody awaiting extradition proceedings, which will be held in Los Angeles because he established residency here in 1983 after the Mexican government began investigating allegations of corruption against him.

When FBI agents found Hamilton with Durazo’s family in Puerto Rico, they questioned him and informed the Police Department. The department’s Internal Affairs Division found Hamilton guilty of two charges constituting neglect of duty, according to his attorney, Michael P. Stone, general counsel for the Los Angeles Police Protective League:

- Failing to notify authorities of the date and time that a fugitive was planning to enter the United States.

- Improperly accepting a gratuity (the trip to Puerto Rico) from the family of a fugitive.

Hamilton, who has been a Los Angeles police officer for 17 years, told The Times that he had gone to Puerto Rico at the request of Durazo’s family because they had become close friends since he had met Durazo on official department business several years ago. He said that he went on his own time and did not act in the capacity of a police officer while in Puerto Rico.

“I have confidence in the system here, and I am confident that when the facts of this case are made known to higher-level officials, they will see that I am innocent of all wrongdoing,” Hamilton said.

“I know what a gratuity is. . . . I’ve never taken one. What does a gratuity mean in this context? This wasn’t a gratuity. This was a trip with friends.”

Hamilton also said Durazo had flown to Puerto Rico from South America to turn himself in to U.S. officials--not to enter the country illegally. The U.S. attorney, who is prosecuting Durazo in the extradition hearing, has contended that Durazo was trying to sneak into the United States through Puerto Rico after his passport was taken in Brazil.

Hamilton said he was notified of the Internal Affairs decision last week. The next day, he said, he was also removed from the Organized Crime Intelligence Division, where he has worked most of his career, and transferred to a more routine detective assignment in the Southwest Division.

Police spokesman Cmdr. William Booth confirmed Hamilton’s transfer. But, because state law protects the identity of police officers subject to certain disciplinary proceedings, he refused to confirm that Hamilton was the subject of an Internal Affairs investigation.