18 L.A. Officers Facing Charges of Misconduct

Eighteen Los Angeles police officers have been accused of misconduct for their involvement in an anti-gang raid last August during which a police task force allegedly ransacked four apartments and roughed up residents in Southwest Los Angeles, The Times has learned.

The officers implicated in the case--potentially the largest number ever to face discipline as a result of an internal Los Angeles Police Department inquiry--have been accused of violations of department regulations ranging from lying to investigators to excessive property damage.

Seven have been ordered to appear before department tribunals. They ultimately could be fired or punished with long-term suspensions without pay. The 11 others are subject to relatively light suspensions from duty--10 days or less--or letters of reprimand placed permanently in their files, sources said.

Relatively Low Rank

All of the officers are of relatively low rank--six are sergeants; 12 are patrolmen.

No officer above the rank of sergeant was present during the Aug. 1 raid, which was carried out by more than 70 officers, most of them assigned to the Southwest station.

Investigators, however, are continuing to explore allegations that the officers were acting under what they assumed were orders from the station’s captain, Thomas D. Elfmont, to “render the residences uninhabitable,” according to sources close to the case.

Elfmont, on whose initial recommendations the officers are to be disciplined, declined to comment Wednesday, referring all questions to Cmdr. William Booth, the Police Department’s spokesman.

Booth also declined to discuss any aspect of the case, saying that it had not yet been formally reviewed by the Police Department administration. The case, he said, would begin winding its way through the chain of command “in the next day or so.”

Nonetheless, most of the accused officers already have been notified of the sanctions each is facing, according to sources.

All of the accused officers are being defended by the department’s union, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, whose vice president on Wednesday commended Deputy Chief William Rathburn, who has overseen the investigation.

“He has been cooperative and sensitive to the officers,” said David Baca, union vice president.

The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office, meanwhile, is investigating the case to determine whether any officers should be prosecuted.

The four residences, located in the 3900 block of Dalton Avenue, were targeted by police after a series of gang-related, drive-by shootings in the neighborhood just west of the Coliseum. Such sizable raids are not uncommon these days in the Police Department’s continuing battle against street gangs.

In this case, officers said they were looking for illegal drugs and obtained a search warrant before the raid. During the search, they allegedly ripped plaster off walls, slashed furniture with knives, sledgehammered toilets and sinks and hacked apart stereos.

Damage to the apartments was so extensive that the Red Cross offered emergency housing to several residents.

Thirty-three people were taken into custody. One was arrested for possession of cocaine and seven for conspiracy to sell the drug. Only one person was ever charged. One-quarter gram of rock cocaine was recovered during the raid.

About 40 residents of the neighborhood and others who say they were roughed up that night by officers have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, contending that their civil rights were violated.

They have alleged that they were hit and kicked and that some of the officers spray-painted anti-gang slogans on apartment walls including, “LAPD rules,” “Rolling 30s die,” (a reference to a Crips gang), and “Opie Dog rules” (an apparent reference to a police officer’s nickname).

Their lawsuit alleges that some were taken to Southwest Station, ordered to whistle the theme from the old “Andy Griffith” television show and made to run through a gauntlet of officers. Those who could not or would not whistle allegedly were punched and had steel flashlights dropped on their heads.

The Police Department’s subsequent investigation examined formal complaints filed against 32 of the officers who participated in the raid but could not substantiate allegations that excessive force had been used by any, sources said Wednesday.

Moreover, sources said, the Internal Affairs Division investigation determined that much of the property damage attributed to raiding officers existed before the incident--or occurred after it.

“(Officers) did some damage; no question about it,” said one policeman. “But none of the people in these apartments was going to win a Good Housekeeping award, if you know what I mean. The places were a mess to begin with. And after the officers left, it would appear that some gang members did come back and tore it up even worse just to make the cops look bad.”

Nevertheless, teams of Internal Affairs Division investigators determined that officers had, indeed, caused “excessive” damage during the search of the apartments, according to the division’s 668-page final report on the incident.

Investigators also found evidence of other infractions by officers, including making false statements, failure to properly book evidence and failure to take appropriate action after becoming aware of misconduct by others.

The disclosure that the Police Department plans to pursue actions against at least some of the participating officers did little to appease attorneys representing those who have sued the city accusing the raiding officers of having used excessive force.

“No matter how egregious the allegation (of excessive force), they always find some way to exonerate them,” said attorney Thomas E. Beck. “These guys should have already been criminally prosecuted for excessive force under color of law.”

The last time in recent history that a large group of officers was disciplined for misconduct was in 1982 when 12 patrolmen assigned to the Hollywood Station were implicated in a burglary ring.