Inquiry Into LAPD May Jeopardize Drug Cases : Law enforcement: The D.A.’s office says officers may have stolen money. None have been indicted.

In a move that could jeopardize as many as 30 criminal cases, the district attorney’s office is alerting drug defendants arrested by Los Angeles Police Department narcotics officers that several officers are themselves being investigated “for the theft of confiscated drug monies and other crimes.”

At least five Police Department officers are being investigated as part of a widening probe of alleged money-skimming by sheriff’s narcotics deputies, sources said.

Ex-Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert R. Sobel, the chief prosecution witness against numerous county sheriff’s deputies, also has accused LAPD officers of beating drug suspects, stealing money and pocketing illegal drugs, according to FBI documents.

The joint federal-local investigation in the past has focused on alleged criminal wrongdoing in the 8,000-member Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The revelations rocked the Sheriff’s Department, where 10 narcotics officers were indicted and another 16 suspended.

The probe widened to include allegations that at least five LAPD narcotics officers may have engaged in similar conduct, and now some LAPD administrators are worried that their agency’s reputation could be damaged.

“These guys at Parker Center are running scared; they saw what happened with the sheriff’s deputies,” said one LAPD supervisor who has been briefed on the investigation.

Enrique Hernandez, an attorney for the Los Angeles Police Protective League, pointed out Tuesday that none of the police officers have been indicted or suspended.

He said that several officers were placed on administrative duties, their personal finances were reviewed, and the home of one officer was searched although the officers volunteered to cooperate with investigators.

“People suspect that perhaps they are corrupt, when there has not been any factual information that that is true,” Hernandez said. “I mean, here we are a year into this thing and there have been no indictments.

“And today they are devastated and demoralized. These are good, hard-working and experienced officers whose reputations have been tarnished.”

Perhaps more important, he said, is that the criminal cases they put together against various Los Angeles drug dealers are being jeopardized solely because the officers are under investigation.

“These are mid-level to major violators,” he said of the drug defendants arrested by the LAPD narcotics officers. “These are distribution and sale cases. These defendants are not the nickel-and-dime street dealers who are passing around rock cocaine.”

In September, prosecutors began sending notification letters to attorneys for the drug defendants. The notices state:

“The purpose of this letter is to inform you that Los Angeles Police Department Officer . . . , who may be a witness on this case, is being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department, the Sheriff’s Department and federal agencies for the theft of confiscated drug monies and other crimes.”

Some sources within the LAPD said that the five officers may have as many as 30 cases among them.

Curtis A. Hazell, acting head of the district attorney’s major narcotics and forfeiture division, confirmed Tuesday that the letters were sent as a “precautionary measure” in an undetermined number of pending cases and in nine closed cases.

“On those (closed) cases, there are specific allegations of misconduct involving police officer activities, evidence or testimony which call into question the validity of the convictions,” Hazell said.

He added that even more letters may be sent. “It’s an ongoing investigation,” he said.

Exactly what impact the investigation may have on drug cases is unknown.

In the sheriff’s cases, Hazell said about 20 criminal cases involving sheriff’s deputies have been affected by the money-skimming scandal.

Sobel, the prosecution’s chief witness, has pleaded guilty to stealing $1.4 million in seized money. He previously worked as the supervisor of the joint Sheriff’s-LAPD Southwest Task Force that targeted mid-level street dealers.

The Times reported last year that the task force was originally known as the Freeway Rick Task Force because it was formed in January, 1987, to build a case against alleged South-Central Los Angeles cocaine boss Ricky Donnell Ross, according to sources.

That special unit--initially four sheriff’s deputies and four LAPD officers directed by Sobel--had been accused by several witnesses of theft and brutality during investigations of Ross and other suspected cocaine traffickers.

Drug trafficking charges against Ross were dismissed in mid-1987.

In a series of meetings with the FBI over the last year, Sobel outlined a variety of allegations that not only touched on sheriff’s deputies, but broadened with details about criminal activity by LAPD narcotics officers. A partial summary states:

- A Ladera Heights bust resulted in a situation where “a bag of money was recovered and everybody had his hands in it,” the summary said.

“Sobel basically had to wrestle it away from them,” the summary added. “Then (one LAPD officer) transported the money back to the station and only (that officer) and Sobel got any, because (the LAPD officer) told him to take some as a going away present.”

Cocaine was taken illegally from the trunk of a car and planted in a house near Chadron Street in Hawthorne in February, 1987, with the complicity of four LAPD officers.

“Sobel did see (an LAPD officer) remove the cocaine from the Chevy at Chadron and devise the plan of planting it at the other location,” the summary said. “There is no question that each member of the task force knew that dope was moved and planted in this manner.”

The summary also said about this episode: “Sobel advised that he knew (an LAPD officer) played the game and that (the officer) stole when he was at LAPD.”

Intent on busting Ross, LAPD officers kept up a running joke about how they were going to plant illegal narcotics on the drug suspect.

“As time went on,” the summary said, “it became common knowledge among the entire task force that (an LAPD officer) was carrying around a kilo of dope in the tire well of his vehicle.

“(The LAPD officer) would be bragging about a present for Ricky Ross when they ran into him. There were constant jokes made about the dope they had ready for Ricky Ross when they found him.”

A drug suspect allegedly was beaten while other officers stood by without interfering. The officers were apparently upset with the suspect because one officer had injured his thumb in the incident.

“You could start to hear quite a bit of screaming after they went inside,” the summary said, quoting Sobel.