Mayor Ducks ‘Heat’--Gates : Police: The chief says Bradley asked for a probe of department actions to divert attention from the fact he was in Europe and ‘didn’t know what was going on.’

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said Wednesday that Mayor Tom Bradley was manipulated into writing a “dumb letter” last week asking the Police Commission to investigate reports of police improprieties in the defense of four officers charged in the “39th and Dalton” case.

In an interview, Gates said Bradley requested the investigation “to get the heat off himself” because he had been traveling in Europe last month and “didn’t know what was going on.”

Bradley said Wednesday of Gates’ criticism, “Those kinds of things don’t worry me.”

The Times reported last week that Los Angeles Police Sgt. Robert Kavanaugh, while on duty, spent weeks this summer working as an investigator for the four officers charged with vandalism stemming from a drug raid two years ago in a group of apartments near 39th Street and Dalton Avenue.

Kavanaugh told The Times that he was so involved in trying to exonerate his fellow officers that beginning Aug. 1, he worked almost daily for six weeks in the law offices of one of the defendant’s attorneys. His work included stakeouts, interviews of potential witnesses and research for use in the officers’ trial, he said, and was done with the knowledge of his department superiors.

In a sharply worded letter to the Police Commission last Friday, Bradley called Kavanaugh’s defense work “a blatant waste of taxpayers’ money” and asked that the panel begin a comprehensive internal review of the matter.

Gates said the mayor was motivated by political concerns.

“The Los Angeles Times was able to manipulate the mayor into writing a letter,” he said. “The mayor was gone, didn’t know what was going on . . . comes back, reads the Los Angeles Times, wants to get the heat off himself, so he writes a dumb letter.”

Gates said Bradley’s attitude was, “I’m back in town so . . . by golly, I’m gonna take charge.”

The chief also said that he does not believe Kavanaugh was working for the criminal defense team and added that Kavanaugh has said he never made the statements to The Times.

Kavanaugh said Wednesday that he had no comment on the matter.

“The Times has concocted an incredible story,” Gates said. “I think he (Kavanaugh) was misquoted.”

“The chief is misinformed,” said Noel Greenwood, senior editor of The Times. “Kavanaugh made the statements in a lengthy interview at his home and reaffirmed them in a later telephone interview.”

Bradley said he received a copy of the story by fax shortly before returning from Europe.

“The verbatim statements from the 30-year veteran officer of the Police Department that he was working on police time, conducting an investigation in connection with the criminal defense, is something which caused great concern on my part,” Bradley said.

“Assuming this to be factual, this would be gross and inappropriate conduct by a member of the Police Department.”

Bradley said he was particularly distressed by statements by Cmdr. William Booth, a police spokesman, who said that no investigation would be conducted.

The mayor said he expects the Police Commission, a five-member body that he appoints, to respond to him by Oct. 23.

Shortly after receiving Bradley’s letter last week, Police Commission President Robert Talcott said an inquiry would be conducted. But he added that in such situations “there often is a readily available explanation . . . and I suspect that that will be the situation with Sgt. Kavanaugh as well.”

Talcott did not return phone calls Wednesday.

In an interview Wednesday, Bradley was asked about Gates’ recent remark that casual drug dealers should be shot, Gates’ response to Kavanaugh’s activities and the chief’s criticism of the mayor. Asked whether he is considering requesting the chief’s resignation, Bradley said, “I refuse to be drawn into a debate and argument about Chief Gates’ tenure.”

The commission has ultimate authority over police matters, Bradley noted. He said he expects that it will not act as a “rubber stamp” for Gates and the department.

“I am determined that the commission will continue not only to understand that principle but to act upon it,” he said.