Session Before Dalton Raid Described : Police: A captain said at a roll call that the shooting of a gang member would not be viewed negatively by the LAPD, a report on the incident claims.

Just days before the 39th and Dalton drug raid, a Los Angeles police captain suggested to his troops in a roll-call session that if an officer shot a gang member “it would not be a loss to the community” and LAPD “management would not view it negatively,” according to an internal police report made public Wednesday.

The disclosure came from interviews with six rank-and-file officers who attended the meeting, and was filed in connection with a federal lawsuit against the department and the city by owners of apartments damaged by police in the August, 1988, raid.

The report indicates for the first time that some officers who participated in the raid believed their top supervisors would look the other way if officers got out of hand in their zeal to arrest gang members.

The Internal Affairs Division report describes each of the officers’ recollections of the roll call, in which Capt. Thomas Elfmont addressed the officers before the raid, which was aimed at arresting members of the Rolling 30s street gang.

“Capt. Elfmont said something to the effect that if an officer shot a Rolling 30s gang member it would not be a loss to the community,” Officer Joseph Delorenzo told investigators.

Officer Steven Lemmer recalled “Elfmont saying that whatever happened, upper management would not hold it against them.”

“Elfmont mentioned in essence that if a shooting occurred, management would not view it negatively,” Lemmer said in the report. “The general feeling was that this was not an ordinary search warrant and that the captain expected more to be done.”

Elfmont could not be reached for comment Wednesday, but he told Internal Affairs that he did not make the comments because it would have been “ludicrous” to do so. He has pleaded not guilty to criminal vandalism charges filed against him in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

The Internal Affairs report led to administrative charges against Elfmont for making “improper remarks to his subordinates.”

In a series of interviews detailed in the report, Elfmont first could not remember attending the roll call. Later, he said he remembered speaking to the roll call, but denied making any statements suggesting LAPD management would not be upset if an officer shot a gang member during the raid.

He also said that some of the officers who accused him of making improper statements bear a grudge against him because he is their supervisor.

“Truthfully,” Elfmont told investigators, “it becomes a matter of credibility. Not so much what I did or didn’t do, but what my credibility is.”

Elfmont’s newly appointed attorney, Barry Levin, declined to discuss the report because he has not yet seen the document. “I haven’t even really begun to extensively prepare for this case,” he said.

Stephen Yagman, the attorney who filed the report as part of his lawsuit against the Police Department, said that it “shows that an LAPD captain ordered officers illegally to take human life and destroy property.”

“It is incredible that it takes a civil lawsuit to punish them for this gross misconduct,” he said, referring to the upcoming Jan. 15 civil trial in the case.

But Cmdr. William Booth, the department’s chief spokesman, said Elfmont has already been demoted from a Captain III position as a division commander in the Southwest patrol area to a Captain II position in the Valley traffic division.

Citing the pending criminal and civil trials, Booth declined to discuss specifics of the Internal Affairs report. But he did say: “The department does not look the other way when anybody is shot. There is a very thorough process that we have in investigating officer-involved shootings.”

The raid was designed to recover drugs and weapons at a series of apartments believed used by members of the Rolling 30s gang near 39th Street and Dalton Avenue. During the raid, officers allegedly destroyed walls, appliances and furniture, despite the fact that only a handful of drugs was found. No one was shot.

Chief Daryl F. Gates has since announced that scores of officers are being disciplined by the LAPD.

The roll call, held several days before the Aug. 1, 1988, raid, was attended by members of the Special Problems Unit at the Southwest police station. The unit was targeting the Rolling 30s gang because of threats its members had made to a family that lived near them at 39th and Dalton.

Although 80 officers either planned or conducted the raid, it was unclear how many attended the 15-minute roll call.

About 20 officers were interviewed about the roll call by Internal Affairs. While six of them recalled that Elfmont talked about officers shooting gang members, two others said they could not remember if he specifically made those comments. The rest did not raise the issue.

Among those who spoke with Internal Affairs investigators was Officer John Caraveo.

“Elfmont said he wanted the place hit hard and leveled to make the place uninhabitable,” Caraveo told investigators.

“Elfmont also said if a ‘30’ got in the way, no one would really scrutinize it if he got dumped (shot). He said he was not telling them to go out and dump a banger, just to be careful. The tone was that if someone got dumped, he got dumped.”

The report added that “Caraveo’s impression of the statement regarding minimum scrutiny was that there was an endorsement from a higher level within the department.”

Officer Maurice Landrum said Elfmont advised the roll call that “if an officer-involved shooting occurred, the bureau (LAPD supervisors) would not look at is as closely as other shootings, due to the gang involvement.”

Officer Ty Richmond said Elfmont told the officers that the shooting of a gang member would not be closely reviewed by management “because of the violent history of the Rolling 30s.”

And Officer Diane Tostado described it this way:

“Elfmont said they (the officers) were supported and would be backed 100%. The tone was that officers’ actions in this instance would not be scrutinized as closely as in other situations.”

Although two officers said they did not remember Elfmont making the statements, most of the officers who said they recalled the comments also voiced concerns about coming forward with allegations against a captain and others in high police management.

Caraveo said he was in fear of a possible negative effect on his career. Landrum feared that Elfmont might go after him and reassign him to a desk job.

Tostado talked to a fellow officer after the roll call and wondered if Elfmont was kidding when he made the statement about shooting a gang member. She later discussed her concerns about the raid with her mother. And she worried about the consequences of making allegations against a police captain.

“She feared possible problems which could result and would have a negative impact on her career,” the report said. “She stated, ‘Management takes care of management.’ ”