Gates Lashes Out at Prosecutor in Dalton Raid Case : Police: In letter to Reiner, chief says he is sick of ‘nasty remarks’ about department in officer misconduct probe. Deputy D.A. charges ‘harassment.’

In a letter made public Friday, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates sharply criticized the prosecutor in the 39th and Dalton officer misconduct case, saying he is “sick and tired of his nasty remarks” about the Los Angeles Police Department.

The Dec. 7 letter, addressed to Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, said comments made by Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher Darden “do not promote a harmonious relationship between our two agencies.”

The letter came to light amid other criticism leveled against Darden by one of the four Los Angeles Police Department officers accused of destroying property during a massive police raid two years ago near 39th Street and Dalton Avenue.

In court Friday, lawyers for two of the accused officers unsuccessfully attempted to prevent Reiner’s office from prosecuting the case.

Darden, in turn, characterized the criticism as a “campaign of harassment” by police and the defense lawyers aimed at removing him from a case.

District attorney’s spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons acknowledged Friday that Reiner had received Gates’ letter but said Reiner has no plans to reprimand his prosecutor.

“We certainly intend to take no action against Deputy Dist. Atty. Darden,” Gibbons said. “We’re very happy with the way he is handling the case.”

Capt. Thomas Elfmont, the highest ranking of the four accused officers, also suggested that Darden has become overzealous. He believes that Darden pitted the defendants against each other to make his case against them.

In an interview Friday, Elfmont said Darden is pressuring him to plead guilty in return for the charges against the other three officers being dismissed.

“They’ve tried everything they can to put pressure on me,” Elfmont said. “They want to force me into a position where I would consider it and I would never, ever consider it.”

Gates’ letter was written in response to published statements Darden made to The Times. Darden had been asked to comment on a ruling by the Los Angeles Police Commission that cleared a police sergeant of allegations that he had done investigative work on behalf of the defendants.

Darden said he was skeptical of the commission’s findings. “They never even interviewed me,” Darden was quoted as saying. “I can’t imagine how they can do a thorough investigation without conferring with us first.”

In his letter to Reiner, Gates said he was “dismayed about Mr. Darden’s opinion of the thoroughness of our investigation. A great deal of effort went into that investigation.”

The letter also asserted that Darden’s statements implied that the Police Department is “hiding something from him.” Gates further said the prosecutor’s “public posturing” is “disruptive to the criminal justice process.”

In a handwritten note at the bottom of the typed letter, Gates wrote:

“This guy has gotten personally involved in this case and I’m sick and tired of his nasty remarks about this department.”

Police spokesman Cmdr. William Booth, asked to comment on the letter, said only: “The letter speaks for itself. It’s pretty clear.”

Elfmont said he filed a complaint to the State Bar of California about three months ago, and that he has not yet heard the results of its investigation.

The points Elmont made in his complaint were similar to arguments made in court Friday. Elfmont’s attorney, Barry Levin, asked Municipal Judge Larry Paul Fidler to remove the district attorney’s office from the case.

Levin argued that Darden had given Elfmont a promise of “implied immunity” by telling the police captain he would not be prosecuted if he ordered the other police defendants to talk to Darden about the 39th and Dalton raid.

Levin said Elfmont ordered the other officers to cooperate with Darden. The lawyer said Darden then used the information from those officers to file conspiracy charges against Elfmont.

“It was a behind-the-scenes sham,” Levin told the judge, alleging that the prosecutor was seeking any information he could find to tie police supervisors to the case.

“They wanted to get at command officers,” Levin said. “They wanted to embarrass the chief of police.”

Although there were suggestions made in court that the state attorney general’s office or a special prosecutor could take over the prosecution, Fidler denied Levin’s request that the district attorney’s office be removed from the case. “I don’t believe the law would allow the court to recuse the district attorney,” he said.

During Friday’s hearing, the defense lawyers called to the stand Times reporter Richard A. Serrano to question him about a news article in which he quoted Sgt. Robert Kavanaugh about the case. Serrano had quoted Kavanaugh as saying the officer worked as an investigator for the defense--quotes Kavanaugh later denied.

Serrano stood by the article and invoked the reporter’s “shield law,” which protects journalists from divulging certain unpublished information, when defense attorneys attempted to question him about matters in the case that he did not include in the article.