A Tale of 2 Chiefs: 2 Cities in Turmoil : Law enforcement: L.A. has its Daryl F. Gates, and a Colorado village had its Daryl G. Gates, who also was a police chief in hot water.

If there is anyone who knows what Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates is going through these days, it might be former Police Chief Daryl G . Gates.

Here in this wealthy suburb of Denver, 1,000 miles from the controversy swirling around the videotaped police beating of Rodney G. King, Daryl G. Gates lost his job after a scandal rocked his police department.

Here, as in Los Angeles, there have been allegations of police cover-ups, racial and ethnic slurs and lack of training for officers.

Here, the chief went on paid leave. The mayor fought tooth and nail with members of the City Council. Independent fact-finders were brought in to analyze the police department. A grand jury was convened. Litigation ensued. An FBI investigation is ongoing.

Even now, three years after the controversy began, the wounds of Greenwood Village and its police force fester. The career of the police chief--who resigned in 1989--lies in shambles, and he took down with him not only his supporters but those who called for his resignation when voters virtually wiped the political slate clean, voting some them out and scaring some others from seeking re-election.

And it all began with a suspected drunk-driving arrest.

The story of Colorado’s Gates, some locals say, is a “lesson for L.A.” It illustrates that even when a mayor has the power to fire a police chief--the village mayor refused to take such action--a community can be split in half by the politics and power struggles that result.

L.A.’s Daryl Francis Gates and Colorado’s Daryl Gene Gates--who are not related--look nothing alike. Daryl Gene is white-haired, about two inches shorter and much stockier. But they have known of each other--and are so struck by the similarities in their names and careers, that they have written to each other.

“We weren’t pen pals or anything,” L.A.’s Gates said in a recent interview. “But I recall two letters. We kidded about how unusual it was to have the same names, and now it’s even more unusual.”

Both men have spent decades in law enforcement, rising through the ranks to head their departments--often amid controversy--until politics threatened to topple them.

They were even made police chief the same year--1978.

But while L.A.’s Gates has become one of the most widely respected--and criticized--law enforcement officers in the country, Colorado’s Gates had labored in virtual anonymity in this Denver suburb.

Greenwood Village sits on yellowed, wind-swept plains five miles south of downtown Denver. Its most visible landmarks are high-tech glass office parks jutting into a sky the color of the distant Rockies. The 8,000 residents are some of the richest and most powerful in Colorado.

Into this enclave stepped Daryl G. Gates in 1967 as one of the first officers for the newly chartered city. Gates, who dropped out of high school and later got his general equivalency diploma, had no formal police training. Those who know him said he learned his trade on the streets.

During his tenure, the Greenwood Village police force grew to more than 50 officers, while in Los Angeles the LAPD was building to a strength of more than 8,300.

His downfall began on a spring evening in 1988, when his police officers arrived at a traffic accident and arrested a passenger who later went into convulsions and died. Police said the handcuffed man had ingested cocaine in an apparent suicide attempt.

Soon after the man’s family filed a $2-million wrongful death suit against Greenwood Village, other questions surfaced about police conduct under Gates, including allegations of cover-ups, ticket fixing, ethnic slurs against blacks and Jews, and botched investigations. Even officers came forward and said they lacked adequate training in the use of firearms, batons and high-speed chase techniques.

The City Council chambers became an arena for a “dump Gates” movement, which spun out of control as politician fought politician and even the police argued among themselves.

While Mayor Tom Bradley in Los Angeles has publicly called on his police chief to resign, then-Mayor Freda Poundstone had waged an all-out war to keep her Chief Gates in office. And unlike Bradley, Poundstone had the authority to fire Gates but refused to do so. “He is being crucified,” she said at the time.

There were other parallels. Councilman Robert (Sonny) Wiegand became Greenwood Village’s version of Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo--calling for the police chief’s resignation. He and others said Gates conducted business without council authorization, recalling how Gates invited a national police dog convention to town and the city had to foot the bill.

Ultimately, some officers went to Wiegand with police files they said showed their chief had botched investigations.

One was the death of Lawrence Ocrant, a high-stakes stockbroker who had a reputation for making and losing fortunes. He died of a single gunshot wound to the head and was found by his wife, Sueann. An investigation headed by Gates concluded that the death was a suicide. Since then, a grand jury, while not indicting anyone, determined that Ocrant’s death was a homicide; the FBI is investigating the Ocrant case, and Ocrant’s children have filed a federal civil rights suit against the city, Gates and their stepmother, Sueann Ocrant alleging they conspired to cover up a homicide.

“The investigation by Gates was a joke,” said special prosecutor Dave Heckenbach, Denver’s chief deputy district attorney, who noted that Gates kept the coroner away from the crime scene for 40 minutes and that no autopsy was performed. Gates even ordered a city mechanic to melt down the .32-caliber pistol with a blow torch.

Heckenbach said he could not charge anyone with a crime because “critical evidence had been destroyed.” Gates denied that there was any cover-up, but invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refused to testify before a grand jury.

Sueann Ocrant was elected to the City Council soon after and supported Gates in his troubles with the council.

Eventually, half of the police force demanded at a raucous City Council meeting in July, 1989, that Gates be fired. To cool tempers, Gates took a leave of absence. Meanwhile, a consulting firm found flaws in the management and procedures of the police department. Since then, Gates has resigned.

In a modest apartment in a run-down area of Denver, Gates, refused to talk about the controversies of the two cities. His wife, instead usually answers the door. A pet collie named Cookie guards his privacy.

“We watch the news about the other Gates sometimes,” Barbara Gates said, agreeing that it is odd to see anti-Gates sentiment that refers to someone else. She said her husband “doesn’t want to talk about that Gates . . . and doesn’t believe in trying his own case in the press.”

In Greenwood Village, a police officer said, “Our (Gates) was a boob, but your Gates in Los Angeles is getting a bum rap. . . . He is where it is at as far as top-notch professionals go.”

He noted that the Greenwood Village Police Department is trying to upgrade its image by implementing new community programs, including DARE, a nationwide school drug prevention project created by Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates.