Rumors of Police Blackmail Surface : King case: Chief Gates flatly denies allegations that secret files have been kept on council members to coerce them into supporting him.

A new issue erupted in the Rodney G. King controversy Tuesday when long-simmering rumors surfaced at two public meetings that Los Angeles police have blackmailed City Council members with damaging personal information to coerce them into supporting the chief.

Police Chief Daryl F. Gates flatly denied the allegations, saying: “We have no secret files--none whatsoever.”

Police Commissioner Stanley Sheinbaum raised the issue of secret files during a commission meeting when he directly confronted Gates about persistent rumors that the department kept files on public officials in the areas of terrorism, politics and “drugs, sex or whatever.”

“I think it would be helpful if you could clarify or describe for us what is done by the department . . . to let us know if there is any validity to these claims,” said Sheinbaum, a civil libertarian.

Gates acknowledged that he too had heard such rumors, but assured the commissioner that the department only keeps criminal files on civilians and personnel files on employees.

“And no public figures?” Sheinbaum asked.

“No public figures,” the chief replied.

“I cannot get it more clearly,” Sheinbaum said. “Thank you.”

After the meeting, Sheinbaum said he raised the issue because “the question has been coming up and up increasingly . . . and I just thought it best to get it out on the table.”

The issue of secret dossiers surfaced Tuesday morning when Mary Henry, a Compton school board member, alleged during a City Council meeting that the Police Department has used allegations of drug use by some council members to intimidate them.

“Chief Gates evidently has something on some of you,” Henry, the leader of an anti-Gates group called Mothers in Action, told the council members.

Henry said her group is aware of rumors “that you have city councilmen involved in drugs and the police know about it and choose to keep the lid on those people by threatening them.”

She went on to allege that members of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents rank-and-file officers, have been visiting City Council members at their homes, implying that they were attempting to intimidate the lawmakers. Union officials could not be reached for comment, but several City Council members denied that they had been contacted by police officers.

Afterward, Henry refused to elaborate or offer substantiation on her allegations.

Gates said Henry’s claim that information on drug use by council members was being used to extort their political support was “even wilder” than allegations that police officers were visiting council members at their homes. “I don’t know where she’s getting any of that information,” Gates said.

Nevertheless, Gates described Henry as a “wonderful, gracious woman” who he feared was being taken advantage of by the department’s critics.

“I think people are giving her information and using her in that respect,” he said.

Rumors of dossiers on elected officials have been fanned recently by the City Council’s strong backing of Gates in the wake of the March 3 videotaped police beating of King, a black Altadena motorist.

The incident and its racial overtones have touched off a national debate on police brutality and led to demands for Gates’ removal. The Police Commission placed Gates on leave in early April, pending the outcome of an investigation, but the action was quickly reversed by an unusual legal maneuver by the City Council.

Suspicions that council members have been secretly coerced into backing the chief have their roots in a celebrated Police Department spying scandal several years ago. Investigations found the department’s now-defunct Public Disorder Intelligence Division had gathered information and maintained files on public officials and community groups who were critical of the department in apparent violation of department policies.

Much of the information publicly revealed at that time dealt with surveillance of community activists and elected officials who were attending meetings of liberal activist groups.

Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky revealed that a file was maintained on him, although he said recently it was not personal or damaging information.

The intelligence unit, which regularly briefed the chief on its activities, also had monitored meetings involving Mayor Tom Bradley, officers said.

The full extent of the files, or what was in them, has never been revealed. A lawsuit settlement by community groups kept the files secret, and the Police Commission instituted strict new controls and auditing procedures on the intelligence files that the department could maintain.

Several City Council members said Tuesday that they were disturbed by the allegations made by Henry and offended by their vagueness.

“That’s ridiculous,” said Councilman Hal Bernson, who recently received the endorsement of Gates in his bid for reelection. “And it’s irresponsible. . . . I challenge them to substantiate the charge.”

Councilman Joel Wachs, a strong supporter of the Police Department, noted that similar allegations have been raised before. “To constantly accuse people just because they don’t agree . . . is really offensive,” Wachs said.

Councilman Nate Holden said he doubted that any council members have been intimidated by the Police Protective League or the department. “I don’t know of anyone I’d put in that class,” said Holden, another of the council’s strong Police Department supporters.

“If they (Henry and her associates) have information . . . they should make it known” so that the allegations can be investigated and put to rest, Holden said. “I don’t have any reason to believe that this is true,” he said. “No one is going to intimidate the council.”

Councilman Richard Alatorre, chairman of the council’s Public Safety Committee that oversees police activities, said simply, “They (the police) never talked to me.”

And Councilman Michael Woo, the only member to demand Gates’ resignation in the aftermath of the King beating, said, “I didn’t know what she was referring to.” He said he knew of no council members being intimidated by police files and visits by officers to their home.

In another development, representatives of a broad spectrum of social action groups joined school board members in front of the Los Angeles Police Department’s downtown Parker Center headquarters Tuesday morning to urge the recall of Gates.

“Gates has chosen to act and perform as a politician,” Los Angeles school board member Mark Slavkin told reporters during a sidewalk news conference. “We have a right to vote to remove the chief.”

Gates has thus far withstood efforts to remove him from office through the bureaucratic process, but under the City Charter the chief of police can be removed by recall, even though he does not hold an elective office.

Gates said “it might be a good thing” if the recall makes the ballot. “We’d get a sense of how the people really feel about me,” he said. “I get more comfortable every day because of the tremendous support that I’m getting throughout all of Los Angeles.”

Unsuccessful council candidate Kerman Maddox, a leader of the recall effort, said organizers have until Aug. 9 to gather the signatures of 63,000 voters to qualify the recall measure for the ballot.

More than a dozen speakers joined Maddox at Tuesday’s news conference, including Tammy Bruce, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Organization for Women; Roger Coggan of the Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center; Steve Bradford of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People; Joe Hicks of the American Civil Liberties Union, and Jim De Maegt of the Southern California chapter of Americans for Democratic Action.

Rather than focusing on the King beating, Tuesday’s speakers concentrated on the department and its leadership.

“This department is not trusted by women,” Bruce said. “Gates is sexist . . . he is homophobic.”

She said that under Gates’ leadership, police officers cannot perform their assigned function properly “because you cannot protect the people you hate.”

“There is a cancer spreading without control through the Los Angeles Police Department,” Coggan said. “It’s the cancer of racism, sexism and homophobia.”

‘We support the recall measure,” said Hicks. “Daryl Gates’ tenure must end,” Bradford said.

“This recall is important to all elements of society,” De Maegt said. “Gates is not elected. He is effectively appointed for life.”

Arthur Song Jr., one of the organizers of the recall movement, said the need to remove Gates from office has united Los Angeles’ diverse Asian-American community “like no other issue.”

Times staff writers Glenn F. Bunting, Eric Malnic, Frederick M. Muir and Louis Sahagun contributed to this story.