King Aftermath Rekindles Police Spying Controversy : Politics: No proof of secret dossiers exists, but some say fear alone is enough for public figures to back Gates.

Just as Rodney G. King’s beating reopened complaints of police racism and brutality in Los Angeles, suspicions that the Police Department secretly gathers damaging intelligence on public officials have been rekindled in the ensuing political firestorm.

In the months after the March 3 videotaped assault on King, critics of Police Chief Daryl F. Gates--including some elected officials, lawyers and community activists--have stated publicly that his department uses embarrassing personal information on political figures, particularly members of the City Council, to ensure support.

These critics contend that council members have protected Gates during the King crisis out of fear that police could disclose damaging information about their private lives. Generally a liberal group, the council has vigorously supported the conservative chief, rushing to reverse a Police Commission decision to place Gates on leave.

“What does (Gates) know about various members of the City Council?” state Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) asked in an interview. “Why are they afraid to take him on?. . . . I do think there are members who are afraid that there might be something that he can pull out and make public.”

Calling such allegations “outrageous,” Gates has denied that he maintains secret dossiers on political figures--and council members insist that there have been no attempts to coerce them.

Warren Christopher, chairman of the independent commission probing a range of issues related to the King case, said his panel and staff are aware of the accusations and have not dismissed them.

“All I can say is we will certainly, as we go through our examination of the department, keep in mind that (alleged police files on public officials) might be a factor in preventing oversight” of the Police Department, Christopher said. “It is not central, (but) we will really follow it if we see some signs that it appears to be a factor in this.”

Gates declined to be interviewed about the controversy or events--recent and historical--that critics say have given rise to their suspicions.

Although the chief’s critics have not produced any evidence linking the Police Department to spying activities or political blackmail, the issue has surfaced before the Christopher Commission and at a city Police Commission meeting.

Widespread Belief

Attorney Geoffrey Taylor Gibbs, a board member of the John M. Langston Bar Assn., a black lawyers group, testified before the Christopher Commission on May 1 that “the belief is widespread in this city that Chief Gates, much like J. Edgar Hoover, maintains files of personal and political information on every major political figure in Los Angeles, and that his willingness to use such information is the reason so many of this city’s leading political figures seem terrified of Chief Gates.”

On May 23, Compton school board member Mary Henry told Los Angeles City Council members “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.”

Hours later, prompted by Henry’s allegations, Commissioner Stanley Sheinbaum asked Gates at a Police Commission meeting if the department maintains files on public officials in the areas of terrorism, politics and “drugs, sex or whatever.” The chief said that he, too, had heard such rumors but told Sheinbaum that the department does not keep files on public officials.

Neither Gibbs nor Henry substantiated their statements.

Gates has stoked speculation about the LAPD intelligence arsenal by hinting that he could respond strongly if pushed too far by politicians seeking an end to his 13-year stewardship of the department.

In early April, Gates responded to Bradley’s public call for his resignation by raising the issue of the recent investigations of the mayor’s personal finances and official actions. That same day, he followed up in a television interview by suggesting that he has more information to disclose.

“If I laid it on the line . . . and it may come down to just exactly that, and when I do, watch out,” Gates said.

When Gates was asked recently during a radio interview about speculation that he kept secret files much like former FBI Director Hoover reportedly did, the chief denied the allegations. He added that his understanding was that Hoover did not keep files.

“What (Hoover) really did was know people very, very well,” Gates said, and some of Gates’ critics say the chief’s influence over politicians stems from similar knowledge.

In fact, said one former police commissioner, whether the Police Department under Gates keeps files is irrelevant: A fear that the chief knows some dark secret from their past would be enough to stymie politicians.

“It is very, very unlikely that the chief has files on council members,” said the former commissioner, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “At the same time, he doesn’t need them. Anything that goes on about those council members, he knows.”

In denying that they are driven by fear to support Gates, council members suggest that some people simply cannot accept the fact that the council sincerely believed that Gates was treated unfairly when the Police Commission attempted to place him on leave.

Several council members have challenged critics to back up their allegations of dossier-keeping. Thus far, proponents of the dossier theory have not publicly singled out any council member who they believe has been politically intimidated by police.

“There is a history of this in the city and I guess that is where the perception comes from,” said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky. “(But) I think anybody who makes the allegation ought to be specific, and not just be rhetorical.”

Michael Woo, the only council member who has demanded that Gates resign, said some of his colleagues are unwilling to publicly take on the chief. “Some council members feel that (criticizing Gates) can come back to haunt you (and) that there may be a political price to be paid,” Woo said in an interview.

Apart from any fear of files, there are pragmatic reasons for not crossing the police chief in a city where opinion polls consistently show crime as the top civic issue. Despite the King controversy, endorsements from Gates and police groups remain a potent factor in many sections of the city. Earlier this month, Gates’ strong backing helped San Fernando Valley Councilman Hal Bernson overcome a formidable challenge.

There is a historical basis for suspicions about police spying, reaching back to the department’s infamous Red Squad, which harassed unionists and suspected communist sympathizers in the 1930s. As recent as seven years ago, the department was rocked by disclosures of spying on liberal community groups, activists and city officials by a shadowy unit known as the Public Disorder and Intelligence Division (PDID).

Records and interviews indicate that in the early 1980s police maintained file information on Mayor Tom Bradley, at least two City Council members, police commissioners and the president of the city Planning Commission.

Back then, PDID’s mission was to gather information on potentially violent groups that flourished in the 1960s and ‘70s, such as the Black Panther Party. But news media investigations and lawsuits filed by civil liberties groups revealed that police also had infiltrated liberal community groups and reported back to police brass.

Information on the past political associations of council members, their meetings with organizations critical of police, and even a private City Hall meeting between Bradley and representatives of the United Farm Workers union were placed in the files or passed along to police administrators, according to published reports in the mid-1980s.

PDID Files

Attorney Dan Garcia said recently that police Internal Affairs officers confronted him in 1983 or 1984 with a file maintained on him. Then president of the city Planning Commission, Garcia had just been hired by the City Council to investigate some of the PDID’s spying activities. He said that police, by showing him his own file, were attempting to force him out of the investigation.

“They literally threw it at me and said, ‘You better look at that,’ ” Garcia said. He said the file contained an identification photo and a one-page typed report on his employment background, membership in the Mexican American Bar Assn., and earlier activities with a UCLA Chicano law student group.

Yaroslavsky and former Councilman David Cunningham said in recent interviews that the PDID had collected information on them, although both insist the material was harmless and no attempt was made by police to coerce support.

“To me, the specifics didn’t matter,” said Cunningham, who added that he believes “the very thought of (police) carrying files may give a psychological edge” to the department in dealing with some politicians.

Gates’ spokesman, Cmdr. Robert Gil, said the department would not discuss any intelligence files that may have been kept on individuals.

The full extent of the files kept on political figures and the type of information gathered by department intelligence officers was never fully revealed because a settlement of a lawsuit kept the information secret.

File-building and spying on political figures was banned in 1984 by the Police Commission in the aftermath of the spying scandal. The PDID unit was overhauled and replaced by the Anti-Terrorist Division. At the time, strict guidelines for intelligence gathering and annual audits of the unit’s activities and files were adopted by the commission.

Nonetheless, suspicions remain among police critics, who note that Gates last year appointed his brother, Capt. Stephen C. Gates, to head the Anti-Terrorist Division, which operates behind locked, coded-entry doors on the seventh floor of police headquarters. Asked for comment on his appointment, Stephen Gates referred the call to police spokesman Gil, who said there is nothing wrong with the chief placing his brother in the sensitive post. He also noted that allegations of secret files predated Stephen Gates’ appointment.

In addition, Police Commission staff concede that audits of the division’s files have not occurred each year as called for in guidelines adopted after the PDID scandal. The reason, staff members said, is the turnover on the Bradley-appointed panel. The last audit covered files held in 1988. A new audit, covering 1988 to the present, is under way but is not expected to be completed for months. American Civil Liberties Union officials said last week that they are considering court action to compel the commission to conduct the audits.

A Police Commission staff member, who asked not to be named, said no evidence has been found that the Anti-Terrorist Division is maintaining files on council members.

Several present and former LAPD investigators and managers noted that other intelligence gathering divisions--including Organized Crime Intelligence, Administrative Vice and Administrative Narcotics--also collect sensitive information, but are not audited by the Police Commission.

Assistant City Atty. Byron Boeckman, who advises the commission, said there has never been an indication that the other intelligence units have been involved in the type of political spying found in the old PDID unit.

For years, the key intelligence units have given the chief secret, weekly briefings on their activities. The chief’s spokesman confirmed that the briefings still take place, but said Gates and the department would not discuss them.

The anti-terrorist unit reports to Robert L. Vernon, the assistant chief who was the subject of a three-week defamation and civil rights lawsuit filed by a Pasadena political activist--a case that raised more questions about the department’s intelligence gathering operations.

In making a $3.8-million award, a jury last month found that Vernon passed along documents obtained from a computer in the department’s anti-terrorist division to disrupt activist Michael Zinzun’s 1989 campaign for Pasadena’s city council. Vernon contends that all he released were newspaper clippings. The jury also ordered Vernon to personally pay Zinzun $10,000 in punitive damages.

Most of the nine jury members interviewed by The Times said the verdict reflected their belief that Gates, Vernon and top officers in the department never revealed the true extent of Vernon’s actions in regard to Zinzun’s candidacy.

In testimony, Vernon said the department had gathered “confidential” information on Zinzun, a former Black Panther. But--citing legal privileges--he refused to answer any further questions, said Dan Stormer, Zinzun’s attorney. Vernon, on the advice of the city attorney, declined comment on the case, which is likely to be appealed.

The confidential data kept on Zinzun “raises a lot of suspicions,” said Paul Hoffman, an ACLU attorney who helped negotiate the settlement of the PDID scandal. But, without knowing anything more about the information, it is difficult to determine whether the intelligence-gathering activities violated the PDID settlement agreement, Hoffman said.

City Councilman Robert Farrell said the Zinzun verdict raises serious questions about possible police intelligence-gathering activities on other politicians.

“I believe all the concerns about (police) going into someone else’s file would have been of the past had it not been for Bob Vernon’s behavior,” Farrell said. “The fact that an assistant chief had a lapse in judgment or actually felt he could go into files, that is something that bothers you.”

LAPD Political Spying?

The Rodney G. King beating has rekindled allegations that the Los Angeles Police Department collects and uses damaging information about local political figures to ensure support. Police officials have denied the allegations.

* Police Commissioner Stanley Sheinbaum questioned the police chief during a public meeting about persistent rumors that police keep files on public figures in the areas of terrorism, politics and “drugs, sex or whatever.”

* Police Chief Daryl F. Gates has flatly denied that his department maintains secret dossiers on public figures, saying that such allegations are “outrageous.”

* Assistant Police Chief Robert L. Vernon two years ago passed along information on a Pasadena City Council candidate obtained from a computer used by a police intelligence unit. A $3.8-million jury award last month against the city fueled concerns that police keep tabs on political figures.

* Attorney Geoffrey Taylor Gibbs, president of the John M. Langston Bar Assn., testified before the Christopher Commission about widespread suspicions in Los Angeles that Gates--much like former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover--maintains and uses files on political figures.

* Warren Christopher, chairman of the commission probing the Los Angeles Police Department, said his panel is aware of the allegations and will pursue any substantive leads in the matter.