Allred, Ex-Envoy to Run Block’s Advisory Panel : Law enforcement: Citizens committee names the civil rights lawyer and Julian Nava, former ambassador to Mexico, as its leaders. They vow not to be a rubber stamp for the Sheriff’s Department.

Civil rights attorney Gloria Allred and former U. S. ambassador to Mexico Julian Nava were selected Monday to head a citizens committee that will recommend reforms in the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The pair were elected co-chairs by others on the 21-member panel, which was appointed by Sheriff Sherman Block two weeks ago in the wake of the Christopher Commission study of brutality in the Los Angeles Police Department and four controversial shootings of suspects by deputies.

While some community groups have called for an independent commission to investigate the Sheriff’s Department, Allred and Nava vowed that their panel would conduct the “widest possible” examination and not be a “rubber stamp” of the sheriff.

“I would think independently no matter who appointed me. I’m still Gloria Allred,” said Allred, who has sued the Sheriff’s Department and other law enforcement agencies over issues such as strip searches and discrimination against gays.

Block said he asked the Citizens Special Advisory Committee to begin its work by helping implement Christopher Commission recommendations that are warranted for his own 8,000-member department. “They will serve in seeing that these recommendations are, in fact, carried out and are not just something printed on a piece of paper,” the sheriff said.

Although the committee is not an “investigative body” and does not have subpoena power, Block said, it will consider policy issues raised by the four fatal shootings by deputies between Aug. 3 and Labor Day. The shootings are under investigation by a county grand jury.

Among those issues could be firearms training and how deputy-involved shootings are investigated internally, Block said.

After Block announced formation of the panel on Sept. 10, Supervisor Gloria Molina and other critics accused him of trying to head off a more sweeping review. When the Los Angeles Police Department came under scrutiny after the March 3 beating of Rodney G. King, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates similarly named his own review commission--headed by retired state Supreme Court Justice John A. Arguelles and retired USC President James H. Zumberge--only to see it quickly merged into the Christopher Commission, appointed by Mayor Tom Bradley.

The group appointed by Block includes a few community activists, but most members are academic leaders or former government and law enforcement officials. Among them are former Los Angeles School Supt. William J. Johnston and recently retired Lawrence Lawler, who headed the FBI’s local office.

Nava and Allred voiced support for Gates after the Police Commission placed him on temporary leave during the height of the King controversy.

Allred was a surprise speaker at a March 24 rally staged by Gates’ backers, declaring “I care about the rights of King and, yes, I care about the civil rights of Police Chief Daryl Gates.” The next month, Nava, a professor at Cal State Northridge, helped lead a brief campaign to recall Bradley, who was pressing for Gates’ removal.

Nava and Allred insisted Monday that their roles in the Gates controversy would not compromise their review of the Sheriff’s Department.

“To the contrary,” Nava told a press conference in downtown Los Angeles, “it shows that the co-chairs have been involved in all kinds of civic activities.”

Nava appealed to the critics to judge the advisory committee by its actions. “There are many points of view,” he said. “The proof will be in the pudding. It’s a very independent group. No one intends to be a rubber stamp.”

Allred said the panel would “earn the confidence of the community.”

“I was never a supporter of Chief Gates . . . nor was I an opponent,” she said. She appeared at the rally for Gates only “out in support of his and every other person’s right of due process,” she said.

Of the 21 members of the committee, 14 attended its initial meeting Monday. Block and other Sheriff’s Department officials were were asked to leave the room for the vote on who would head the committee, Nava said.

Nava said the panel “will be giving quarterly reports to the sheriff, so some things that have unanimous support . . . can move forward as quickly as possible.”

Committee members have been asked to review the Christopher Commission report and a 70-page analysis prepared by Block and his top staff. That study said many of the recommendations were already in force in the Sheriff’s Department, but that others should be implemented, including steps to discipline deputies who fail to report instances of excessive force that they have witnessed by colleagues.

“The committee felt there was no need, literally, to reinvent the wheel . . . ,” Nava said. “The Christopher Commission findings represent the work of many scores of lawyers and other staff. . . . What we have here is an excellent beginning regarding analysis . . . of a law enforcement agency in a large metropolitan area.”

As the committee was holding its first meeting, the department was undergoing scrutiny in two other areas of the city.

A three-member team from Amnesty International began investigating alleged brutality by the Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles Police Department. And in U. S. District Court, Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr., responding to a civil rights lawsuit alleging a pattern of wrongdoing by deputies in the Lynwood station, ordered all Sheriff Department employees to comply with agency policies or face contempt-of-court proceedings.

ANOTHER PROBE BEGINS: Amnesty International begins probe of brutality by deputies and police. B3