Gates Will Head Misconduct Probe : LAPD: He is ordered by the Police Commission to investigate allegations against three of his possible successors. Critics decry such a role for the chief.

The president of the Los Angeles Police Commission said Wednesday that he has ordered Chief Daryl F. Gates to investigate misconduct allegations against three of his possible successors, preferably within two weeks so the commission can push “full steam ahead” in appointing a new chief next month.

However, the arrangement was decried by several city and community leaders, who complained that it gives Gates an inappropriately central role in the chief-selection process that he has repeatedly attacked.

Instead, the critics suggested that a special, nonpartisan investigator or the state attorney general’s office be called in to review the backgrounds of Assistant Chief David D. Dotson, and Deputy Chiefs Bernard C. Parks and Matthew V. Hunt.

The allegations surfaced Tuesday when the chairman of a Latino community group appeared before the Police Commission and alleged that three of the six finalists for police chief had been involved in potentially serious violations of department policy.

Although the organization did not identify the three candidates, sources said the information that the group provided involved Dotson, Parks and Hunt. Parks and Hunt told The Times on Wednesday that they are innocent of any wrongdoing; Dotson has previously denied any impropriety.

Ramona Ripston, executive director of the ACLU, said Gates should not conduct the probe of the group’s allegations. “I think a special counsel should be appointed by the Police Commission,” she said. “Chief Gates has demonstrated a reckless disregard for the truth and a desire to disrupt the process. He is biased about the entire selection process. So he should show a little grace and ask the commission to set up a special investigator.”

Ripston was supported by one of the five police commissioners, who privately questioned the wisdom of having Gates so involved in the selection process.

“I’m always worried about everything that he does,” said the commissioner, who asked not to be named. “I worry that I’m being misled every time he opens his mouth.”

Gates could not be reached for comment, but Lt. John Dunkin, a department spokesman, said the chief will having nothing to say until after the probes are completed.

Police Commission President Stanley K. Sheinbaum, in an interview Wednesday, said that because his panel lacks the investigative staff to conduct the inquiries he had no choice but to turn to Gates and the department’s Internal Affairs Division to review the allegations.

He said he wants Gates to report back to the commission in two weeks, and that he plans to make the chief’s findings public in order to then continue the selection process and choose a new chief in April.

“We’re going full steam ahead on this,” Sheinbaum said, vowing not to let the new allegations delay the selection process. “I am bothered by these allegations. Whether they’re valid or not, I don’t know. But they have thrown us a little off balance. And it’s just really a little too early to tell if we have any serious problems here.”

Although he has sharply criticized Gates’ management style in the past, Jesse A. Brewer, the Police Commission’s vice president, said Wednesday that he is confident that Gates would not do “anything where he would attempt to slant the results of an investigation of this importance.”

“It is now incumbent that we investigate thoroughly . . . to make sure all of those things are complete and thoroughly checked out before we proceed,” Brewer said. “It’s made the process certainly a lot more difficult for us. We keep running into detours.

“But believe me, we are all on line to proceed as expeditiously as possible.”

The Police Commission ordered Gates to investigate whether one candidate--identified by sources as Parks--improperly intervened to help secure the release of his daughter’s boyfriend after the boyfriend was arrested last December on two counts of attempted murder.

Another facet of the probe will center on whether another contender--whom sources identified as Hunt--discouraged investigators from releasing a man arrested on rape charges, despite concerns by detectives that the man was innocent,a fact later borne out by DNA tests.

In the case of Dotson, the review will explore whether he became romantically involved with a female police subordinate in violation of department rules.

Dotson, who has acknowledged that Internal Affairs investigators have been reviewing his case since July, said Wednesday that he too thought an outside reviewer--rather than Gates--should conduct the commission-ordered probes.

“I suppose you could bring somebody from outside in to do it,” Dotson said. “And I would think the Police Commission would get active in doing something for a change. It just seems to me that that’s a very passive way to see things get done, to just pass it to the chief and have him investigate.”

In another development Wednesday, Detectives Gil Freese and Jeff Pailet supported Hunt’s denial of involvement in the rape case decision. While there was a discussion among detectives at the Southwest station over discrepancies in descriptions of the suspect, they said the arrest was proper and they knew of no one raising the issue with Hunt.

“I don’t think he even knew about the case at all,” said Pailet. Two of their supervisors agreed. Lt. Alan Kerstein called the allegations “absolutely preposterous.”

In the Parks case, officials at the Police Protective League said they were upset that police internal investigators also were investigating who leaked confidential police reports on the matter to The Times.

Meanwhile Wednesday, the Los Angeles County district attorney asked the LAPD to further investigate the case involving the boyfriend of Park’s daughter.