2 LAPD Officers Suspended for Falsifying Evidence : Police: Williams says department ‘will not tolerate this type of action.’ Prosecutors had to drop murder charges.

Two 18-year veterans of the embattled Los Angeles Police Department were suspended Friday for falsifying evidence in a murder case, forcing prosecutors to drop charges against two men and jeopardizing as many as 100 other cases the officers investigated, officials said.

Both officers--one listed in the landmark Christopher Commission report as a “problem officer”--were relieved Friday morning of their guns and badges, Police Chief Willie L. Williams said in announcing that separate investigations had been launched by the department and the district attorney’s office.

The suspensions come just days after release of the taped comments of former LAPD Detective Mark Fuhrman, who boasted of fabricating evidence, beating suspects and singling out minorities for mistreatment. The unusual public announcement was part of a department effort to restore public confidence and show its commitment to rooting out bad officers.

Fuhrman’s comments--featuring 18 passages in which he describes police brutality and fabricating evidence--stunned much of Los Angeles and the nation.

Detective Andrew A. Teague, who was on the Christopher Commission’s list of 44 “problem officers,” confessed to district attorney’s investigators that he had forged signatures on reports identifying suspects in the murder case and lied about it in court, Williams said.

Detective Charles Markel upheld the notorious “code of silence” by saying nothing about the falsified reports, Williams said.

The revelations forced the district attorney’s office to drop the murder charges against the two suspects, Girard Moody and Kevin Adams. Adams was set free, while Moody remains in custody on separate charges, officials said.

“It’s embarrassing. It’s a shame, and it’s unfortunate,” Williams said.

The chief stressed that the detectives had no connection to Fuhrman. But he acknowledged that his unusual public announcement of the discipline against Teague and Markel was prompted, in part, by the publicity over Fuhrman.

“We will not tolerate this type of action from any employee, new or veteran, inside the Los Angeles Police Department,” Williams said. “We have to continue to send a message out that these exceptions to the rule . . . do not reflect the work of detectives and police officers and the majority of the men and women in this department.”

According to officials, Teague--then in training to be a detective--and Markel investigated a Nov. 29 homicide on the Eastside in which one victim was killed and another seriously injured. Details of the crime were not available late Friday.

Moody was arrested shortly afterward, and he identified others in his vehicle the night of the attack, officials said. Charges were filed Jan. 18.

On May 2, Teague testified at a preliminary hearing.

In court, Teague described his interrogation technique, saying he confronted the suspects with a paper bearing signatures of witnesses, claiming they had implicated the suspects.

According to a source familiar with the case, Teague testified that the signatures on the paper were real. In fact, the source said, they were not.

On June 5, a representative of the defense team in the case asked the detectives to produce the paper with the original signatures, Williams said. That prompted Teague’s confession to the district attorney that he had, in fact, manufactured the evidence, the chief said.

“He was asked to produce a report that we know now did not exist,” Williams said.

Prosecutors inquired further and dismissed the case, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office. After being notified Aug. 25 of the problem, Williams said, the Police Department started its own investigation, resulting in the officers’ suspension. The pair were told Friday to stay home indefinitely, Williams said.

The district attorney’s office must also now review more than 100 cases in which Teague and Markel offered similar testimony, Williams said.

“There is still a question of whether or not these two men are guilty of this crime,” Williams said of Moody and Adams. “We have someone who was killed, and someone who was injured. I have grave concerns, because the community of citizens who live in Los Angeles expect us to serve and protect.”

Teague ranked No. 41 on the list of “problem officers” described by the Christopher Commission in its landmark 1991 review of LAPD operations after the beating of Rodney G. King. Using confidential personnel reports, the commission listed officers who had six or more complaints of excessive force or improper tactics between 1986 and 1990 and concluded that the department “did not do enough to control or discipline these officers.”

LAPD officials have said that the commission provided the department with a copy of the list, ranking the officers according to the severity of their problems. The commission report, however, did not fully explain the criteria.

Like officers in the King case, Teague was caught on videotape as he pushed a man off a porch and beat him with a baton. As with the King beating, the tape has been aired frequently on television. Charges of unauthorized tactics were sustained, Williams said.

Williams said Friday that Teague, 41, had racked up 18 citizen complaints--two since the 1991 Christopher Commission report--but has nonetheless been promoted to detective since then. Recently, Teague had been assigned to the Van Nuys Division; Markel was still based in the Hollenbeck Division.

Of the 44 officers listed in the Christopher Commission report, 33 are still on the force. Of those 33, 19 are assigned to patrol divisions, according to LAPD records.

City Councilman Nate Holden, who attended Williams’ new conference, said he will ask his colleagues to launch a investigation into the conduct of the remaining “problem officers.”

“We’re not going to leave a stone unturned,” Holden said. “We’ll find out every single officer involved in fixing evidence and lying under oath. The chief is going to make sure that those bad officers are brought to justice.”