Detective Accused of Asking for Bribe : Police: LAPD veteran allegedly solicited $3,000 in exchange for preventing prosecution of domestic violence case.

A 10-year-veteran Los Angeles police detective has been arrested for allegedly offering to prevent prosecution of a domestic violence case in exchange for a $3,000 bribe, authorities said Wednesday.

The arrest Tuesday of Detective William Jang of the Southwest Division was another embarrassment for the beleaguered Los Angeles Police Department, which three times in the past month has confronted allegations that current or former detectives falsified evidence.

In recent weeks, another officer was arrested on lewd conduct charges that he engaged in sexual activities in a parking lot and then led Buena Park police officers on a high-speed chase.

Jang, formerly assigned to the department’s Asian Crime Investigation Section, is accused of soliciting a bribe last Friday after visiting a local Korean businessman who had been jailed for investigation of spousal battery at the department’s Wilshire station.

The veteran detective allegedly told the man not to worry about the arrest and that he “would remedy the situation,” according to a statement by the department.

Later the same day, police said, the businessman was released and Jang met him outside the station. The detective, “who had no professional responsibility or interest” in the spousal battery case, told the man that for $3,000, he would ensure that the matter would not be prosecuted, the report said.

Investigators did not say whether the detective was paid the money or how authorities found out about the alleged offer. The department’s Internal Affairs Division is investigating the case.

Jang was booked for investigation of bribery at the Parker Center jail and is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail.

On Sept. 1, Police Chief Willie L. Williams announced that two 18-year veterans of the department, Detectives Andrew A. Teague and Charles Markel, had been suspended for falsifying evidence in a homicide case, forcing prosecutors to drop murder charges against two men and jeopardizing hundreds of other cases the two detectives had investigated. Police acknowledge that dozens of other officers with complaints against them have been placed on a watch list.

A county grand jury has begun an investigation into evidence that a 25-year department veteran forged the name of a judge on a warrant. Detective Raymond L. Doyle of the Hollenbeck Division on the Eastside allegedly committed the forgery two years ago.

Doyle had probable cause to obtain a warrant but the name of a Los Angeles Municipal Court judge apparently was forged, sources said. Confronted with the allegation, Doyle retired rather than face a department investigation or job-related discipline.

And in taped comments, former Detective Mark Fuhrman boasted of fabricating evidence, beating suspects and singling out minorities for mistreatment. Fuhrman’s comments included 18 passages in which he described police brutality and fabrication of evidence.

In Santa Ana, Los Angeles Officer David Robert Bergstrom, 36, of Orange pleaded not guilty to charges of lewd conduct, evading arrest, drunk driving and trying to bribe a witness in connection with an incident that began in the parking lot of an adult theater. Bergstrom, a 14-year officer assigned to the Rampart Division, was allegedly having sex with a 19-year-old stripper in his pickup truck when he was approached by officers about 1:30 a.m. on July 22. Upon seeing the officers, Bergstrom reportedly started his truck and sped from the parking lot, leading the pursuing officers on an erratic freeway chase.