Federal Probe of L.A. Police Moving Forward : Civil rights: U.S. official begins meetings with local leaders. Subpoena is reportedly issued for LAPD records on Fuhrman, indicating a grand jury is involved.

The head of the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division began meeting privately with local leaders Monday, while a federal grand jury has begun issuing subpoenas in the investigation of possible civil rights violations involving the Los Angeles Police Department.

Assistant Atty. Gen. Deval L. Patrick agreed to travel to Los Angeles to consult with city leaders after plans to meet with Police Chief Willie L. Williams in Washington were abruptly canceled last month. The sessions--including a planned meeting this morning with the Los Angeles Police Commission--began Monday as sources revealed that federal agents recently demanded documents from the LAPD concerning former Detective Mark Fuhrman.

According to sources familiar with the case, FBI agents and Los Angeles representatives of the U.S. attorney’s office served their first subpoena on the Police Department late last month, seeking records related to Fuhrman’s work history. That marked the first outward sign of activity by federal authorities conducting the civil rights probe, which formally opened Oct. 23.

The existence of the subpoena also indicates that a federal grand jury has been involved in the investigation, since it is a grand jury to which such information would be returned. Assistant U.S. Atty. Michael J. Gennaco, a federal prosecutor assigned to the Fuhrman case, would not comment on the subpoena or other issues related to the case.

Hank Hernandez, general counsel to the city’s police union, said he was not surprised that the federal government has begun serving subpoenas.

“We have been anticipating that that would occur ever since the not guilty verdicts in the O.J. Simpson case,” said Hernandez, whose column in this month’s issue of the union newspaper warns officers that they may soon be approached by the FBI and advises them on how to react.

According to police sources, the grand jury subpoena sought personnel records of the recently retired Fuhrman, whose work history has come under scrutiny from local and federal officials attempting to determine whether the detective violated the rights of suspects and others with whom he had contact during his 20-year police career. In tape-recorded interviews with an aspiring screenwriter, Fuhrman boasted of beating suspects.

If true, that could constitute violations of federal civil rights laws, which bar the intentional use of excessive force by police officers.

Nevertheless, many people close to the case have quietly voiced skepticism that the federal government will be able to bring civil rights charges against the former detective. The most widely publicized admissions on the tapes involve incidents that--even if accurately described--are more than a decade old. The federal statute of limitations for civil rights violations is five years.

The FBI’s investigation, however, does not appear to be limited to the tapes and incidents described on them. Rather, sources said, agents have indicated that they are scouring Fuhrman’s entire work history, not merely the allegations on the tapes.

If they find evidence of misconduct in recent years, it could open the door for a federal prosecution of Fuhrman, who now lives in Idaho.

The federal government’s interest in the issues surrounding Fuhrman has created a quandary for city and Police Department officials. Many welcome the Justice Department’s interest in the former officer, but bridle at the idea that federal officials might extend their probe beyond Fuhrman and investigate the notion that LAPD exhibits a “pattern or practice” of racism or excessive force.

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If the Justice Department did attempt to charge the LAPD with a pattern of racism or excessive force, the government could seek injunctions and even ask a judge to let federal authorities take over some part of the Police Department’s operations. That course is fraught with political and practical perils, however, and many civil rights veterans consider it unlikely that the Justice Department would take such severe action, especially at a time when local officials are pledging to pursue their own reforms of the LAPD.

Seeking to discern the extent of the federal government’s interest in the LAPD, Williams had asked to meet with Justice Department officials last month. That meeting was set up but then canceled at the last minute because members of the Police Commission were concerned about the chief attending such a session alone.

“We wanted to move cautiously, and the parameters of the chief’s meeting did not seem well defined,” one commissioner said. “That caused us some concern.”

Still, the commissioners did not want to cut off contact with the Justice Department, and they proposed getting together with Patrick or other top officials some other time.

A Justice Department official said Monday it was his understanding that Los Angeles authorities requested the meetings and that Patrick agreed to travel to the West Coast in order to hold them.

Raymond C. Fisher, a member of the city’s Police Commission, said the civilian board wanted the chance to brief Patrick on the role of the commission in overseeing LAPD management. In addition, Fisher said he hoped the session would allow Patrick and the commissioners to discuss related topics such as the status of the LAPD’s efforts to implement reform proposals and the progress of the department’s internal investigation of Fuhrman.

“This is part of the dialogue that we have set up” between local and federal authorities, said Fisher, who also served on the Christopher Commission, the blue-ribbon panel that drafted a sweeping reform proposal for the Police Department in the aftermath of the 1991 Rodney G. King beating.

Edith Perez, another member of the commission, said the board planned to meet this morning with Patrick to discuss the federal inquiry and to pledge the LAPD’s cooperation.

“We welcome the investigation by the Department of Justice and will do what we can to assist it,” she said.

Justice Department sources said the Civil Rights Division has not yet determined whether the federal effort will be confined to the criminal probe of Fuhrman or could extend to a pattern or practice civil investigation. That determination, sources said, is not usually made at the outset.

“They want to review the files,” one source said.

The decision is complicated further by the fact that the statute authorizing such a civil inquiry is recently enacted. As a result, federal authorities have little experience to guide them when it comes to answering thorny questions such as what would constitute a “pattern” of excessive force.

After being asked to meet with the commission, Patrick agreed to fly to Los Angeles this week. Originally, that would have precluded him from meeting with Chief Williams, who was set to be out of town on a working vacation.

Commissioners emphasized, however, that there was no attempt to cut Williams out of the loop. To the contrary, Williams was told of the plans and consulted to be sure that he would not have a problem with such a session taking place in his absence.

As it turned out, the death of LAPD Officer Gabriel Perez-Negron this weekend forced Williams to cut short his trip and return from Berlin. He arrived in Los Angeles on Monday evening, and sources said Williams therefore might have the chance to meet with Patrick.

The careful maneuvering regarding the meetings reflects the extraordinary delicacy of the federal investigation. Wary of raising expectations, FBI agents have moved with unusual caution, declining even to confirm the existence of the investigation.

Police Department officials, meanwhile, have tried to strike a balance between welcoming the federal interest in the department and expressing guarded concern that a major federal investigation could detract from ongoing efforts to reform the LAPD.

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Fisher, for instance, worried that a federal investigation into racism within the LAPD might distract from the department’s own efforts in that area. Part of today’s session, Fisher said, will be devoted to briefing Patrick on the work already being done to address issues such as racism and excessive force within the Police Department.

Perez agreed that the federal involvement could distract from some of those efforts, but said the price was worth it.

“As a practical matter, it is going to be distracting,” she said. “But this department has been through a lot of distractions, and this is critical to restoring confidence in the department.”