Fuhrman Probe Swamps LAPD Internal Affairs Unit

The Los Angeles Police Department’s probe of former Det. Mark Fuhrman consumed so much time and resources that it compounded chronic delays in the Internal Affairs Division, leaving other serious complaints against officers to hurried, last-minute scrutiny and prompting police officials to try to expand the division.

The inquiry, which involved a dozen detectives, more than 12,000 hours of labor and cost about $400,000, placed nearly 70 other cases last year in jeopardy of exceeding a one-year statute of limitations, police sources said. The department was left with a scant three months to adjudicate those cases and a few ultimately exceeded the one-year limit--leaving the accused officers eligible for a maximum punishment of a reprimand regardless of the violation.

Today, as the Fuhrman inquiry finally winds down, the division still faces a crippling volume of cases that are close to reaching their statutory deadlines, department officials have acknowledged, although they declined to say exactly how many.

Internal Affairs’ delays affect not only the department and its officers but the criminal justice system as well. Criminal cases are sometimes delayed by allegations of police misconduct, forcing defendants to wait in jail and complicating already backlogged court dockets.

In Van Nuys last November, for example, a Superior Court judge feared that a defendant’s allegations of police misconduct would fall victim to delays and stymie a three-strikes case. The judge took the unusual step of ordering LAPD Chief Willie Williams and Internal Affairs Cmdr. Margaret A. York into his courtroom to explain the delays. Not satisfied with the explanation provided by a city attorney on their behalf, he then demanded answers from Katherine Mader, the Los Angeles Police Commission’s inspector general.

“Internal Affairs personnel are harried, overworked and totally consumed with what they term ‘statute’ cases,” Mader wrote to Judge Michael R. Hoff in response. “In fact, nothing generally gets investigated that is not close to the one year statutory deadline. This situation has caused untold anxiety among accused officers and is extremely detrimental to morale.”

The delays also affect the civil rights of accused police officers, and can keep fully paid officers off the streets for months while their misconduct cases languish.

In one recent Internal Affairs case, an officer was given no time at all to respond to a misconduct report, as required by law, because his case had reached its statutory deadline, a union lawyer said.

In another, a police officer whose rape charges were dismissed by a judge last fall has been unable to return to active duty and remains at home with full pay while Internal Affairs completes its investigation. Still another officer was given a reprimand rather than the five-day suspension for battery recommended by his supervisors, because the statute on his case--one of the 70 backed up last year--had expired.

Department officials say the Fuhrman case did receive special attention--and deservedly so, despite his retirement in August 1995.

“The Fuhrman investigation was a lengthy investigation and it did impact the number of cases that were statute-threatened,” said Cmdr. Tim McBride, a department spokesman. “I think you had to do that with the Fuhrman case. You couldn’t leave these allegations out there . . . that we beat suspects and put people in jail because they were black or brown.”

Internal Affairs commanders refused to be interviewed for this article.

But other LAPD officials acknowledge they are reeling from the exhaustive examination of Fuhrman, whose claims of routine beatings and racist acts were aired during the O.J. Simpson criminal trial. Internal Affairs investigators have since concluded that the allegations were mostly unfounded bravado, and a final report to the Police Commission is expected soon.

McBride and other police officials also said that Internal Affairs suffered from a backlog long before the Fuhrman case gained national attention, in part because its caseload has been increasing. Internal Affairs handled 392 of the 482 complaints investigated by the department last year. In 1990, by comparison, Internal Affairs handled just 179 of the 664 complaints reviewed by the department.

But the unprecedented backlog caused by the Fuhrman case has prompted the department to seek 38 new Internal Affairs positions for several branch offices--the largest request for any single division--in its budget proposal for next year, police officials acknowledge privately. Publicly, they say they are trying to meet a key Christopher Commission recommendation that the division handle more serious cases, leaving lesser allegations to be investigated by supervisors at neighborhood police stations.

The increased number of race-against-the-clock investigations also has prompted the police union to seek intervention from Mader, who oversees the department’s disciplinary system for the Police Commission. If that doesn’t help, the Los Angeles Police Protective League would consider taking legal action on behalf of officers who have been denied adequate time to respond to misconduct charges, said its attorney, Hank E. Hernandez.

“They’ve had to put everything aside because of Fuhrman,” said Hernandez. “You can’t just ignore others until the last minute, but that’s what is happening.”

In the Van Nuys case, Judge Hoff, a retired LAPD captain, learned last summer that the suspected drug dealer facing trial had accused the arresting officers of stealing $22,000 in cash from his car. The defendant’s lawyer also alerted Internal Affairs about his client’s claims, but by the fall they still had not been reviewed.

“This is very frustrating,” Hoff said, according to court transcripts. “I think the Police Department is not serving the community well, and it’s foolish.”

Appearing before the judge, Assistant City Atty. Byron R. Boeckman warned that other Internal Affairs investigations would be compromised if Hoff’s case received priority. Boeckman also said a review of the officers’ conduct would be completed by Feb. 1. It still hasn’t been, court records show. The accused drug dealer’s trial is on hold, pending the Internal Affairs investigation’s outcome, and the defendant remains in jail. Last week, because of his correspondence with police officials, Hoff recused himself from the case to avoid any perception that he was not being impartial.

“There’s a lot at stake in this case,” said his defense attorney, Bruce C. Hill. “And it wasn’t going anywhere fast--until the judge became involved. I expect it to be resolved soon even though at one point, I was told the investigation would take 10 months.”

Hurried investigations also are problematic for the detectives. They frequently are left desperately trying to locate witnesses to the alleged misconduct whose recollections might be hazy at best.

Further, when Internal Affairs completes an investigation, the report returns to the local police station, where the accused officer and his supervising captain review its findings--lately without much time to do so. Police union attorneys say they have streams of cases in which officers have just hours or a single day to review Internal Affairs’ findings.

“Round about month 11, the department goes gangbusters,” said one union attorney. “The officer has to jam to get a defense representative . . . and in the end, the officer is the one that gets crammed against the wall in terms of time.”

Some department critics suggest that the Internal Affairs delays are no accident but part of a deliberate effort to avoid the unpopular business of disciplining officers.

“If they want to go after an officer, they do it fast,” said Larry Hanna, a Van Nuys attorney who represents many LAPD officers. “If they want the person, even for a petty thing, they’ll put every investigator they can find on it. Otherwise, they’ll leave you twisting in the wind.”

Added Stephen Yagman, a civil rights attorney: “Basically, there is no desire by law enforcement to investigate law enforcement. That continues to be the case and it always will be.”

LAPD officials vigorously deny those assertions.

Still, Fuhrman’s attorney, Darryl Mounger, says he can’t understand the LAPD’s intense focus on his client. Even if found guilty of misconduct, Fuhrman couldn’t be punished because he has retired. Not even his pension could be touched.

“How do you explain to the citizens of Los Angeles why they’ve had 12,000 hours of manpower devoted to investigating someone who is retired?” Mounger asked. “Why would anyone in the management of LAPD allow that much of a waste of resources?”