Jury Deadlocks Over Cocaine Theft Charge

After five days of deliberations, two lengthy reviews of testimony transcripts and a series of seesaw votes, a jury announced Wednesday that it was hopelessly deadlocked over whether Los Angeles Police Officer Rafael Perez stole cocaine from the police department’s property room.

After learning the final vote was 8-4 in favor of guilty, Superior Court Judge Robert Perry declared a mistrial. He dismissed the jury and ordered lawyers back to court Jan. 5 to decide whether there will be a retrial.

Perez, a 31-year-old officer of nine years, will remain in jail on a $550,000 bond. He faced a maximum of 8 1/3 years in prison on charges of possessing cocaine for sale, grand theft and forgery. The charges stem from the March 2 theft of six pounds of cocaine that had been seized in an undercover narcotics operation.

Although the district attorney’s office is expected to seek a retrial, spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said a decision is pending.

Perez was accused of posing as another officer named Perez to check out the cocaine for a court appearance. That officer, however, was in court the day the cocaine was signed out.

Perez took the stand in his own defense, saying he was in the property room on March 2, but that he did not take the drugs.

Key testimony came from property room personnel who identified Perez as the officer who signed the cocaine out, and from a handwriting expert, who testified there was a “high probability” that the signature on the sign-out form matched the defendant’s writing and not the other officer’s.

But defense attorney Winston Kevin McKesson argued that the property room employees’ identification was tentative.

McKesson said in an interview that jurors who voted not guilty told him Wednesday that they didn’t think the handwriting expert’s “high probability” conclusion was strong enough.