Arrests of Accused Abusers in LAPD Soar

Seven months after a report criticized the Los Angeles Police Department for failing to adequately investigate officers accused of domestic abuse, there has been a surge in domestic violence arrests within the agency, including that of one officer who remains in jail on charges he raped his estranged wife at gunpoint.

So far this year, investigators have arrested six LAPD officers, including one from the department’s high-profile Drug Abuse Resistance Education unit who allegedly threatened to kill his wife, as well as an officer from the organized crime squad accused of stalking an ex-girlfriend.

All six arrests were made by detectives in the newly formed Domestic Violence Unit, an arm of the LAPD’s Internal Affairs Division. The unit was formed in August, one month after the Police Commission’s inspector general issued a report saying accused batterers in the department were rarely charged and often received lenient in-house discipline.

“As the saying goes, there’s no excuse for domestic violence,” said Cmdr. Dave Kalish, borrowing a line from the bumper sticker that appears on most of the department’s 1,700 black-and-white patrol cars. “I think there’s a greater emphasis on this in society in general, and there’s simply no room for it in a law enforcement agency.”

Besides facing jail or prison, anyone convicted of domestic violence is prohibited from carrying or owning a firearm under a 1996 federal law, effectively ending the careers of law enforcement officers found guilty of such crimes.

Kalish, a spokesman for Chief Bernard C. Parks, said that he is troubled by the rash of arrests but that they are evidence of the department’s zero-tolerance policy on domestic violence.

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Inspector General Katherine Mader issued a report in July saying 28 LAPD employees had been arrested on suspicion of domestic violence from 1990 through early 1997.

By contrast, 19 officers were arrested in such cases by the LAPD and other police agencies last year alone, according to department statistics. Many of those arrests were made outside Los Angeles. About 85% of department employees live outside the city.

“I think we’re making a difference,” said Det. Connie Castruida, who supervises the four detectives who constitute the Domestic Violence Unit.

Edith Perez, president of the Police Commission, said she is encouraged by the new statistics. “I think the department deserves a lot of credit for dedicating the resources to make this happen,” she said. “. . . The proof is in the pudding.”

She added that it is important not to paint all officers with a broad brush. Of about 9,600 sworn officers in the LAPD, “we’re talking about a handful,” she said.

Castruida attributed part of the increase in the number of arrests of LAPD officers living outside Los Angeles to a letter that Parks sent to neighboring police departments last year. In it, he requested that his officers not be given any special privileges during criminal investigations.

She said another likely reason for the increase is that officers from her unit now respond to all domestic violence cases involving department employees, including those in neighboring jurisdictions.

“I’m sure that when another agency is watching us watching them, it might help them make the right decisions,” Castruida said.

The number of domestic violence cases being investigated by Internal Affairs has tripled, in part, she said, because fights involving unmarried couples are now being reported as domestic violence.

According to Mader’s report, there were 227 domestic violence complaints against LAPD employees between 1990 and early 1997, an average of about 32 per year. Last year, there were a record 94 cases reported. Since Jan. 1, there have been 15.

Mader’s report portrayed an old boys network in the LAPD in which even the most egregious offenses were swept under the rug. She found that over seven years, no sworn officer had been arrested by the LAPD for domestic violence in the city. Since the Domestic Violence Unit was formed last summer, internal investigators have arrested nine LAPD officers in such cases.

Now, Castruida said, her detectives respond to every domestic violence case that results in serious injury, including bruises and black eyes. The unit also investigates all repeat offenders and supervises the handling of less serious cases.

“We start out just like [with] a homicide scene and follow it through the court process,” Castruida said. “. . . We actually hold our officers to a higher standard than we do private citizens that commit the same crime. If you’re found guilty by the department of domestic violence, you are going to suffer serious repercussions.”

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Among the outstanding cases are the charges pending against Officer Terrance Rochon, an eight-year veteran. He was arrested Oct. 30 for allegedly breaking into his estranged wife’s Pasadena apartment, holding her prisoner with a 9-millimeter handgun, then forcing her to perform various sex acts.

“I really thought I wanted to be dead, but I remembered our little girl, and she needed me,” the victim said as she described the alleged attack during a preliminary hearing in December.

Rochon, whose trial is set to begin March 1, has pleaded not guilty. He is being held without bail in the county jail and faces 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

“I believe he will ultimately be found not guilty,” said his attorney, John McDonald of Norwalk.

Rochon, who works in the department’s personnel section conducting background checks on prospective employees, allegedly had a notebook with information about his estranged wife’s habits, as well as her boyfriend’s address and license plate, cell phone and pager numbers. Rochon “told me I couldn’t leave,” she testified, “because he would find me no matter where I go. . . . He would know how to find me.”

Officer Robb Johnson of the organized crime squad was arrested this month and charged with stalking his ex-girlfriend and two of her boyfriends. He has pleaded not guilty, and his preliminary hearing is set for March 10.

Johnson is the second officer in as many months accused of illegally using the department’s computers. In January, Det. Connie Howell, a 13-year LAPD veteran, was charged with using police computers to stalk potential witnesses in a 1996 case against her former boyfriend, a third-strike felon who was eventually sentenced to 60 years to life in prison. She has also pleaded not guilty.

Alex Salazar of the DARE unit was arrested this Valentine’s Day on suspicion of domestic violence. On Tuesday he was arrested again after allegedly threatening to kill himself and his estranged wife. He was ordered held on $1 million bond, but the district attorney’s office rejected the case Thursday when his wife refused to testify. “She was just too terrified,” a police source said.