‘Sooner or Later the Truth Will Come Out’

When Javier Francisco Ovando was convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison, the mother of his unborn child wept in the courtroom.

The police officers who allegedly framed him--after paralyzing him with a bullet--”sat there and laughed,” his daughter’s grandmother, Gloria Romero, said Thursday.

Romero said that she told Los Angeles police Officer Rafael A. Perez, who has told prosecutors he and his partner handcuffed and shot Ovando in the head: “God will punish you. Sooner or later the truth will come out.”

Few could have imagined that her prophecy would become a curse.

In the worst LAPD scandal in decades, Perez has entered a plea bargain for theft of cocaine and told authorities that he and his partner lied under oath about Ovando’s guilt. Ovando was freed Thursday from Salinas Valley State Prison.

Ovando, 22, probably will never walk again--but now he will enjoy his first sight of his daughter, Destiny, whose mother, Monique Valenzuela, was just a few months pregnant when Ovando was imprisoned, Romero said.

Destiny is 2 1/2 years old.

“I’m very happy,” Valenzuela told a reporter. “It’s a miracle. I never thought he would get out.”

Ovando told Romero he lived “only for his daughter” during his nearly three years in prison. “Otherwise he wouldn’t want to live,” she said.

Federal authorities announced Thursday that they too are investigating Perez’s allegation that he and his then-partner, LAPD Officer Nino Durden, lied in October 1996 when they said they shot Ovando after he burst in on them with an assault-style weapon.

Perez now says that Ovando, then 19, was unarmed when he was shot by police. Perez said officers planted the weapon on Ovando and fabricated the police report.

In allegations filed in court, Ovando said officers had him in handcuffs when they shot him, and later planted the rifle.

When Ovando was sentenced to 23 years in prison, Superior Court Judge Stephen Czuleger noted that the defendant, who was in a wheelchair, failed to show remorse.

Why would he? Romero asked, when he stubbornly maintained his innocence. She recalled him wondering: “I’m in jail--for what? I didn’t do anything. I’m in a wheelchair and I’m here for 23 years.”

Romero said she felt powerless when Ovando was convicted and that her daughter Monique was hysterical.

“We had no lawyer and no money,” Romero said. “We were all alone. We just had faith in God. We always knew he was innocent.”

The only witness to the shooting was a member of the 18th Street gang, according to a close family friend, Angela Taylor, who said she and Ovando were also members of the gang.

“The homeboys wanted to say something,” Taylor said. “But they couldn’t. Who would believe 18th Street gang members?”

Taylor said Perez often stopped 18th Street gang members, taking their money and sometimes beating them.

Romero said Ovando, an illegal immigrant long out of touch with his family back in Honduras, was not a violent man, although he was a member of the feared gang.

“I understand he was a gang member,” Romero said. “But he wasn’t crazy. He wasn’t a bad guy.”

Ovando has been deported from the United States twice, the district attorney’s office said.

Immigration and Naturalization Service officials declined to take Ovando into custody Thursday for deportation so he could be available to the Los Angeles Police Department. LAPD officers picked him up from the prison at dinner time Thursday.

“It’s obvious that he will be needed as a material witness,” said Richard Rosenthal, a deputy Los Angeles district attorney. “I would expect the LAPD will take whatever action necessary to make sure he’s available to us as a witness some time in the future.”

Attorney Dennis Chang, representing Ovando’s daughter and her mother, said he had tried to arrange a family reunion with Ovando on Thursday night. But by 10 p.m., he said, the LAPD had vetoed the event, saying Ovando was too tired.

“They’re not allowing Javier to talk with the mother of his child,” Chang said. “My plan tonight was to have this reunification. They’re telling us to wait until the morning.”

LAPD spokesman Don Cox said he didn’t know who had talked to Chang.

“I don’t know where he got that,” Cox said. “I don’t know where [Ovando] is or if he’s tired.”

In spite of repeated requests from The Times and other media, Terry Thornton of the California Department of Corrections said prison officials reported that Ovando “did not express any desire” to be interviewed at this time.

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Times staff writers Tina Daunt and Robert Lopez contributed to this story.