Captain Under Fire as Rampart Probe Expands

The Los Angeles Police Department’s investigation into corruption at the Rampart Division has expanded into the command ranks. Capt. Richard Meraz, formerly the station’s second-highest officer, has been cited for failing to supervise officers under his command, officials familiar with the investigation said Monday.

According to those sources, Meraz has come under fire because a supervisor in the station at one point brought an officer to the captain and said the officer had witnessed the alleged beating of Ismael Jimenez inside the Rampart station. Meraz’s response, the sources said, was to say he did not want to hear any details.

If true, those accusations could land Meraz in serious trouble, though he is not a suspect in any of the criminal wrongdoing under investigation. Administrative charges already have been filed against him, and senior LAPD officials have convened a special board of inquiry to investigate, among other things, the quality of supervision in Rampart.

The captain, who was transferred from Rampart last year and now works in the LAPD’s Central Division, was not available for comment. If found guilty of the departmental charges, sources say, Meraz is unlikely to be fired, but may face a lengthy suspension; if the board of inquiry finds other breakdowns of supervision at the station, Meraz could face more serious action.

As the Police Department continued its corruption probe--which includes allegations of stealing drugs, shooting and beating suspects, planting evidence and lying to cover for fellow officers--Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti pledged a “thorough and professional” investigation of the alleged crimes, one of which his office previously rejected for prosecution. The county public defender’s office warned that hundreds of cases may be affected by the scandal. Top city leaders recommended restarting the district attorney’s dismantled team that investigated police shootings. And Mayor Richard Riordan urged Los Angeles residents not to judge the entire police force by the actions of a few.

Speaking directly to the department’s rank and file, Riordan said: “This incident is not about you. . . . You have the support of the Los Angeles community.”

Riordan called the allegations of wrongdoing “unfortunate, disappointing and disgusting,” and said he should be held accountable for the LAPD’s effectiveness in trying to clean up the problems.

“Just as I can take some credit for making Los Angeles safer,” he said, “I take my role in this investigation seriously.”

Riordan was joined at his news conference by Police Chief Bernard C. Parks and Police Commission President Gerald Chaleff, both of whom enjoy the mayor’s confidence but whose rocky relationship with each other is a source of consternation in the Riordan administration. In fact, their differences flared even in what was supposed to be a demonstration of unity.

At one point, Parks warned reporters not to trust the statements of lawyers representing the family of one of the Rampart officers’ shooting victims, Javier Francisco Ovando. While Ovando is cooperating with police, attorneys for his daughter have said they will sue the LAPD on her behalf. “Who are you going to believe,” Parks asked, “the lawyers . . . or Mr. Ovando and the police?”

Chaleff, who is a defense lawyer, winced and looked away.

Giving Inspector General Access

Scrambling to contain the scandal, top city officials said they favored a pair of proposals intended to strengthen public confidence in the LAPD.

Chaleff said he had met with top LAPD brass and directed them to provide the commission’s inspector general with unfettered access to every phase and aspect of the Rampart investigation. The department, Chaleff said, agreed.

That represents an important breakthrough on an issue that continues to dog top police officials and their civilian bosses.

Although he has never refused an inspector general’s request for information, Parks has sought to draft rules delineating the inspector general’s role and access to material, as well as to clarify any inconsistencies between the inspector general’s powers and his own. For its part, the commission has argued that the inspector general should be free to launch any investigation of any aspect of the department. City Atty. James K. Hahn will issue a legal opinion today that affirms the commission’s authority.

Regardless of how they resolve that dispute, a temporary deal has been struck to avoid conflict in the Rampart scandal.

“I’ve been assured by the department that they will be open to our inspector general,” Chaleff said Monday afternoon. The inspector general himself, former federal prosecutor Jeffrey Eglash, said he too was optimistic that the department would allow him into the inner circle of the probe.

“The commission is in charge of this Police Department,” he told Warren Olney, the host of KCRW’s public affairs program “Which Way LA.” “I’m hopeful that the department, understanding its role in the chain of command, will comply.”

In addition to the agreement on the inspector general’s role, Riordan, Parks and Chaleff endorsed reviving the district attorney’s defunct roll-out team, which until 1996 sent prosecutors to the scene of every LAPD shooting.

“It’s valuable because you have a prosecutor, experienced in these matters . . . going out to the scene and determining the propriety of the shooting,” Chaleff said of the team. “It clearly would help with public perception.”

Parks echoed that endorsement, saying he would welcome the return of a unit that he called “very positive.”

Riordan also backs the idea, said Deputy Mayor Noelia Rodriguez, adding that the mayor believes the decision on whether or not to reinstitute the program is up to Garcetti.

Created amid much fanfare by then-Dist. Atty. John Van de Kamp and his assistant, Johnnie L. Cochran Jr., the roll-out team was charged with responding to all police shootings. In theory, the team was supposed to provide a check on the practice of having the police investigate situations in which police might be suspects. In practice, however, the unit compiled a mixed record, in part because LAPD investigators and legal rules sharply curtailed the unit’s access to crime scenes and officers.

After years of friction, Garcetti disbanded the unit in 1996, citing budget concerns.

Roll-Out Team’s Effectiveness Debated

At an afternoon news conference, Garcetti said he had always been in favor of the roll-out team, but had to give it up when the County Board of Supervisors told him it could not afford it. To restart the team, Garcetti said, would cost “a little more than a million” dollars.

“The roll-out team was a valuable civilian check when it existed because it arrived at the scene shortly after the shooting and was able to conduct a full and independent investigation,” said Katherine Mader, a former member of the team and the Police Commission’s first inspector general. “Currently, without a D.A. roll-out team, there is no effective outside civilian oversight of police shootings.”

But many outside observers dispute Mader’s characterization of the unit performing full and independent investigations, saying that in almost all instances the prosecutors merely accepted the Police Department’s own investigation. But advocates of the team note that while it was in existence at least it ensured that prosecutors regularly were forwarded police shooting investigations.

As details of the scandal and the officers under investigation have become public, local officials are bracing for what many see as an inevitable deluge of claims from suspects who encountered the suspect officers.

On Monday, Assistant Public Defender Bob Kalunian said his office is reviewing all cases involving three principal officers linked to the scandal and is requesting the names of any others who are under investigation.

“This could impact hundreds of cases,” he said.

Without saying how many cases he believes will be be affected, Garcetti called the scandal “potentially devastating to the criminal justice system.”

* ANTI-GANG INJUNCTIONS

Probe has led officials to put two gang injunctions on hold. A24

* INSPECTOR GENERAL

City Atty. James Hahn backs civilian oversight of police. B1