LAPD Doing With Ovando?

At the center of the unfolding scandal at the LAPD’s Rampart Division CRASH unit, something very weird--and wrong--is going on. In a strange role reversal, the one-time tormentor of 18th Street gang member Javier Francisco Ovando is now his protector.

The very agency responsible for putting a bullet in his head, leaving him wheelchair bound for life and framing him, now claims it is protecting Ovando from ambulance-chasing lawyers, jackals of the Fourth Estate and those who might want him silenced.

Taking its motto “To Protect and Serve” to a new level, the LAPD acts as Ovando’s bodyguard, agent to the media, family counselor and liaison between friends and family, including his 2 1/2-year-old daughter, Destiny. The department’s transformation has been so complete that attorneys representing Destiny say when they tried to arrange a visit with Ovando, the first since his release from prison, his police handlers demanded that news media be present for the reunion. Fearing the police were trying to turn the father-daughter bonding session into a public relations coup, Destiny’s lawyers balked, saying it should be a private affair. Negotiations continue.

Ovando has told the few reporters who have been granted access to him that he remains by choice in the LAPD’s safekeeping. But those charged with ensuring the integrity of the corruption investigation, in which Ovando is a central player, should ask themselves if this security arrangement amounts to witness tampering and evidence manipulation?

Ovando’s relationship with the LAPD wasn’t always so cozy. In October 1996, he was shot several times and framed by street-hardened members of the LAPD’s Rampart Division CRASH unit. Ovando was sent to prison for 23 years for assaulting police officers, leaving behind his pregnant girlfriend.

Recent revelations by corrupt cop Rafael A. Perez freed Ovando from Salinas Valley State Prison. But he didn’t have to catch a Greyhound back to Los Angeles. He was flown back on Sept. 16 by the LAPD and has since remained in an undisclosed location. The unprecedented relationship between Ovando and the police raises a series of troubling questions.

Is the LAPD overcompensating for past abuses or is it knowingly manipulating and controlling a key witness in the largest corruption scandal faced by the department in the last 60 years?

Is there a conflict of interest, or is it ethical for the LAPD to cradle in such a way a person who has a slam-dunk multimillion-dollar civil lawsuit just waiting to be filed?

Has the LAPD been giving Ovando legal advice, telling him not to sue or have a press conference? Does this explain why he doesn’t have a lawyer? Has the LAPD interrogated Ovando without counsel?

Does Ovando know that representatives from Central American community groups would like to meet him and communicate their support and assistance without lawyers, reporters or police present?

The public has a vested interest in seeing that Ovando remains an independent witness. Chief Bernard Parks and the LAPD have a vested interest in avoiding the negative image of a wheelchair-bound victim suing them. We all have an interest in ridding the LAPD of corrupt, abusive cops.

If Ovando fears for his safety, and that is a reasonable fear, the district attorney, state or federal government should protect him. It is inappropriate for Ovando to receive protection, even if well-intended, from the agency that could suffer most from his testimony.

While Parks insists Ovando is “free to come and go,” but chooses to remain under the LAPD’s security blanket, those assurances are suspect. The public does not know what has been said, promised or--worst-case scenario--what dangers have been implied to Ovando, an illegal resident from Honduras who has been deported twice.

During his incarceration, Ovando’s loved ones no doubt prayed that someday the truth would be revealed. And it has, sort of.

Perez is in custody for stealing cocaine out of the police evidence locker and is cooperating with investigators in exchange for immunity from other charges. And we now know Ovando was framed. But will the complete and unfettered truth come out or has the case been compromised beyond redemption?

Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti would prosecute any criminal cases that arise out of the scandal. City Atty. James K. Hahn would represent the city in any civil matters. These elected officials must protect the public’s right to a legal process that is free from witness tampering by those under investigation. Garcetti and Hahn should demand that Ovando be placed in the care of an agency independent of the scandal.