Chief Parks Files Charges Against 10 Police Officers

Police Chief Bernard C. Parks on Tuesday filed administrative charges against 10 officers implicated in the department’s ongoing corruption probe.

The charges include false arrest, excessive force, theft, perjury, unlawful searches and failing to report misconduct by fellow officers. Most of the charges, if proved, could result in termination.

All but two of the officers already had been relieved of duty in connection with the corruption investigation. The other eight are or were assigned to the same Rampart Division Anti-gang CRASH unit as Rafael Perez, the former officer at the center of the scandal. In addition to the pending departmental charges, those officers also are under criminal investigation by the LAPD’s corruption task force.

Parks has been pressing forward with administrative charges against officers suspected of wrongdoing, mindful that time limits for doing so are about to run out in some cases, said Cmdr. David J. Kalish, an LAPD spokesman. There was a similar flurry of charges last month.

The most serious charges were leveled against Perez’s former partner, Nino Durden, who has been suspended since August. Some of them stem from a case the two worked in April 1997, in which they allegedly stole $2,700 from a couple they threatened to arrest on drug charges. One of the alleged victims, Cynthia Diaz, has filed a lawsuit against the city. Perez , who has been cooperating with investigators, confirmed the theft, according to interview transcripts obtained by The Times.

Durden, through his attorneys, has consistently declined comment.