Murder Case Derailed by Rampart Link

Prosecutors in a San Fernando Valley murder case have dropped charges after their only eyewitness said he was pressured into identifying the defendant by an LAPD sergeant who has since been charged with unrelated crimes in the Rampart corruption scandal, lawyers said Wednesday.

Charges were dropped against defendant Paymen Patrick Parvizi after the prosecution’s chief witness came to court Tuesday and told the deputy district attorney handling the case that he could not identify Parvizi as the gunman in the July 5, 1999, slaying in Canoga Park, the lawyers said.

Attorney Sherwin Edelberg, who represents the witness, Adrian Canley, an acquaintance of the dead man, said police repeatedly pressured Canley into falsely identifying Parvizi as the killer.

Canley also told the prosecutor that the investigators in the case, Sgt. Brian Liddy and Det. Brad Cochran, misrepresented his statements in their reports related to the homicide investigation, lawyers in the case said.

Canley hired an attorney because he resented the way he was treated by police and did not want to be put in a position of having to contradict them if he were called to the witness stand in the midst of a trial, Edelberg said.

“This man really has a conscience,” the lawyer added.

Det. Cochran declined to comment for this story. Liddy’s attorney said he was unaware of the most recent allegations against his client and, therefore, could not comment.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kateri Modder, the prosecutor in the case, also was unavailable for comment.

Victoria Pipkin, a district attorney’s spokeswoman, said, “the district’s attorney’s office was unable to proceed, due to the ongoing Rampart investigation and proceedings.” She said the decision to drop the case does not preclude prosecutors from pursuing the charges in the future.

Prosecutors were hamstrung in the case against Parvizi when Liddy was relieved of duty from the LAPD for allegedly framing people while working in the Rampart Division, where he served in the same anti-gang unit as ex-cop-turned-informant Rafael Perez.

Choosing not to call Liddy as a witness because his status calls his credibility into question left prosecutors unable to use a statement in which Parvizi allegedly admitted to Liddy that he was at the scene of the shooting and confronted the victim.

Deputy Public Defender Daryne P. Nicole, however, said Parvizi never made any such statement.

“This is not a case of a guilty man going free because of Rampart, but the case of an innocent man who stayed in jail for more than a year because of corrupt police officers trying to frame him,” Nicole said.

Nicole praised Modder, the prosecutor, for “carefully examining the case and doing the right thing” by dismissing it.

Public Defender Michael P. Judge assailed the alleged police tactics in the case.

“This is one in a number of cases that have resulted in the Los Angeles Police Department becoming notorious for the grotesque pressuring of witnesses who are unable to make an identification,” Judge said.

Judge said the actual identification of suspects by eyewitnesses should be overseen by police officers other than those responsible for investigating a particular case.

“This cries out for reform,” he said.

The case against Parvizi resulted from the shooting death of Francisco Escobar. According to police, Escobar and Canley--the eyewitness--had just come from a late night Fourth of July party where they had been drinking and were breaking into cars parked along Independence Avenue near Gresham Street in Canoga Park.

According to police reports, Canley told investigators that Escobar was trying to break into a dull-colored Chevrolet El Camino when a woman shouted at them and called out for the owner. Seconds later a man appeared, yelling at Escobar to get out of his car, police reports state.

Canley said the man was carrying a gun, aimed it at him and fired. He fled unharmed, but Escobar was fatally wounded and collapsed in the street, according to police documents.

At one point during his investigation, Liddy was able to locate a man named David Cost who said he had a conversation with Parvizi and that Parvizi admitted to shooting Escobar, police reports show.

Cost, however, has since alleged that Liddy coerced him into implicating Parvizi, saying that the detective threatened to arrest him for a parole violation if he did not cooperate, according to defense lawyers.

After the alleged statement by Cost, Liddy interviewed Parvizi, police records state. Liddy contends that Parvizi made several incriminating statements about the murder in his presence. For instance, Liddy said in police reports that the tattooed ex-con began crying as he was being booked into jail, saying, “that mother . . . broke into my car and that is why I went out there.”

As for Canley, police alleged that he was able to make a tentative identification of Parvizi. Canley told police that the photograph of Parvizi “looks like” the gunman he saw that night, police documents state.

But that identification was under question, even before Canley came forward this week to complain about the investigators’ conduct. At the beginning of the taped interview, Canley can be heard asking detectives: “Are you going to show me that picture now?”

Canley now contends that he was unable to identify the gunman from any of the photographs he was shown by detectives. Canley said Parvizi’s physical build resembled that of the gunman he saw that night, but he could not identify Parvizi as the assailant.

Canley “resented the way he was treated by police. It’s too bad he felt he had to get his own attorney,” Edelberg said.

Canley’s allegations are the latest to raise questions concerning Liddy’s credibility.

Liddy was arrested in April along with two colleagues on charges that they conspired to frame an innocent man on gun possession violation four years ago. In July, prosecutors filed additional charges Liddy, alleging that he helped frame two other men.

According to Perez--the ex-officer at the center of the corruption scandal, Liddy was part of a cadre of anti-gang officers who framed people and falsified police reports.

Following his time in the Rampart CRASH unit, Liddy transferred to Devonshire Division to work as a detective.