Officers Used Valley ‘Crash Pad,’ Perez Says

Rafael A. Perez, the former police officer at the center of the worst corruption scandal in Los Angeles police history, has told investigators that Rampart Division anti-gang officers regularly partied at apartments or hotel suites around the city, including “a crash pad” in the San Fernando Valley.

In a November interview with Los Angeles police detectives, Perez said CRASH unit officers “threw a bachelor party” in September or October 1995 at the Valley apartment, according to a transcript obtained by The Times.

“From what I understand, it . . . belonged to the Rampart CRASH guys,” Perez said. “It was used primarily for bachelor parties and stuff like that.”

CRASH stands for Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums.

Perez describes a fraternity-like scene, including one officer who chugged nearly a bottle of vodka and promptly vomited over the edge of an outdoor balcony, hitting an elderly woman down below.

“Right after he threw up, there was some talk and some laughing going on,” Perez told investigators. “And two officers--and I don’t know who the two officers were--went out to the balcony and fired several rounds.”

The burst of gunfire, directed upward into the air, put a rapid end to the party, he said. Perez and other officers fled the building.

Officer Don Cox, an LAPD spokesman, declined to comment on Perez’s assertions of a Valley apartment.

Perez, once a hard-charging cop who has since implicated himself and other officers in a long litany of crimes, is cooperating with police detectives and prosecutors in hopes of receiving a reduced prison sentence for stealing eight pounds of cocaine from a police evidence room.

The mushrooming scandal, fueled by the disgraced former officer’s testimony, includes allegations that officers from the Rampart anti-gang unit were involved in improper shootings, evidence planting, false arrests, witness intimidation, beatings, theft, drug dealing and perjury. Thirty-two criminal cases have been reversed as a result of the ongoing investigation, while 20 officers have quit or been relieved of duty, suspended or fired.

The city attorney has estimated that settling lawsuits stemming from the scandal could cost the city $125 million, while legal experts have said the city’s liability could be even greater.

Details about the Valley apartment are sketchy. Perez told investigators that the multistory building was on a main street but could not recall the location, noting that he did not know the Valley well. He said he thought that police did not pay rent for the apartment but that the owner had given officers access in exchange for providing security, according to the transcript.

Some officers maintained another apartment near the Rampart station, paying about $200 or $300 rent, Perez said. He describes a revolving round of parties, some held at hotels in the Rampart and Wilshire divisions, according to the transcript.

Perez said he had attended one other party at the Valley apartment.

“Back then, at Rampart CRASH, it was almost like a biweekly thing,” he said of the frequent bashes. “There was gonna be some type of bachelor party. It just depended on who you’re going to pick to be the bachelor that day. There was a lot of bachelor parties.”