Bill Targets Evidence Tampering by Officers

In the latest state legislation sparked by the deepening Rampart scandal, Assemblywoman Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) said Friday she will introduce a bill making it a felony for peace officers to plant or tamper with evidence.

Romero said her measure, AB 1993, “sends a clear message to any would-be renegade officers that the public will not tolerate the violation of the public trust by any peace officer.”

Although state law already makes it illegal to provide false testimony or destroy evidence and has been used to prosecute officers, the main statute is more than a century old and has potential loopholes, Romero said.

Her bill “will create a very specific statute,” she said.

At least 20 Los Angeles police officers have been relieved of duty in connection with their alleged acts at the department’s Rampart Division, including unjustified shootings, planting evidence and perjury.

Department officials say that at least 99 convictions were tainted by former officer Rafael Perez’s lies, and prosecutors acknowledge that hundreds more cases may have been similarly compromised.

Romero, the majority whip in the Assembly, held a news conference announcing the bill in front of Los Angeles Police Department headquarters just minutes after a Superior Court judge sentenced Perez--whose cooperation with investigators brought the scandal to light--to five years in prison for his theft of cocaine from an evidence locker.

She was flanked by several directors of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, whose board has unanimously voted to back Romero’s bill.

“We’re deeply saddened by the problems the Rampart scandal has caused us,” director Cliff Ruff said. “We’re going to be part of the solution.”

The protective league has been aggressively trying to maintain the public’s trust in response to the Rampart scandal, hiring USC law professor Erwin Chemerinsky--who often criticizes police misconduct--to review the LAPD’s report on the scandal, expected next week.

The first bill related to the Rampart scandal, an attempt by state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) to provide lawyers at public expense to gang members targeted in anti-gang injunctions, was killed in a Senate committee amid strong opposition from law enforcement.

Ruff and Romero both stressed that most officers are law-abiding. “We will protect them by punishing those bad police officers,” she said.

Current law makes it illegal to provide false testimony in court or to provide false written reports, but does not mention falsifying physical evidence, Romero said.

It is only a misdemeanor to destroy evidence, and only written evidence at that. The existing statutes make no mention of peace officers.

Romero’s bill makes any of the acts a felony when committed by a peace officer.

“We expect a higher standard from those who wear the badge,” Romero said.

The bill does not yet specify what the sentencing would be for tampering with evidence, but Romero’s aides say they expect it would be at least equivalent to the existing statute for perjury: up to four years in prison.

Romero, who sits on the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee and has a long history of involvement in police issues, said she had wanted to write a bill in response to Rampart since the legislative session began in January.

“A lot of people said this will go nowhere, it will be fought tooth and nail,” said Romero, whose district does not include the area patrolled by Rampart Division officers, though she previously lived in that area.

With the LAPD union behind the bill, the dynamics have changed, her aides said, and they expect more people to sign on.

“We have gotten to a point, especially with Rampart,” Romero said, “that we have to say: ‘No longer. This is a serious issue. We have to get on board.’ ”