4 More LAPD Officers Are Suspended

Four more officers connected to the Los Angeles Police Department’s scandal-ridden Rampart Division have been relieved of duty as a result of the department’s ongoing corruption probe, sources said Thursday.

All of the officers at one point worked in the same anti-gang CRASH unit as ex-officer-turned-informant Rafael Perez, the man at the center of the scandal.

Police officials and sources close to the investigation declined to say specifically why the officers had been relieved of duty with pay. But several sources said more officers are expected to be relieved of duty as the investigation continues.

Meanwhile, officials with the district attorney’s office say they expect to go to court next week to overturn several more criminal convictions tainted by Rampart officers’ misconduct. They gave no further details.

The LAPD action, which occurred late last week, brings to 20 the number of officers who have been relieved of duty, suspended without pay or fired or who have resigned in the course of the continuing Rampart probe.

“Certainly by now, with those kinds of numbers, it’s pretty clear that some changes are called for within the department to make sure this kind of alleged behavior is rooted out and never occurs again,” said City Councilwoman Laura Chick, former head of the council’s Public Safety Committee.

In addition to the criminal investigation, the LAPD is finishing up an internal administrative review, which is expected to be released in several weeks and to contain a number of significant recommendations to improve the monitoring and supervision of special police units like CRASH.

The LAPD’s criminal probe so far has uncovered alleged unjustified shootings, beatings, drug dealing, evidence planting, false arrests, witness intimidation and perjury.

One source close to the investigation said the four recent suspensions stem from several different incidents.

A lawyer representing one of the officers said his client was blindsided when he was handed a letter telling him he was, in the LAPD vernacular, “assigned to home,” which essentially means relieved of duty with pay.

“He doesn’t know what to think,” said the lawyer, who asked that both his and his client’s name be withheld. “I guess their theory is that if they are still paying him they don’t have to tell him anything, and if they don’t tell him anything that will help their investigation.”

Police officials say the department has gone to great lengths to restore public faith in the LAPD, in some cases relieving of duty officers who ultimately may be vindicated. Department officials refused to confirm the identities of any of the officers relieved of duty.

One of the officers recently relieved of duty was brought up on departmental charges in connection with the alleged beating of a suspect in 1998.

Two officers were fired in connection with that incident, but the officer now assigned to home was found not guilty during a so-called board of rights, as LAPD’s departmental trials are called.

That officer also was involved in at least one shooting while he worked in the anti-gang CRASH unit in 1996. There is no indication that he was relieved of duty in connection with that shooting, which involved several other CRASH officers.

At least one other officer in the most recent round of suspensions was involved in a shooting while he worked as a CRASH officer. His partner during the 1997 shooting was Perez, the officer at the center of the scandal. Again, there is no information that the shooting is among the half-dozen under review by the Rampart task force.

Many of the allegations against the officers come as a result of information provided by Perez, who has spent the past four months cooperating with detectives as part of a plea agreement that is expected to cut time from his prison sentence for stealing eight pounds of cocaine from an LAPD evidence room.

Initially, police thought they would need only 40 hours to completely debrief Perez. Sources, however, said detectives underestimated how much Perez has to say.

Several of the officers who were relieved of duty earlier said in interviews with The Times that they believe that Perez is fabricating allegations against them to save himself.

As part of his cooperation deal, Perez will have to take a lie detector test covering the information he has provided to detectives, sources said. If authorities can prove that he was untruthful or omitted information about police misconduct, his deal could be invalidated and he could be sentenced to 12 years in prison instead of serving five.

Since September, Perez has been depicting the Rampart CRASH unit as an out-of-control group of officers who routinely broke the law to rack up arrests and impress supervisors. Some area residents say the CRASH officers acted like the street gangs they policed.

To date, 11 criminal convictions have been overturned and four inmates have been released from prison or jail as a result of the LAPD investigation. District attorney officials said that as many as 40 or more convictions may be overturned, as they continue their review of potentially tainted cases involving Perez and other officers involved in the scandal.

By the time the probe is concluded, sources close to the investigation said, “a handful” of officers could be charged with crimes. As many as 30 may be fired, they said.