Rampart Officers’ Preliminary Hearing May Be Put Off for Months

A preliminary hearing is likely to be months away in the case of four Los Angeles police officers charged in the Rampart scandal with conspiring to frame people they falsely arrested.

A hearing had been scheduled next week for three of the officers charged with conspiring to frame one arrestee.

But earlier this week prosecutors added a fourth defendant and additional alleged victims to the case.

Defense attorneys had asked for a quick preliminary hearing on the old charges so they could demonstrate what they believe are the weaknesses of the prosecution’s case to the court and the public.

But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael E. Pastor rejected that defense request Friday. He noted that none of the defendants is in custody and society has an interest in avoiding piecemeal litigation.

The defendants could still demand a preliminary hearing on the new complaint within 10 days, but that is unlikely. The fourth defendant, Michael Buchanan, and his attorney, Harland Braun, will probably need months to review thousands of pages the prosecution has already provided to the other defendants.

In another development, attorneys for all four of the officers said that they still do not know whether they will ask that the entire Los Angeles Superior Court bench disqualify itself from hearing the case.

On Thursday, the supervising criminal court judge, Larry P. Fidler, told the defendants he would grant a motion to disqualify the entire bench because, in its new complaint, the prosecution had listed a Los Angeles judge as one of its prospective witnesses. That judge, Mark Arnold, was a deputy district attorney prosecuting one of the arrestees who was allegedly framed. Two of the accused officers allegedly made false statements to him.

Attorneys for the officers told Pastor that they had not yet been provided copies of statements Arnold made to investigators.

Defense attorneys noted that they need not rush to make their decision on whether to disqualify the bench--a move that would probably see the case transferred to Orange County. They said they could make that decision at any time.

Also on Friday, Judge Pastor released Buchanan on his own recognizance. Buchanan had been free after posting a $125,000 bond. Pastor acted over the objection of the prosecution after hearing evidence that a comment Buchanan was allegedly overheard making about doing harm to an internal affairs investigator was an empty threat.

The other officers--Sgts. Edward Ortiz and Brian Liddy and Officer Paul Harper--are already free on their own recognizance.