2 More Convictions Overturned as Result of Rampart Fallout

Two more convictions of men allegedly framed by Los Angeles police officers have been overturned, defense attorneys said Thursday.

Edgar Escobar, 31, and Roberto Candido, 25, had been found guilty of being felons in possession of a firearm, convictions authorities later came to believe were won with false testimony by Rampart Division CRASH officers.

Acting on writs filed by defense attorneys--and joined by the district attorney’s office--Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler on Wednesday vacated the convictions.

Escobar and Candido have been released from prison and turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service for deportation, said alternate public defender Gary Wigodsky.

The Rampart scandal has so far resulted in the overturning of 81 convictions won by the district attorney’s office.

Suspended Officers Nino Durden and Michael Buchanan arrested Escobar in 1996, and both officers later testified that they had seen Escobar hand a gun to Rudolfo Moreno, Wigodsky said.

Escobar denied that he had a gun, and Moreno testified that he had never given the gun to Escobar.

Since then, former Officer Rafael Perez has testified that Durden, his former partner, and Buchanan were involved in filing false police reports, perjury and evidence planting.

Had defense attorneys been aware of that alleged misconduct, the outcome of the trial could have been affected, the district attorney’s office said in court papers.

Those papers described a “pattern of fabrication” by the two officers, saying that pattern could have been used to show that the officers were involved in a scheme to give false testimony.

Candido was charged in September 1997 after Buchanan and Officer Daniel Lujan said they saw Candido throw a gun in a trash dumpster, Wigodsky said.

Candido denied having a gun and testified that the officers took him to the Rampart station, where one hit him in the ribs while he was handcuffed, and that Buchanan forced a gun into his hand to get his fingerprints on the weapon, Wigodsky said.

A jury was unable to reach a verdict in Candido’s first trial, but he pleaded guilty just as a second trial was to begin and was sentenced to 32 months in prison because the conviction was his second strike, Wigodsky said

Perez had no personal knowledge of Candido’s arrest, but he said in a sworn statement that it came at about the same time Buchanan had asked him and Durden for a spare gun to plant, the district attorney’s court papers said.

“Perez did not give Buchanan a gun, but Durden told Perez he gave one to Buchanan,” the court papers said. Knowing that, Perez believed the gun in Candido’s case could have been planted, the papers said.