Debate in D.A.’s Race Focuses on Corrupt Police

In a televised debate marked by sharp exchanges Thursday, Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti and opponent Steve Cooley expressed outrage that two LAPD officers accused of drug-related corruption were not prosecuted.

Garcetti said during the hourlong debate in Santa Monica that he would work with the LAPD to ensure that whenever there is evidence of a potential criminal act that results in a police officer’s termination, that information must be referred to prosecutors.

Cooley, a head deputy district attorney who won more votes than Garcetti in the March primary, used the opportunity to promise that if he is elected, the district attorney’s office will be more proactive and will monitor all LAPD Board of Rights disciplinary hearings for evidence of police misconduct that should be investigated and prosecuted.

Cooley also pledged to establish a separate public integrity unit within the district attorney’s office to pursue police misconduct and corruption among public officials. After the face-to-face encounter, Cooley said he favors using sting operations if necessary to ferret out corrupt officials.

The cases of the two officers served as a springboard for Cooley to criticize again Garcetti’s handling of cases stemming from the Rampart police corruption scandal. “Mr. Garcetti doesn’t understand the fundamental principles of prosecution and lawyering,” Cooley said, roundly attacking the incumbent’s alleged slowness in bringing to justice officers implicated in presenting false police reports and testimony and in some cases planting drugs or weapons on suspects. “Mr. Garcetti is eight months late. He is not on the right course,” Cooley said.

But Garcetti defended his actions, saying prosecutors cannot rely simply on the confessions of ex-LAPD Officer Rafael Perez, but must come up with independent evidence to present in court. “That takes time. That takes effort,” Garcetti said. If the district attorney’s office failed to do an adequate job and lost the cases against police officers in court, he suggested, critics would accuse prosecutors of engaging in a whitewash and being in bed with the police.

“We are doing it the right way,” Garcetti said, adding that the cases he has brought were filed much faster than the federal government’s.

Garcetti declined to comment on negotiations between the U.S. Justice Department and Los Angeles officials over the federal government’s threat to sue the city to force reforms within the LAPD. He said to do so would be inappropriate.

Cooley again seized the chance to urge officials of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division to file suit against the city alleging a pattern or practice of police misconduct so the public can see all the evidence that has been gathered about what’s gone wrong at the LAPD. He cautioned about politicians from Washington and politicians from Los Angeles negotiating an agreement in secret to involve the federal government in overseeing the LAPD.

The animosity between the two men was evident when Cooley accused Garcetti of not being aggressive enough in protecting the public from police corruption that he said is proving “very devastating to the entire justice system.”