Board of Rights Delays Action on LAPD Officer

The case of a Los Angeles police officer who was to have learned his punishment Wednesday for misconduct during an arrest was postponed until July 24 pending a ruling on a defense motion.

LAPD Officer Humberto Tovar was found guilty Monday on allegations involving a 1996 drug arrest he made with then-Officer Rafael Perez. Perez now alleges that their suspect, Toby Semick, was framed.

Tovar was to have learned his punishment Wednesday, but the matter was postponed pending a ruling on a defense motion.

Tovar’s lawyer argued that members of the Board of Rights panel handling his client’s case erred when they interrupted deliberations to hear from a lieutenant on the department’s corruption task force.

That lieutenant, Emmanuel Hernandez, testified that investigators had been able to corroborate 70% to 80% of Perez’s allegations about police abuse in the LAPD’s Rampart Division--a fact the board “weighed heavily” in finding Tovar guilty on five of seven counts of misconduct.

Tovar’s lawyer, Richard Macias, asked the board to seek the legal advice of the Los Angeles city attorney’s office to determine whether Hernandez should have been allowed to testify after deliberation had begun.

The board agreed to do so and postponed the proceeding until July 24.

Also on Wednesday, a judge dismissed another criminal conviction tainted by alleged police corruption.

Superior Court Judge Larry Fidler, acting on a request from prosecutors, threw out the case against Oscar Giovanni Ochoa, 27, who was allegedly framed by Perez and another officer.

Ochoa pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine for sale and was sentenced in September 1997 to three years in state prison.