Parks, Garcetti Trade Charges Over Rampart

Fighting between key players in the biggest police corruption investigation in Los Angeles history intensified Wednesday with Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti publicly blasting Chief Bernard C. Parks for shutting him out of the probe and the chief accusing the county’s top prosecutor of making “totally untrue” statements.

Parks, in an evening news conference outside the Rampart station where the scandal is centered, was defiant even in the face of widespread criticism by city officials, most notably his longtime backer Mayor Richard Riordan.

“We are not pleased with the slowness of what the D.A. has done, we certainly have some lack of confidence in their ability to deal with the case,” Parks said. “But we certainly have not let that stop us from cooperating. . . . [Garcetti] has never been denied any information. We won’t deny him any information, regardless of our frustration.”

Parks and Garcetti are clashing over the chief’s alleged refusal to provide information to deputy district attorneys assigned to the Rampart investigation.

The chief said accusations Garcetti made in The Times this week and during a televised news conference earlier Wednesday about being refused access to investigative information were untrue, and questioned whether they were politically motivated. Garcetti is running for reelection.

Before the news conference, some city officials had said the conflict had been resolved. Asked whether that was so, Parks responded: “You’ll have to talk to Mr. Garcetti. . . . This is a self-created dilemma, not something we participated in. We have well-documented evidence as to how and what we’ve done with the D.A.’s office.”

Garcetti, in his own news conference earlier in the day, strongly maintained that the chief intentionally denied access to his prosecutors. He said the chief’s position had been abundantly clear over the past several days as LAPD detectives rebuffed attempts by prosecutors to get access to investigative reports relating to the Rampart scandal. Detectives told local prosecutors that if they wanted access to any information, they needed to deal with the U.S. attorney’s office, not the LAPD. U.S. Atty. Alejandro Mayorkas is also investigating the scandal. Mayorkas steered clear of the controversy Wednesday, declining to comment.

Top LAPD command officers said the chief’s plan was to deal with the U.S. attorney. Parks, sources said, decided to shut the district attorney out of the investigation because he believed prosecutors had dragged their feet on prosecuting corrupt officers and given the LAPD bad legal advice, and could not be trusted with sensitive information.

Garcetti rejected the chief’s criticism.

“There is only one person who is impeding our progress and that, unfortunately, is the chief of police,” Garcetti said. “I’m profoundly disappointed that this had to take place in this fashion. I really don’t want a fight.”

Garcetti said he stands ready to haul LAPD detectives before the grand jury to get the information his prosecutors need.

“I cannot be intimidated by a chief of police,” he added.

Garcetti was not available for comment after the chief’s evening news conference.

City Officials Criticize Parks

Meanwhile, city officials criticized the chief for what they, too, perceived as an unwarranted power grab by Parks.

City Atty. James K. Hahn said Parks has no choice but to cooperate with Garcetti.

“A decision to not cooperate with a district attorney, I think, is wrong. Not only is it legally wrong, but I think it’s morally wrong,” Hahn said. “We just can’t afford this kind of action when I think the entire world is watching us.”

Hahn said that if Parks refuses to provide investigative information to local prosecutors, as Garcetti has alleged, the chief is overstepping his legal authority and should be ordered by the Los Angeles Police Commission to start cooperating.

Late in the day, Police Commission President Gerald L. Chaleff said the commission, in fact, would require that the LAPD work with the district attorney. “The commission expects the Police Department to comply with its obligation to cooperate with the district attorney and will take whatever steps are required to ensure that it does,” he said.

Chaleff said the commission will hold a special hearing on the matter Friday.

Hahn called on commissioners to “clarify any confusion that may exist between the district attorney and the Police Department” and to “instruct the police chief to instruct all of the officers under his command to cooperate with the district attorney.”

Hahn, who spoke with Parks by phone Wednesday afternoon, said the chief denied Garcetti’s claim that the LAPD was withholding information from prosecutors. The chief told Hahn he would continue to cooperate with the district attorney’s office, the city attorney said.

Hahn stated in a written opinion that “there is no authority for a chief of police to refuse cooperation with a public prosecutor.”

That sentiment also was echoed by state Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer, who called the LAPD’s alleged decision not to provide investigatory material to county prosecutors “unfortunate, counterproductive and without legal authority.”

Lockyer, in a prepared statement, said the LAPD has “a duty under the law to cooperate with the district attorney. . . . The recent practice of the Police Department to withhold material from the district attorney appears unwarranted, illegal and not in keeping with the collaborative spirit under which this matter should proceed.”

Tensions have run high between the district attorney’s office and the LAPD command staff for months. Parks has long wanted criminal charges filed on two current officers and one former officer in connection with the scandal. Garcetti, sources said, believes the chief is trying to rush the investigation to minimize its scope.

So far, the corruption probe involves allegations that officers planted evidence on innocent people, beat suspects and covered up unjustified shootings. At least 29 officers have been suspended, relieved of duty or fired or have resigned because of the investigation. Dozens of criminal cases have been overturned.

In a flurry of news conferences, press statements and radio talk shows Wednesday, community activists and city leaders denounced Parks’ move.

Even Riordan, a staunch supporter of Parks, was critical, saying: “I’m mad at the chief today.”

Riordan added that “the chief got very frustrated, as I am, with the D.A. But he wrongfully took the wrong way to carry out his frustrations, saying he would not cooperate with some of the investigations with the D.A. It was not the right thing for the chief to do.”

Parks, according to Hahn, was looking to the U.S. attorney’s office for legal advice in connection with the investigation, “rather than the district attorney.”

“I indicated to him that I believed he was obligated to accept advice from both agencies,” Hahn said. “He indicated to me again that he did not want to have parallel investigations. . . . The chief of police believes he’s on the correct course, but I informed him that he cannot cut the D.A. out of this.”

Hahn said the chief did not solicit any legal opinion from the city attorney’s office, as he should have, before the department sent letters to the D.A. informing Garcetti of the LAPD’s new position.

In a March 8 letter from the LAPD, Garcetti was told: “The department fully intends to support and pursue any indictment decisions or recommendations made by the United States attorney as our first option.” The chief’s plan to cut the district attorney out of the investigation allegedly was discussed in a telephone conversation with Garcetti.

After that conversation, Garcetti wrote back to the chief expressing his opposition to such a move.

“Your refusal to cooperate with our potential prosecutions of crimes committed by members of your department is unacceptable and contrary to your legal responsibilities as chief of police,” Garcetti wrote.

Legal experts sharply criticized the chief.

J. Clark Kelso, constitutional law professor at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, said: “This is not a case where the Feds say we have primary jurisdiction. This seems to be a case where the target of the investigation is trying to choose who gets to investigate them. That is not appropriate. Targets don’t get to make that choice.”

Added Grover Trask, the Riverside County district attorney and president of the California District Attorneys Assn.: “I find it alarming that a [police] chief would think he didn’t have to turn over those records.”

Council Members Voice Anger

Throughout the day, council members reacted with anger to Parks’ decision to withhold information from Garcetti.

Calling the conflict “insanity,” City Councilwoman Laura Chick said the chief was “demonstrating an arrogance that is unhealthy for the department and the city it serves.”

“My patience is wearing very thin,’ Chick said. “We don’t have monarchs. Anyone who is managing or directing a public agency has to be able take in other points of view.”

Councilman Mike Feuer called Parks’ action outrageous.

“All of the residents of this city are looking at city officials right now to step up to the plate and lead,” Feuer said. “I’m sick of all the finger-pointing.”

Councilman Joel Wachs introduced yet another motion calling for an independent investigation of the Rampart scandal. His proposal is set to be considered next week.

“Today’s headlines make shatteringly clear that we need an independent outside investigation of the Rampart crisis and we need one now,” Wachs wrote in his motion.

In an interview, Wachs accused Parks of inciting chaos by being “too proud and too scared to ask for help.”

“He displayed incredibly bad judgment,” Wachs said. “There is a little bit of that mentality in what happened [in Rampart] in the first place. It’s the decision to take the law in one’s own hands. . . . I’m sort of stunned.”

Times staff writers Tina Daunt and Henry Weinstein contributed to this story.

The full text of the letters between Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks and Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti can be read on The Times’ Web site: https://www.latimes.com/rampart

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Rampart Showdown

The confrontation between Police Chief Bernard C. Parks and Dist.. Atty. Gil Garcetti grew out of an exchange of letters and phone calls. Below, an excerpt from a letter Garcetti sent to Parks on Tuesday.