L.A. Will Feel Ripple Effect of Corruption Case for Years

The guilty verdicts against three Los Angeles police officers carry immediate and potentially profound ramifications that transcend the men convicted Wednesday of framing gang members.

The verdicts breathe new life into a 14-month-old investigation that, at times, has run aground. They probably will embolden prosecutors to bring cases that they might otherwise have shied away from. And they have given police officers suspected of wrongdoing new incentives to cut deals.

“There could be a race to be the first one in the door,” said attorney Ira Salzman, who represents some officers implicated in the corruption scandal. “I firmly believe this will energize prosecutors, both state and federal, and they’ll be looking to roll somebody.”

The verdicts also deliver a measure of vindication for Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, who has been criticized for his handling of the case and was overwhelmingly defeated in his bid for a third term. At the same time, the credibility of former Rampart Division Officer Rafael Perez--who provided the blueprint for the prosecutions--has been bolstered. Defense attorneys repeatedly have said that he falsely sacrificed good officers in exchange for a lighter sentence.

As for city officials, they greeted the verdicts with mixed emotions. Had the officers been found not guilty, city lawyers may have had a better chance of defending the city against nearly 100 lawsuits alleging police abuse. Now, they are braced for the worst.

“It isn’t a good day for the city of Los Angeles and more specific, the Los Angeles Police Department,” said City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas. “Justice is not always pleasant. But it does fuel the need for reform.”

In Future Cases, Police May Plea-Bargain

Sources said Wednesday that investigators currently are considering charges in connection with at least two on-duty incidents--unrelated to each other--involving multiple LAPD officers. The U.S. attorney and the FBI, meanwhile, expect that they will have criminal cases against LAPD officers ready to go to court by next year, a source familiar with the investigation said.

In light of the convictions, some officers who are charged in future cases may be forced to consider plea bargains rather than risking conviction. Police Chief Bernard C. Parks long has argued that the best way to push ahead with the police corruption probe is to bring some officers to trial and force them to choose between cooperating or facing time in jail.

Lawrence J. Hanna, a lawyer who represents four officers implicated in the scandal, said he doubted police would turn on each other in the criminal cases. But he predicted that prosecutors will step up their efforts in light of Wednesday’s convictions.

“Now that they have tasted blood, they probably will come after other officers,” Hanna said. “I hope that they don’t. The evidence is so weak that, in the interest of justice, these should never be brought forward.”

The spectacle of the city embroiled in controversy over its police force is hardly a new one for Los Angeles.

Since the 1991 beating of Rodney G. King, Los Angeles has paid the price for a department often distrusted by the public. Police morale has suffered, city taxpayers have been burdened and the judicial system as a whole occasionally has groaned from the effects of a public that lacks faith in its police to tell the truth.

Indeed, the 1995 acquittal of O.J. Simpson--whose defense relied largely on the argument that police bungled or even deliberately compromised evidence--vividly demonstrated how far public confidence in the LAPD had slid.

The Simpson case--and particularly the inflammatory tape-recorded comments of former LAPD Det. Mark Fuhrman about racism and criminal acts by police--helped draw the attention of the Justice Department to possible civil rights violations by LAPD officers. That followed the King beating and the public revulsion it triggered.

On Wednesday, the verdicts in the first Rampart-related corruption case to go to trial gave one particularly foreboding sign: In some eyes at least, police today enjoy little more credibility than the gang members who testified during the nearly monthlong trial. The verdicts also show the importance of the continuing investigations, which are proceeding on several fronts.

Federal and local authorities are trying to assess possible criminal prosecutions. The U.S. Justice Department has just resolved its “pattern or practice” case against the city and the LAPD by striking a comprehensive reform document in the form of a consent decree agreed to by the city and the federal government.

It is the criminal investigation that sits at the center of those various investigations, threatening to put more police in jail and ratcheting up the pressure on any officer facing possible charges.

Of those facing possible criminal charges, none is more in the spotlight than Officer Nino F. Durden. Durden, Perez’s onetime partner in the Rampart Division, is charged with attempted murder, assault with a semiautomatic firearm and filing a false police report.

According to Perez, he and Durden shot an unarmed gang member, planted a gun on him and then accused him of attacking them. The victim, Javier Ovando, was serving a 23-year prison sentence before prosecutors sought to overturn his conviction, based largely on Perez’s information.

Bill H. Seki, one of Durden’s attorneys, said he was surprised by Wednesday’s verdicts and believes the jury’s findings could have negative ramifications for his client’s case.

“I’m sure they do have an impact but I’m not sure what it is at this point,” Seki said. “We’re going to need time to digest and evaluate the effects of this.”

What makes Wednesday’s verdicts particularly disconcerting for defense lawyers representing LAPD officers is that the convictions were achieved without the testimony of Perez.

Although prosecutors had been weighing whether to call him to the stand, that option vanished after Perez said he would invoke his 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination in regard to an ex-lover’s allegations that he murdered three people. As jury deliberations began, Sonia Flores tearfully recanted, saying she was driven by a desire to hurt Perez.

Jan Lawrence Handzlik, a former assistant U.S. attorney who worked with the 1991 Christopher Commission, agreed. “Until now it was said that these were only unproven allegations by Mr. Perez and that Rampart was ‘overblown.’ That can no longer be said.”

For Dist. Atty. Garcetti, Wednesday’s victory was bittersweet. His opponent and successor, Steve Cooley, had questioned whether the district attorney’s office should have entered into a plea bargain with Perez. On Wednesday, he was more reserved. He congratulated the lawyers who won the case and said he was planning to meet with lawyers in the office before making any decisions about how to proceed with further police corruption cases.

City Braces for More Lawsuits

While the criminal cases work their way to court, many city officials winced at Wednesday’s verdicts, welcoming convictions of officers they described as crooked but bracing for more fallout.

City Atty. James K. Hahn, a candidate for mayor, said it was too soon to tell whether the verdicts would have any effect on lawsuits being filed by alleged victims of police misconduct. Already, almost 100 lawsuits have been filed against the city, with many more expected. Hahn’s office estimated the cost of the suits could reach $125 million.

“We evaluate each case individually,” said Hahn, whose office represents the city in those cases. “Some cases will be more expensive than others. I feel my job is to make sure that if you believe a case should be resolved, the settlement is fair to the plaintiff and fair to the taxpayers.”

Others argued, however, that the city will be hit with bigger judgments, increasing the pressure to settle cases and potentially threatening other city services. In the mayor’s race, State Controller Kathleen Connell has made preparing for that expected wave of litigation a mainstay of her campaign. Other candidates--including Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa, businessman Steve Soboroff and U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra--also have highlighted the Rampart revelations as a long-term threat to the city’s well-being, both in terms of money and as an impediment to recruiting new police officers.

“It would be nice if this was the end of it; unfortunately it’s just the beginning,” said Councilman Joel Wachs, another mayoral candidate. “Obviously there will be more cases coming, and the more guilty verdicts, the more expensive it’s going to be for the city. And we still have the fundamental task of making sure it doesn’t happen again.”

As the city awakes this morning to grapple with the implications of Wednesday’s verdicts, another set of revelations is on tap.

Today is the scheduled release date of the report by the Police Commission’s Rampart Independent Review Panel. That group’s investigation, some details of which already have leaked out, promises yet another tough look at the LAPD.

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Times staff writer Jim Newton contributed to this article.