Somber, Costly Milestone for L.A.

For more than 14 months, the case of Javier Francisco Ovando remained unresolved; it was the first and perhaps most shocking element of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart Division scandal. Today, Ovando saw justice in the form of a $15-million settlement from the city.

It was in September 1999 that Police Chief Bernard C. Parks announced that former Officer Rafael Perez claimed that he and his partner, Nino Durden, shot the unarmed Ovando without cause in 1996, planted a gun on him and framed him on assault charges. Ovando, who had to be taken into his trial on a gurney, was convicted of assaulting a police officer and sentenced to 23 years in prison, in part for showing no remorse.

Ovando had been a member of Los Angeles’ notorious 18th Street gang, but he had no prior convictions. By the time he was released, he had served two years and six months behind bars, without rehabilitation for the wounds that left him confined to a wheelchair.

The reckoning that came Tuesday is a costly one for Los Angeles taxpayers. At the behest of City Atty. James K. Hahn, the City Council voted 13 to 0 to award Ovando $15 million, by far the single largest police misconduct settlement in Los Angeles history. By itself, the award nearly doubled what the city has agreed to pay so far in settling cases brought by Rampart victims.

Hahn was exactly right in recommending the settlement. “Liability in this case appears virtually certain,” Hahn bluntly told members of the City Council and the city’s civilian Police Commission.

Mayor Richard Riordan called the settlement a fair deal that brings a tragic and unfortunate incident to a close. The mayor is wrong about the matter being over.

Durden still awaits trial on attempted murder charges in the Ovando case. Also, it should be noted that the first police supervisor to show up at the Ovando crime scene in 1996 was then-Sgt. Edward Ortiz, who last week was convicted of criminal conspiracy charges in an unrelated case. We will hear more about Ovando, even if the settlement closes the monetary liability issue.

The settlement is a somber milestone. On tap next is an event that carries more promise, the selection of a federal monitor who will oversee the LAPD’s compliance with a specific set of reforms. With 70 more cases pending, Rampart’s fiscal cost to the city is far from determined. But the scandal’s other tolls--including those against the LAPD itself--can be alleviated if the long-sought reforms actually take hold.