Perez a ‘Police Monster,’ Prospective Jurors Told

As Los Angeles’ first criminal trial to arise from the Rampart corruption scandal began Wednesday, the spotlight focused not on the four police officers at the defense table but on their chief accuser: disgraced cop-turned-informant Rafael Perez.

Although the prosecutor mentioned Perez only once, defense attorneys attacked him as a lying, corrupt “police monster” and killer who “bamboozled the district attorney into the deal of a lifetime.”

And this was only jury selection.

Some of the 120 members of the jury pool at times seemed shocked by what they heard. Some even gasped when attorney Harland W. Braun told them that a defense witness, Sonia Flores, will describe how she saw Perez and his partner shoot a young man and his mother to death.

Perez buried the bodies in Mexico, Braun told the potential jurors, some of whom will be asked to judge his client and three others accused by Perez of corruption.

Rampart Officers Edward Ortiz, 44; Brian Liddy, 38; Paul Harper, 33; and Michael Buchanan, 30, are charged with conspiracy to obstruct or pervert justice. Buchanan also is being tried on four counts of perjury; Liddy, on two counts of filing false police reports and a single count of perjury; Harper, on a single perjury count, and Ortiz, on two counts of filing false police reports.

The charges stem from three arrests in 1996 in which the officers allegedly planted evidence or gave false testimony.

Braun boldly told jurors of Flores’ account as he addressed them Wednesday, even as investigators work to verify it. Federal officials hope to search for the bodies this week.

While details of Flores’ story are still in question, her appearance at this trial would be limited to impeaching the credibility of Perez.

And it is Perez, 33, the defense lawyers said, who was the dirtiest cop at the LAPD’s Rampart Division.

“I want you to watch him and listen to him carefully,” attorney Barry Levin told the prospective jurors. “He is a skilled liar and a manipulator. He has been lying to juries for years and he is going to lie to you. His motive to lie is to save his own hide from a life in prison, or worse, for crimes that he committed.”

Levin said: “He was no more than a street thug in a police uniform, the likes of which this city has never seen before. His coldness, his callousness, his evil knew no bounds.”

In an unusual approach to the trial, Superior Court Judge Jacqueline A. Connor gave the lawyers wide latitude, allowing them to address jurors with “mini opening statements” to inform the potential panelists of what they faced. The move was made under the court’s effort to be more user-friendly to jurors.

The defense took full advantage, attacking Perez and his credibility.

“It was amazing,” said Levin, the lead attorney of a united defense team of four. “It was like we got to make an opening statement together.”

The lawyers also were able to ask prospective jurors, who haven’t yet been sworn, to acquit their clients--an argument that usually comes at the end of trial.

Caught stealing about $1 million in cocaine from an evidence locker, Perez began a year ago to weave a compelling tale of police corruption after striking a plea bargain with the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. The deal gave him immunity from prosecution for other crimes, and limited his sentence to five years. In return, he pointed the finger at other officers.

Perez unleashed the largest corruption scandal in the history of the Los Angeles Police Department. More than 100 criminal convictions have been overturned, about 70 officers are under investigation, and the city faces the prospect of paying hundreds of millions of dollars to resolve civil lawsuits filed by the wrongly accused. And, the LAPD soon is expected to come under outside oversight for the first time in its history.

Prosecutors went through with the deal even though Perez failed five polygraph tests, Levin said. With credit for time served and good behavior, Perez could be out of prison by February, while Javier Ovando, a man Perez and his partner shot and framed, will be paralyzed for life, Levin said.

Defense attorney Joel Isaacson also spoke dramatically, walking into a section of seated jurors holding up a life-size poster that depicted Perez flashing a gang sign and a cocky smile, and wearing wrap-around sunglasses and gang colors.

“This is the man in which the district attorney is holding so much stock,” Isaacson said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Laura Laesecke was restrained and subdued as she told jurors, “This is not the trial of Rafael Perez. It is the trial of four police officers” who she said framed people, planted evidence and lied in their reports and on the witness stand.

Even if their targets were gang members, Laesecke said, “Does anyone deserve to be framed?”

The defense attorneys argue that their clients are being framed by Perez. But even as they demonized prosecution witness Perez, the defense lawyers worked to humanize the defendants.

Ortiz, Levin said, is a former Eagle Scout and Marine who has worked for the LAPD for 19 years. Harper, Isaacson said, is a Gulf War veteran with seven years’ police experience. Liddy, attorney Paul DiPasquale said, has been a police officer since he was 19. Buchanan’s parents, Braun said, both had cancer in 1996.

“We were aggressive,” Levin said. “I think that’s what you have to do at a trial. We wanted to take advantage of the process. We had to keep the pressure up.”

Connor let 14 jurors go after they said they would suffer personal or financial hardship if impaneled for a trial expected to last about four weeks. That leaves 106 potential jurors, who filled out questionnaires probing personal details, their exposure to publicity and their attitudes toward gangs, police, lawyers and the courts.

When the jurors return to court Tuesday, the judge and lawyers will question them individually. Testimony could begin late next week.