Diverse Jury Is Selected for First Rampart Case Trial

A racially diverse jury that includes one new citizen was seated Tuesday for the trial of the first criminal case to arise from the Rampart police corruption scandal--even as prosecutors asked an appeals court in Los Angeles for a delay.

The jury consists of seven women and five men: five Latinos, three blacks, two Asians and two whites. Members’ ages range from 23 to 57. Most are in their 30s and 40s and work as machinists, mechanics, secretaries, clerks and teachers.

Meanwhile, a legal move by the district attorney’s office cast a slight shadow of doubt over whether the trial would start this week.

The district attorney’s office is asking the appeals court either to delay the trial or immediately to reverse Superior Court Judge Jacqueline A. Connor’s decision to exclude five untainted witnesses who prosecutors had hoped would back up a cop-turned-informant’s story about a gun planting.

Connor ruled last week that prosecutors couldn’t call the surprise witnesses because the defense hadn’t been told about them until two weeks before trial. But prosecutors, arguing that other, less severe sanctions were available, are now seeking the delay to give the higher court time to rule.

“The people have a clear, compelling interest in protecting the integrity of the criminal justice system by being allowed to present all available relevant evidence to secure felony convictions,” prosecutors said in court papers.

The defense is opposed to any delay. So committed are they to moving forward that the four defense attorneys have waived any right to immediately receive FBI reports and other information from federal authorities. The FBI is investigating allegations that the key prosecution witness, Rafael Perez, was involved in killing two people and burying their bodies in a littered ravine in Tijuana.

Opening statements and testimony are scheduled Friday.

Charged with conspiracy to obstruct or pervert justice are Sgts. Edward Ortiz, 43, and Brian Liddy, 39; and Officers Paul Harper, 33 and Michael Buchanan.

The charges stem from rogue cop Perez’s confessions--given after he was caught with nearly $1 million worth of cocaine stolen from a police evidence locker. Perez, who faced a lengthy prison sentence, started talking after taking a plea bargain carrying a sentence of five years.

What followed was a yearlong investigation that brought about 70 LAPD officers under suspicion, led to the overturning of 100 criminal convictions and exposed the city to hundreds of millions of dollars in damages sought through lawsuits by the wrongfully accused.

Perez has held investigators in his thrall with tales of corruption in the LAPD’s Rampart Division. The allegations include evidence planting, filing false police reports and giving false testimony in court.

Although the Rampart scandal has dominated the news for the last year, few among the 106 potential jurors in this case said they followed it closely.

For the most part, those who made the jury either didn’t follow the case or held no strong opinions about it.

“I remember seeing on TV some guy in a wheelchair, getting off a plane saying he was framed,” said a 29-year-old Latino from Huntington Park who made the jury.

He holds strong opinions about gang members, some of whom--allegedly victims of Rampart frame-ups--will testify for the prosecution. “They should work like the rest of us instead of hanging out doing God knows what,” the juror said in a questionnaire he filled out last week.

Another juror, a 31-year-old Latina secretary from Alhambra, said a neighbor had been murdered by gang members. Still, she said in her questionnaire, she believes police unfairly target people who look like gangsters. She said she doesn’t read or watch television and didn’t know much about the Rampart scandal.

Ditto a 42-year-old Filipina who works for the city of Los Angeles as a clerk-typist. She gave vague answers about Rampart, saying only that she had “heard it on the news.”

But one juror, a 43-year-old African American, asked, “How could someone like Officer Perez become a police officer? Don’t they have to take a psychologists’ test?” She said relatives and friends have been harassed by gangs, and she believes the criminal justice system “works better for those who have money to pay for their own attorney.”

The lack of knowledge about--or interest in--the Rampart scandal wasn’t confined to jurors who made up the panel of 12, with six alternates. Most of the 106 potential jurors mentioned having heard something about the case but said they haven’t followed it.

“I’m not a big news fan,” said a woman from Pasadena, who wasn’t put on the panel.

“I have heard of problems at Rampart,” said another juror, a teacher who was excused. “There might be corrupt cops,” said yet another, also excused.

One man recalled something about a crooked police officer named “Rafael Mendez.”

Jury selection moved swiftly, as Connor limited the time lawyers could question prospective panelists.

A review of the juror questionnaires revealed a surprising paradox: Although nearly all of the citizens from the neighborhoods surrounding downtown Los Angeles dislike and fear gangs, many also believe that police unfairly target gang members.

About a third of the jurors were opposed to plea bargaining. And, many have had unpleasant run-ins with police. One juror, for example, was excused after writing in his questionnaire that he was arrested for “DWB--driving while black.”

A few were afraid of everyone involved: “I have some fear of reprisal from either the police or gangs,” wrote one 59-year-old man.

And as usual, there were a few eager to serve, and a few who couldn’t be bothered: “I would rather spend my time not having to come downtown,” wrote a Beverly Hills homemaker.

A retired sheriff’s deputy, who worked narcotics for 22 years, provided the day’s most colorful comments but wasn’t placed on the jury. Asked his opinion of gang members, he said their culture isn’t that different from police culture: “Police officers belong to a gang too. We have our own slang, we have our own signs, we have our own uniforms.”