Dig for Bodies Continues at Mexico Site

As Mexican authorities continued to dig for the bodies of three people allegedly slain by rogue Los Angeles police officers, there was uncertainty Saturday over whether the informant in the case will continue to cooperate with investigators.

Mexican and U.S. authorities want 23-year-old Sonia Flores to return to the garbage-filled ravine here, where she says ex-Rampart Division officer Rafael Perez and another former officer buried the bodies of three people they allegedly killed, said attorney Marshall Bitkower, who represents Flores.

Bitkower, however, said he will not allow Flores to return to Mexico because U.S. authorities cannot guarantee her safety. When Flores led investigators to the site a week ago, Bitkower said, her only protector was an unarmed FBI agent. Three other U.S. officials were not allowed to cross the border, he said. Bitkower said he was also concerned about Flores’ legal status in Mexico. He said Mexican authorities may suspect that she was involved in the alleged homicides, or that she is fabricating the allegations, which also implicate a Mexican national.

“There’s no guarantee they’re not going to throw her in jail,” he said.

Neither Mexican nor U.S. officials would comment on the details of the investigation.

But Bitkower said prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles have called him repeatedly since Friday, asking that he bring Flores back to Tijuana. He said one prosecutor implied that if Flores refused, she would be violating her immunity agreement, which protects her from being prosecuted for crimes in which she implicates herself.

On Saturday, the search for human remains continued on the Tijuana hillside where Flores alleges the bodies were buried. Though investigators could be seen handling blankets and clothing unearthed during the dig, there was no indication that any human remains had been discovered. Vicente Calderon, a local television reporter, said that one of his crew members taped investigators placing two bones in plastic evidence bags, but that he was told by investigators that the bones probably were those of an animal. The digging stopped about 2:30 p.m. and was expected to resume on Monday, according to a Mexican federal agent at the scene, who declined to identify himself.

Mexican authorities conducted the excavation with little or no involvement from the U.S. attorney’s office or the FBI. One U.S. law enforcement source, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said there was concern over how the excavation was being handled. The main concern, the source said, was whether evidence was being destroyed or lost as the digging progressed.

Rather than using picks or shovels, Mexican investigators relied largely on a backhoe to dig in the ravine. Large mounds of dirt, rock and debris were scooped from the ground by the growling yellow machine and then dumped to one side or another, seemingly with little scrutiny.

Meanwhile, Flores’ allegations have had a dramatic effect on the ongoing prosecution of four LAPD officers who are on trial in Los Angeles for corruption-related offenses, including perjury and false arrest. With the allegations that Perez was involved in slayings, prosecutors have said they may not call him as a witness in the case. Prosecutors said Perez’s immunity agreement does not cover his alleged involvement in homicides.

Perez’s attorney, Winston Kevin McKesson, said Flores’ accusations against his client are false, but he has advised Perez to assert his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination should he be asked about them.

Flores is a one-time lover of Perez, the key informant in the LAPD’s unfolding corruption scandal. She has told investigators that she witnessed Perez and David Mack, another disgraced LAPD officer, kill a drug dealer named Chino and a woman she believed was his mother during a cocaine deal that went awry in late 1994 or early 1995. The officers buried the bodies in Tijuana, she said. Two months later, the officers allegedly buried another body there, that one a former girlfriend of Mack’s whom he allegedly killed, according to Flores.

Perez and Mack are among the LAPD’s most notorious officers. Perez was convicted of stealing 8 pounds of cocaine from LAPD evidence facilities. Mack was convicted of robbing a bank of more than $722,000.

Linking Perez and Mack to the crimes alleged by Flores would add a new dimension to the Rampart corruption scandal, which has resulted in the investigation of about 70 police officers for allegedly committing crimes, or knowing of crimes and failing to report them.

Although investigators view Flores’ allegations with some skepticism, they have expended a great deal of effort trying to corroborate her information. They searched the downtown Los Angeles apartment where she says the double homicide took place, and obtained a search warrant and seized a 1986 BMW she says was used to dispose of the bodies.

The search in Tijuana, which evolved into an international affair involving high-ranking government officials in both the United States and Mexico, is the latest test of her credibility.