Mexicans Find No Bodies; Lawyer Says They Dug in Wrong Spot

As Mexican authorities halted their search for the bodies of three people allegedly killed and buried in a Tijuana ravine by a pair of rogue Los Angeles police officers, a lawyer charged Monday that the Mexicans were looking in the wrong place.

Attorney Marshall Bitkower, who represents the informant who led authorities to the alleged grave site, said he reviewed videotape footage of the dig which shows that investigators were in the wrong spot.

“It’s the same area, but it’s not where we pointed out the burial site,” Bitkower said. “This is ludicrous . . . maybe they don’t want to find anything.”

Mexican authorities, after digging for hours Friday and Saturday, were expected to resume Monday. But according to Mexican reporters at the scene, the site was no longer being guarded and area residents had resumed dumping trash in the ravine in the hills above Tijuana.

U.S. officials declined to comment publicly, but privately confirmed that the Mexicans had ceased digging and had not found any evidence of human remains.

The sources added, however, that U.S. federal authorities still are investigating the allegations made by 23-year-old Sonia Flores.

Flores, the onetime lover of ex-cop Rafael Perez, claims she witnessed Perez and then-LAPD Officer David Mack kill two people during a botched drug deal in the mid-1990s. She claims the bodies of those victims and that of another woman allegedly killed by Mack were buried in Mexico in hopes that, if they were discovered, they would be presumed to be victims of the region’s drug wars.

While law enforcement sources have expressed doubts about Flores’ claims, investigators have vigorously sought to corroborate her allegations. They have tested the apartment near downtown Los Angeles, where she claims the double homicide occurred, seized a BMW she says was used to dispose of the bodies, and negotiated with Mexican authorities to excavate the alleged burial site in Tijuana.

To date, however, no concrete evidence linking Mack or Perez to the slayings has been publicly produced, said Winston Kevin McKesson, Perez’s attorney.

“You have no individuals reported missing, nobody who heard any shots . . . and now they’ve dug up half of Tijuana and they don’t have any bodies,” McKesson said. “Enough is enough. Enough taxpayer money has been spent on this wild goose chase.”

Though unsupported by physical evidence, the allegations against Perez have potentially crippled him as a witness against his former colleagues in the Rampart Division, four of whom are on trial based largely on his claims that they were corrupt.

District attorney’s officials have said they may not call Perez as a witness because of his extreme credibility problems. Legal observers say that could be fatal to the case against the four officers.

Perez last year pleaded guilty to stealing eight pounds of cocaine from LAPD evidence facilities. In exchange for a lighter prison sentence for the drug thefts, he agreed to identify other allegedly corrupt officers. His admissions about his own conduct and allegations against fellow officers are the basis for what has become known as the Rampart scandal.

Officials familiar with the murder investigation involving Perez and Mack said it was unclear whether Mexican officials would resume digging.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was unlikely the Mexicans were digging in the wrong place. Flores pinpointed the location in photographs, which she later signed, the source said.

American law enforcement, however, was not allowed to play any role in the excavation of the site or even to be present during the digging.

One U.S. law enforcement source questioned whether the Mexicans may have missed or destroyed evidence by digging with a backhoe rather than with a shovel, which would seem more suitable.

Over the weekend, Mexican and U.S. officials wanted Flores to return to the site to provide additional assistance, according to Bitkower. But the lawyer said he will not allow his client to return to Mexico because authorities cannot guarantee her safety.