2 Ex-Officers Surrender to Face Assault Charges

Two former Los Angeles police officers surrendered to authorities Monday to face charges in connection with the alleged on-duty beating and terrorizing of a homeless man in 1997.

Former Central Division Officers Christopher Coppock and David Cochrane were charged with kidnapping, false imprisonment and assault under color of authority in an indictment unsealed Monday by Superior Court Judge Larry P. Fidler.

Neither Coppock nor Cochrane entered a plea because their arraignment was postponed until next month, but both maintain their innocence, said attorney Ira Salzman.

The ex-officers were booked and released on $100,000 bail each. The two were also ordered to stay away from witnesses in the case.

The key witness against Coppock and Cochrane is another former LAPD officer, Sandra Salazar. Salazar says she was working with the two officers Oct. 23, 1997, and watched as they allegedly beat and then terrorized Delton Bowen. Salazar, who testified before the grand jury last week, said Bowen was thrown into the back of a police car, driven to the Los Angeles River and assaulted because he called one of the officers a name.

The new charges come as prosecutors are struggling to make a case against four Rampart Division officers accused of corruption-related offenses by former LAPD Officer Rafael Perez, the main informant in the so-called Rampart scandal. The criminal charges against the former Central Division officers may signal a new front in the police corruption investigation, law enforcement sources said.

Coppock and Cochrane left the department last year amid unrelated allegations of misconduct.

Salzman, who represents Cochrane, said both former officers were disappointed by the continuing legal action against them.

“They categorically state that they do not plant evidence and they do not beat people,” Salzman said. “They don’t believe they should have been terminated [or forced to resign], but they’ve come to grips with that. They simply want to move forward with their lives.”

Attorney Barry Levin, who represents Coppock, was defending a client in the Rampart trial and was not available for comment.

The case against Coppock and Cochrane took a circuitous route. Initially, two other LAPD officers were charged, but that case was dropped when Salazar testified that it was actually Coppock and Cochrane who beat Bowen.

Sources close to the investigation said Salazar is expected to continue cooperating with investigators.

“This isn’t the end of this thing,” said one source, who requested anonymity. “It’s just the beginning.”