D.A.’s Record on Police Cases

* Re “Police Cases Sent to D.A. Drop Sharply” (Oct. 23) and “LAPD Misconduct Cases Rarely Resulted in Charges” (Oct. 22): The district attorney’s office aggressively prosecutes corrupt police officers. In our Special Investigations Division alone, we have prosecuted over 150 police officers since 1993 involving murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, excessive force and many other crimes. Just this year, we have filed charges against five LAPD officers in addition to the officers facing charges in our ongoing Rampart probe (contrary to The Times’ statement that we have filed no charges this year).

Times reporters exhaustively analyzed five years of SID case files. The Times discusses a handful of so-called questionable cases. In one case, The Times states that our office declined prosecution but fails to mention that the case was referred to the Los Angeles city attorney for possible misdemeanor prosecution. In another case, The Times cites as evidence the officer’s compelled statements to the department regarding the incident--statements that under California law we cannot even consider. In a third case, The Times does not report that the alleged victim’s friend, who was with him, did not see the police hit the victim with a flashlight, or that the victim failed to report the incident to two officers who responded to the scene, both of whom the victim knew.

The Times questions the percentage of LAPD cases filed by the Special Investigations Division compared to the number of incidents reviewed by our prosecutors. The LAPD frequently requests our analysis of incidents of misconduct even when the department believes that there is no basis for a criminal filing. The department requested our review as a second check on its own analysis, and we have urged all police departments to do this.

In most of these cases, we concurred with the LAPD’s analysis that there was no basis for filing felony criminal charges and the prosecutions were declined or referred to the city attorney. This, of course, resulted in our filing many fewer cases than we reviewed. The Times can’t have it both ways--criticizing the LAPD for not bringing enough incidents to us for review even if these incidents do not appear to warrant criminal prosecution, but then criticizing the district attorney’s office for declining to file charges on these same incidents if they do not meet our filing standards.

CLIFFORD KLEIN

Head Deputy District Attorney

Special Investigations Division

L.A. County