Perez Won’t Be Called, Prosecutors Confirm

Prosecutors in the Rampart police corruption trial told a Superior Court judge Thursday that they will rest their case Monday without calling Rafael Perez, the rogue police officer who launched the scandal that freed a hundred convicts.

The prosecution also will not call three gang members allegedly framed by Rampart officers of crimes they didn’t commit.

Defense attorneys for the four suspended Los Angeles police officers on trial said they would immediately ask the judge to dismiss the charges for lack of evidence.

“No Perez. No Lobos. No Hassan. No Natividad,” said defense attorney Harland W. Braun, ticking off the surnames of the missing prosecution witnesses.

“No case,” he added.

Although asking for dismissal is a routine legal move and occurs in nearly every criminal trial, this time defense attorneys for the officers are confident that Perez’s absence could allow them to prevail on at least some of the counts.

Perez’s testimony was considered crucial in linking the officers to the most serious charge: conspiracy to obstruct or pervert justice.

Analysts have predicted that Perez’s absence from the stand would deal a fatal blow to this and any future Rampart prosecutions based on his accusations.

Caught stealing $1 million worth of cocaine, Perez turned informant in exchange for a lenient sentence and started naming names. The four officers on trial were the first to face criminal charges in connection with Perez’s confessions. They are Sgts. Edward Ortiz, 44, and Brian Liddy, 39, and Officers Paul Harper, 33, and Michael Buchanan, 30.

The four are accused of framing gang members by planting evidence and lying on police reports and in court.

Besides the conspiracy count, Buchanan is charged with four counts of perjury; Liddy, two counts of filing a false police report and a single count of perjury; Ortiz, two counts of filing false police reports; and Harper, a single count of perjury.

The allegations center on three 1996 arrests. In the first, the officers are accused of loading a gun found in a trunk during a car stop to frame gang member Nabil Hassan, who was acquitted.

Although Buchanan testified in the case, LAPD records show he was on vacation that day. He contends he was at work but arrived late. Defense attorneys say Hassan was not called by prosecutors to testify in the Rampart trial because he can place Buchanan at the scene. In fact, Braun said, Buchanan is among the defendants named in Hassan’s civil suit alleging false arrest.

Liddy and Buchanan also are accused of framing gang members Raul “Prieto” Munoz and Cesar “Joker” Natividad, by claiming the two tried to run them down with a pickup truck.

Munoz testified that he didn’t hit anyone with the truck, but minimized his gang activity and declined to identify which of his fellow gang members had given him a gun to hide on the night of his arrest.

It is not known why prosecutors did not call Natividad.

The victim of a third alleged frame-up, Allan Lobos, was not called because he was prepared to invoke his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination if asked by the defense about a string of unsolved murders.

Perez also would invoke his rights against self-incrimination if asked about a current murder investigation by federal authorities. A former girlfriend has implicated Perez in at least two murders, alleging that Perez and a former partner, convicted bank robber David Mack, dumped three bodies in Mexico. A search for the bodies as the trial began proved fruitless.

During nearly two weeks of testimony, the prosecution’s witnesses--mostly police officers and gang members--have demonstrated foggy memories, prompting jurors to send written questions seeking guidance from the judge in assessing credibility.

One note read: “How do we judge a witness who refuses to answer a question, i.e.: ‘I don’t recall,’ and ‘I don’t remember?’ ”

Another note sent late Thursday asked why police officers can’t remember anything.

Tempers flared at midday as prosecutors waffled about naming their afternoon witnesses.

During the lunch break, Deputy Dist. Atty. Anne Ingalls confronted lead defense attorney Barry Levin in a courthouse corridor and complained, “Your co-counsel is in there calling us pond scum and morons. You’d better get in there and control them.”

The defense was growing frustrated by what Braun described as prosecution stalling tactics. Braun, the lawyer who admits calling the prosecutors names, charged that they were needlessly delaying the trial to avoid an embarrassing verdict on the eve of a contentious district attorney’s election.