LAPD’s Perez Was Dealing Drugs in ‘92, Ex-Lover Says

A former lover of ex-Los Angeles Police Officer Rafael Perez has told LAPD investigators that she witnessed a major cocaine transaction between the onetime Rampart Division officer and another since-disgraced cop, bank robber David Mack, outside a Hollywood nightclub in 1992, according to documents obtained by The Times.

Perez, who has admitted many instances of misconduct, nonetheless has told police and prosecutors that he never committed any crimes with Mack, his former friend and narcotics division partner. He has insisted, according to transcripts of his questioning, that the first time he broke the law as a police officer was after he became a Rampart CRASH officer in 1995.

If substantiated, the woman’s allegations could significantly affect the still-unfolding LAPD corruption scandal on two fronts: First, they suggest that the police criminality at the heart of the scandal extended beyond the troubled Rampart Division and predated the misconduct of that station’s anti-gang CRASH unit. Second, they could undermine prosecutors’ ability to use Perez as a credible witness against other allegedly corrupt cops.

Investigators on the police department’s anti-corruption task force, however, have long suspected that the two were criminal associates. Two days after Mack robbed a Los Angeles bank of more than $700,000 in 1997, the two, along with another LAPD officer, Sam Martin, went to Las Vegas, where they spent thousands of dollars, police said.

The woman’s allegations, if proved, could result in perjury charges against Perez, who a year ago accepted a plea bargain in which he agreed to provide truthful evidence against other corrupt police officers in return for a lighter prison sentence for stealing eight pounds of cocaine being held as evidence at LAPD facilities.

The witness to the alleged narcotics transaction--whose name is being withheld by The Times to protect her safety--said she and Perez had a years-long affair during which she frequently visited an apartment, or so-called crash pad, near the Rampart station where she watched Perez, Martin and numerous other anti-gang officers use drugs, including cocaine.

Perez’s defense attorney, Winston Kevin McKesson, denied the woman’s allegations.

“I can’t comment on this young lady’s motives, expect to say that her story, as far as criminal conduct by Perez, bears no resemblance to reality,” McKesson said Saturday.

Donald M. Re, who represented Mack in the bank robbery case, could not be reached for comment Saturday afternoon. Mack is serving a 14-year sentence in federal prison for the crime.

The woman, now in her mid-20s, was a teenager at the time of the alleged affair and has told investigators that she does not precisely remember the dates she was involved with Perez. Some of her memories, in fact, appear to be wrong. For example, she said Perez took her to see a particular movie late in 1991. According to investigators, the film had not yet been released.

But Perez has admitted to investigators that he had sex with the woman on one occasion, according to transcripts of interviews with his interrogators that were obtained by The Times. The woman was also able to lead investigators, unassisted, to the secret crash pad near the Rampart station. Perez told his interrogators that he never took her there. She also knew where Perez and his family lived.

Although the woman was interviewed by LAPD investigators eight months ago, prosecutors were not given transcripts of her statements until two weeks ago, according to a source familiar with the case and a district attorney’s office document obtained by The Times.

Last week, prosecutors turned her allegations over to defense lawyers who are attempting to overturn the murder conviction of a man who says Perez framed him. In part, defense lawyers allege, Perez did that by using his relationship with the young woman to persuade her to testify falsely that she had witnessed Anthony Adams’ committing the slaying for which he subsequently was convicted of murder.

Although the woman implicates Perez in a host of other crimes, she denies that he asked her to commit perjury in Adams’ case.

Despite her insistence that she witnessed the killing, Adams’ lawyer, Arthur Goldberg, said the involvement of an alleged eyewitness in an undisclosed sexual relationship with one of the investigators in his client’s case is enough to overturn Adams’ conviction.

“How could they not release him?” asked Goldberg, who provided the documents to The Times. “The crime here is that they held back information. . . . It’s disgusting.”

LAPD Cmdr. David J. Kalish, the department’s spokesman, said there was no intentional delay in release of the material.

“This is a complex situation,” Kalish said. “This woman’s allegations are being thoroughly investigated.”

Whatever the effect of her allegations on Adams’ case, the woman offers another sordid account of the alleged misconduct of Perez and his former colleagues in the Rampart Division.

She claims that she met Perez some time in 1991, when he and his then-partner, Martin, raided a nightclub across the street from the Rampart Station. The woman told investigators she was among a number of underage patrons in the club who were lined up outside and questioned.

She said Perez gave her his business card and she called him a few days later. She became friends with both Perez and Martin, eventually becoming intimate with Perez, she said.

During the relationship, which allegedly spanned about five years, she sometimes visited a third-floor apartment on Marathon Street, about a two-minute drive from the Rampart station. During one party there, attended by about 10 or 15 officers, she said, she saw “most of the people at the party” smoking marijuana. She identified several of the officers who were allegedly at the party from photos, according to documents.

During the time she knew Perez and Martin, she told investigators, she saw both of them snort cocaine on at least one occasion. She saw them smoke marijuana frequently, she said.

Martin has been relieved of duty for months. His attorney, John Lee, said Martin’s contact with the woman in question was strictly professional. He knew her as a witness to the killing in which Adams was convicted, Lee said. Martin never saw her socially, nor did he have any knowledge of her being romantically involved with Perez, the lawyer said.

But the young woman told investigators that she and Perez and Martin had occasionally gone to nightclubs together. One of them was the Guatalinda, in Hollywood off Hollywood Boulevard, she said.

One night, as Perez and the woman drove to Guatalinda in a black BMW, Perez took out his cell phone and called a friend, according to a transcript of her interview. When they arrived, then-Officer Mack, dressed in baggy jeans and polo shirt, walked out of the club and approached the car.

He got into the back seat of the BMW. There, the woman said, she saw Perez hand Mack six zip-lock baggies, each about 4-inches square and stuffed with cocaine. Mack then handed Perez a brown paper bag, according to a summary of her interview.

In addition to that drug transaction, the woman said, she also was with Perez on a number of occasions when he dropped off brown paper bags to friends. Perez made deliveries both on and off duty, she said, and some of the exchanges were with other police officers.

Perez also made deliveries to the owner and some security guards at another nightclub, near the intersection of Sunset Boulevard and Figueroa Street, according to the woman.

According to Perez, he first met the woman on Feb. 7, 1996, when he responded to the scene of a gang murder outside a fast-food restaurant. He said the woman was a witness to the murder, which was allegedly committed by a member of the gang that Perez was monitoring as a CRASH officer. He said his professional relationship with the woman turned personal on only one occasion, at a hotel in Burbank.

LAPD investigators, however, started to interrogate Perez further about the woman’s allegations, including her charge that he impregnated her, took her to get an abortion and drove her to various nightclubs and to the Rampart “crash pad.”

“We never went anywhere in public,” he told interrogators.

As the questioning progressed, Perez softened his stance, according to the transcripts. He said it was possible that he might have taken her to a party once, and that she might have seen him during the police raid at the bar near the Rampart station, but that he did not recall meeting her.

“I see where this is all going,” Perez told detectives.

“You guys are going to have to investigate a little bit more. I think she’s really feeding you guys a bunch of junk,” he said.

This is not the first time Perez’s credibility has come under attack. He has lied--or been mistaken--in his testimony at the disciplinary hearings of several of his former colleagues in the Rampart Division.

Just this week, Officer Lawrence Martinez was found not guilty of all four counts of misconduct against him in a gun possession case after it was disclosed that Perez was either lying or confused about the identity of a key informant in the case.

In another case, charges were dropped against an officer who Perez claimed was at an on-duty “mug party,” where alcohol was consumed. The officer subsequently produced a picture showing that he was at Disneyland with his family on the day in question.

A lieutenant from the Rampart corruption task force testified in June, however, that investigators had been able to corroborate 70% to 80% of the allegations Perez has made.

In an interview earlier this year, Police Chief Bernard C. Parks said he was not convinced that Perez was being totally forthcoming about his involvement with Mack.

“We believe he knows far more than he’s talking about,” Parks said. “He steers clear of Mack totally. . . . Mack is a guy they all fear.”