LAPD Pair Focus of Criminal Probe

Federal and local authorities are investigating allegations that a pair of Los Angeles police officers committed a series of armed robberies, stealing narcotics and money from drug dealers, according to sources and documents.

Although Officer Ruben Palomares was earlier named as a suspect in the crimes, authorities are now probing whether he and Officer William Ferguson were involved in a criminal partnership similar to that of Rafael Perez and Nino Durden, the former LAPD officers at the center of the so-called Rampart scandal.

The investigation of Palomares and Ferguson is unrelated to the Rampart case, and comes just as that probe is winding down. Law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation into the alleged activities of Palomares and Ferguson said other officers, both from within the LAPD and from outside agencies, are under scrutiny as part of the probe.

The sources, who requested anonymity due to the confidential nature of the investigation, declined to elaborate on its scope or current status.

Attorneys for Palomares and Ferguson, both of whom are suspended without pay, denied that the two were involved in any crimes together. Neither has been charged in the alleged rip-offs.

“I think they’re out there pounding the pavement, chasing ghosts,” said attorney Robert Rico, who represents Ferguson. The lawyer for Palomares declined comment.

Federal investigators, along with the LAPD, launched the probe in June shortly after Palomares was arrested while allegedly attempting to buy 10 kilos of cocaine from undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agents in San Diego.

One of the men with Palomares that day immediately confessed to the drug deal, according to several law enforcement sources. He also told authorities that he was with Palomares during the commission of several other crimes, including the attempted armed robbery of a drug dealer and a murder in Huntington Park. He did not implicate Ferguson in the slaying.

The cooperating witness, 26-year-old Alvin Moon, picked Ferguson out of a photo lineup and alleged that he participated in some of the robberies of drug dealers, according to several sources familiar with the case. Moon told investigators that the stolen drugs were then given to two other men--cousins of Palomares--to sell on the street, according to confidential court documents reviewed by The Times.

Palomares, 32, is in custody in San Diego awaiting trial. Ferguson, 29, has been relieved of duty without pay for more than a year pending an internal disciplinary hearing into unrelated misconduct charges.

Police Commission President Rick Caruso said he was “angered and troubled” by the alleged actions of Ferguson and Palomares.

“The investigation is going to take us wherever it needs to take us. My biggest concern right now is to make sure [LAPD detectives] have all the resources they need to fully investigate this and get to the bottom of it.”

Moon pleaded guilty in federal court earlier this month in connection with the San Diego cocaine deal. His attorney, Jeremy Warren, declined to comment on whether Moon is cooperating with authorities.

According to sources familiar with Moon’s initial statements to investigators, he said he was with Palomares, Ferguson and others when they burst into a Los Angeles-area automotive shop in search of a large stash of narcotics. Moon said he believed the shop was targeted based on information either Ferguson or Palomares obtained while working for the Los Angeles Police Department.

Although they came up empty-handed on that occasion, Moon told authorities that he had heard boasts that the officers had acquired large quantities of narcotics during other robberies, according to one source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Federal Authorities Pursue Racketeering Case

According to several law enforcement sources, federal authorities are pursuing a racketeering case against the officers under the theory that the robberies, the murder and perhaps other crimes were part of a continuing criminal enterprise.

The alleged crimes are believed to have been committed over the last two years, authorities said. During that time, Ferguson was assigned to the LAPD’s Southeast Division. Palomares was assigned to the Training Division and later the Northeast Division.

As part of the investigation, authorities have conducted several searches. Within hours of Palomares’ arrest in San Diego, investigators seized half a dozen unregistered assault weapons and a money-counting machine from the Diamond Bar home he shares with his girlfriend, who is also an LAPD officer.

Law enforcement sources said evidence suggests that Palomares was generating significant income beyond his police salary of no more than $60,000. During the DEA drug sting in San Diego, Palomares is alleged to have provided half of the $130,000 to buy the 10 kilograms of cocaine.

Since the search of Palomares’ home in June, state Department of Fish and Game agents, at the request of investigators, searched Ferguson’s boat after a fishing trip off San Diego. That search turned up nothing, according to Ferguson’s attorney.

Investigators have also searched the home of the brother of Palomares’ girlfriend, after Moon claimed that it was once used as a location to store stolen narcotics. That search also was fruitless, said the attorney, Rico.

Rico said Moon had a motive to falsely implicate Officer Ferguson. He said the two were at a barbecue at Palomares’ house last spring when they got into a fistfight over some rude comments Moon allegedly made about some of the guests.

“He had reason to get back at Bill [Ferguson],” the lawyer said.

But several law enforcement sources involved in the investigation say Moon has proven so far to be a credible witness, based in part on the information he provided regarding the killing of 23-year-old Erick Mendoza of Huntington Park last December.

Informant’s Story Matches Security Video

At the time, police had no suspects in the case. Moon, after his arrest in the drug sting, volunteered that Mendoza was punched multiple times by Palomares, a Golden Gloves boxer who once sparred with ex-world champion Oscar De La Hoya. After the barrage, Palomares’ cousin Oscar Loaiza fatally stabbed the young man, according to Moon.

Moon said the killing followed an argument between Palomares and the victim outside a late-night restaurant, where the officer allegedly drew a gun.

Moon’s statement dovetailed with a security videotape of a man brandishing a weapon. Police have since identified the man on tape as Palomares and consider the murder solved. Loaiza is being sought by authorities.

Although the investigation into Palomares and Ferguson does not stem from the Rampart investigation, both officers spent time in the troubled division during the same period in the late 1990s that Perez said criminal activity and misconduct flourished.

In fact, Perez, the ex-cop-turned-informant, identified Palomares as a corrupt officer during interviews with LAPD detectives.

“I would look at everything Palomares has done, every arrest that he’s made and scrutinize it very carefully,” Perez told investigators during a debriefing in November 2000.

Perez also implicated Palomares in an allegedly unjustified shooting of a drug dealer in the Rampart Division in 1998. According to Perez, Palomares and his then-partner intimated to him that they had planted a shotgun on the previously unarmed man to justify their actions. That shooting remains under investigation.

Perez said nothing about Ferguson in his statements to investigators.

According to court records, Ferguson was arrested for burglary in January 1991. He was 18 at the time and pleaded no contest to misdemeanor attempted burglary. He was sentenced to three years’ probation, records show. Though a felony conviction bars an applicant from being hired by the LAPD, a misdemeanor does not necessarily do so.

After a stint in the Marines, Ferguson joined the department in 1997. From the start, the young officer was the subject of several misconduct investigations, first during his probationary term at Rampart and later during his assignment in the Southeast Division.

Young Officer Was in Trouble From Start

Ferguson has faced departmental disciplinary charges on four occasions for alleged offenses ranging from forging a supervisor’s signature to filing false reports and threatening to plant evidence on a suspect. He was exonerated of misconduct charges at two internal disciplinary hearings and suspended for 15 days at another in which he was found guilty of “inappropriately [signing] a supervisor’s signature” to an investigative document.

The last--and most serious--case against Ferguson is pending. He faces 15 counts of misconduct stemming from the events leading up to, and after, a Feb. 8, 1999, police shooting. Investigators allege that Ferguson lied about the circumstances of the shooting in which he fired at, but missed, an alleged drug dealer. They also accused him of falsely arresting witnesses to the shooting on drug charges a week later.

Concerned that Ferguson was engaged in possible criminal activity, LAPD investigators searched his locker and found a replica handgun that, in the opinion of one detective, was most likely possessed by Ferguson to be used as “planted evidence.”

According to a court affidavit filed at the time of the search, Ferguson’s supervisors believed he exhibited a “pattern of conduct that is consistent with criminal police misconduct during narcotics investigations. The misconduct includes manufacturing evidence and unreasonable and/or illegal entries into private residences.”

Civil Suit Cost City $1.7 Million Last Month

Last month, the city agreed to pay $1.7 million to settle a civil lawsuit filed by the man at whom Ferguson shot, and others who claimed they were tormented by the officer. The settlement came after Ferguson and his partner, Jeffrey Robb, known on the streets as Batman and Robin, refused to testify under oath, citing their constitutional right against self-incrimination.

Attorney Rico, who represented Palomares before becoming Ferguson’s lawyer, said the two officers are friends, but he declined to provide details about their relationship.

Two acquaintances of Palomares, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Ferguson often hung out at Palomares’ Diamond Bar home, drinking beer and lounging by the pool.

Ferguson also appeared to be friends with another of Palomares’ cousins, Gabriel Loaiza, who was was arrested along with Palomares after the alleged cocaine deal in San Diego. Earlier this year, Ferguson attempted to use his clout as an LAPD officer to get Loaiza a job as a security guard, according to a source who also asked not to be identified.

Gabriel Loaiza pleaded not guilty in the San Diego cocaine case. His lawyer declined to comment on Moon’s allegations.

According to Assistant U.S. Atty. Randy Jones, Gabriel Loaiza was Palomares’ “right-hand man” and a wannabe police officer who had job applications pending with several law enforcement agencies.

“He wanted to become a police officer so he could get a badge [and] do the type of rip-offs Mr. Palomares was doing,” the prosecutor said during a June court hearing.