Perez Role in Probe Is Finished, Officials Say

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office plans to tell a judge today that it no longer needs former LAPD officer Rafael Perez in connection with the Rampart corruption investigation and that he can be sent to state prison to finish out his sentence for stealing cocaine.

“Basically, what we’re saying is he doesn’t have to be housed [in Los Angeles] anymore,” said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney.

Perez, a key figure in the Rampart police scandal, has been at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood since his August 1998 arrest on charges that he stole eight pounds of cocaine from the Los Angeles Police Department’s evidence room.

A hearing is set for 8:30 a.m. before Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry, who sentenced Perez last February to five years in prison as part of a plea agreement.

The district attorney’s office wrote Perry a letter explaining why Perez can now be moved, but the judge refused Thursday to release it to the news media.

Perez’s attorney, Kevin McKesson, declined to comment about the hearing.

“I’ll see what happens tomorrow,” the lawyer said.

It is not clear what the latest development will mean for Perez’s former partner, LAPD Officer Nino Durden, who is scheduled to go on trial later this year on charges of attempted murder. Durden faces the most serious charges in the ongoing Rampart investigation.

The victim of the shooting, Javier Francisco Ovando, was paralyzed and sued the city. The City Council recently approved a $15-million settlement.

Perez reached a plea agreement with the district attorney’s office shortly after promising to help prosecutors root out corruption in the LAPD’s Rampart Division.

His statements helped lead to the suspension of dozens of officers, the overturning of about 100 tainted cases and the arrest of five officers, including Durden.

Three policemen, Sgts. Edward Ortiz and Brian Liddy, and Officer Michael Buchanan, were convicted in November of framing gang members. However, their convictions were overturned by a judge. A fourth officer was acquitted.

The district attorney’s office is appealing the decision overturning the verdicts.

While Perez’s testimony has aided investigators in their quest to uncover corruption in the LAPD, he has been a problematic witness for prosecutors.

The trial of Ortiz, Liddy and Buchanan was overshadowed by Perez’s former girlfriend accusing him of murder. The woman later recanted, saying she sought revenge against Perez for breaking her heart.

Allegedly Bragged About Fabrications

While incarcerated, Perez has bragged about “making stuff up” to get back at cops he did not like and about making lots of money with a book or movie deal, according to jail informants. Perez even got into a fistfight in November after his fellow inmates refused to let him watch the television show “Cops.”

In recent weeks, his role as an informant has grown even more strained. Federal prosecutors concluded that the immunity deal he reached with the district attorney did not protect him from federal prosecution, according to sources. Since that decision, the chatty Perez has grown quiet, sources have told The Times.

Attorney McKesson has not made his client available to testify at the disciplinary hearings of officers accused of corruption-related offenses.

McKesson declined to say whether his client is still cooperating with authorities. He blamed Perez’s recent absences from disciplinary hearings on scheduling conflicts.