Applicants for LAPD Monitor Are Revealed

A two-term California governor, a former New York City police commissioner and a number of well-known attorneys, prosecutors and police experts have applied to serve as the independent monitor overseeing reforms in the Los Angeles Police Department, according to a list of candidates obtained by The Times.

George Deukmejian, who served as California’s governor from 1983 to 1991, applied as part of a team of consultants from a Los Angeles auditing firm. Former New York Police Commissioner William Bratton is one of a group of East Coast law enforcement authorities on the list. Former U.S. Atty. Steven Clymer, best known for his role in the successful federal prosecution of police officers involved in the Rodney G. King beating case, also applied.

Other candidates expressing interest in the job include a former Colorado state legislator, an inspector general of the U.S. Department of Justice in the Clinton administration and the former director of the Illinois State Police.

Officials from the city and the Justice Department are expected to spend the next few weeks reviewing the 19 applications to find the person--or team of people--best suited to monitor the LAPD’s progress in implementing the wide range of remedies outlined in a federal consent decree.

“This is a very high-powered list,” said one city official close to the talks. “These are eminently qualified individuals.”

Although the pay is subject to negotiations, some city officials have projected spending up to $10 million over the next five years on the effort to oversee implementation of the consent decree.

The City Council approved the decree in November under pressure from the Justice Department, which threatened to file a lawsuit alleging that the LAPD engaged in a “pattern or practice” of civil rights violations.

The proposed reforms include a computerized “early warning” system to identity problem officers, a new LAPD unit to investigate officer-involved shootings and more powers for the civilian Police Commission and its inspector general. The monitor is expected to give status reports on a regular basis to a federal judge assigned to the case.

The applicants were required to submit letters of interest to the city by Jan. 16. City officials had refused to release the names of the people expressing interest in the job, but changed their position after The Times sought access to the list under the California Public Records Act. The names were released for the first time to the City Council on Thursday.

Those applying include:

* Robert C. Bonner, a former federal prosecutor who served as head of the Drug Enforcement Administration during the elder George Bush’s presidency. Bonner, who has been a federal judge, is part of a team that includes attorney Richard Mosk and former county Supervisor Ed Edelman.

* Rose Ochi, the first Asian American woman named an assistant U.S. attorney general. She was interned at a camp for Japanese Americans during World War II, and serves on a Justice Department advisory committee for the Manzanar camp. She has applied along with Penny Harrington, the former police chief of Portland, Ore.

* James Ginger, a professor and former police officer who is the monitor overseeing the implementation of a similar consent decree in Pittsburgh and New Jersey.

* Michael St. Denis, a Los Angeles-based attorney. He represented the owner of a Texas cattle-feeding operation who claimed that a comment on the Oprah Winfrey show about “mad cow” disease--and the ensuing plunge in cattle futures and cattle prices--cost him $6.7 million.

* Donald E. Mielke, a former Colorado district attorney, former state representative and former chairman of an American Bar Assn. committee that studied victims’ rights across the country.

* Julio A. Thompson, a member of the team that produced the Kolts Report on reforming the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. He has applied along with Julie Fox Blackshaw, a former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted defense industry fraud cases, and defense attorney Mark A. Borenstein.

* William A. Geller, a criminologist who worked for the U.S. Justice Department studying the police use of deadly force. He applied along with Wayne Kerstetter, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

* Robert Aaronson, an attorney who was a finalist for the Los Angeles Police Commission inspector general. He also worked on the conduct review policy of the California Peace Officers Assn.

* Steven A. Mansfield, who served as a deputy general counsel for the Rampart Independent Review Panel, which was created by the Police Commission last year. He is a former U.S. attorney who specialized in high-profile corruption cases.

* Nicholas DeWitt, former assistant U.S. attorney, advocate for the disabled and lawyer to pop star Madonna. Also applying with DeWitt is attorney Charles Pereyra-Suarez, special advisor to the Los Angeles Police Commission in 1992.

* Walter S. Mack Jr., head of the Organized Crime Unit for the U.S. attorney’s office in the Southern District of New York and former New York Police Department deputy commissioner.

* Andrea Sheridan Ordin, a U.S. attorney under President Jimmy Carter and member of the Christopher Commission, which investigated the LAPD after the Rodney G. King beating.

* Michael Bromwich, a former inspector general for the U.S. Justice Department.

* Carroll Buracker, a public safety consultant who studied how to upgrade the Los Angeles Fire Department dispatch system.

The list also includes a number of former police chiefs. Among them are Patrick Ahlstom, former executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety; Jeremy D. Margolis, a former federal prosecutor and later director of the Illinois State Police; and Joseph E. Brann, former Hayward, Calif., police chief and former director of the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Community-Oriented Policing Services.

Attorney Stephen Yagman did not appear on the list although he had sent a letter to the federal judge overseeing the decree expressing interest in the job.

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Times researchers John Jackson, Janet Lundblad and Cary Schneider contributed to this story.