N.Y. Mob Prosecutor to Take On the LAPD

Michael Cherkasky spent years prosecuting members of the mob in New York City. He took on guys with names like Gotti and Gambino, and lived to tell about it.

Now he has a new task, one he says could prove to be the toughest of all: straightening out the Los Angeles Police Department.

City and federal officials--acting with the blessing of a federal judge--recently chose Cherkasky to serve as the court monitor overseeing the implementation of the LAPD consent decree. That means Cherkasky, for the next five years, must make sure the department finally implements a stringent set of reforms aimed at ending a “pattern or practice” of abuse and misconduct.

In recent weeks, the native New Yorker has made Los Angeles his second home, bringing with him former New York Police Commissioner William J. Bratton and a number of other law enforcement experts as part of his team. All work for Kroll Associates, an investigative firm best known for its success in searching for assets hidden by ousted Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos and Saddam Hussein.

“Police corruption is the single most difficult investigative thing that I’ve done,” said Cherkasky, who spent more than 15 years as a prosecutor. “You are dealing with people who know the system--and how to get around it. While the world of organized crime can be difficult to penetrate, the walls of silence can be even harder to penetrate in police departments.”

Cherkasky and his team spent Monday in meetings with LAPD brass, union officials and officers in an effort to compile their first assessment of the department’s reform efforts. The report is due out in September.

Known as fair but tough, Cherkasky, 51, is viewed by some police watchdogs as the city’s best hope for cleaning up the force. Others, however, have expressed concern that he is too much of an outsider to understand the history and culture of the LAPD.

“It’s hard to know how he’ll do absent a significant knowledge of Los Angeles,” Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas said. “Yes, there’s an advantage in having a fresh perspective, but there is something to be said for having history. When it comes to police reform, you have to know where the bodies are buried.”

He added: “I remain hopeful, but I’m not convinced.”

USC law professor Erwin C. Chemerinsky, an expert on LAPD corruption, said he believes that Cherkasky is up to the challenge.

An Easy Smile Belies Dogged Determination

As a successful mob buster, Cherkasky is doggedly determined--an attribute that is masked by his easy smile.

Tall and thin, he comes across as confident yet down to earth--the kind of guy you could laugh with over a burger and beer.

He’s also a self-described family man, who was greatly influenced by his father, a highly respected New York hospital administrator who became a top advisor to Mayor Ed Koch.

Cherkasky and his wife have four children. Although he plans to spend most of the summer in Los Angeles, he says he’s determined to return to his house in the suburbs outside New York City on the weekends to coach his daughter’s soccer team.

“I’ve been very impressed,” said Chemerinsky, who met with Cherkasky on one of his recent trips to Los Angeles. “Although he doesn’t know Los Angeles, he has a very realistic sense of what the obstacles are. He has expressed exactly the right sentiment and commitment to reform.”

Efforts to overhaul the LAPD have had many false starts.

After the Rodney King beating in 1991, a commission led by former U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher recommended dozens of fixes, including developing a system to identify problem officers.

Although city officials and the LAPD made an effort to address the concerns, some of the most important Christopher Commission recommendations were never fully implemented. That fact became obvious two years ago amid the Rampart Division corruption scandal, which raised allegations that LAPD officers illegally arrested people, manufactured evidence, testified falsely at trial and in some instances beat and shot people.

After the Rampart scandal erupted, the Justice Department, under the Clinton administration, decided to step in to force the city to finally address the LAPD’s long-standing problems. Justice officials gave the city a choice: Fight them in court or enter into a court-approved agreement to overhaul the department.

With LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks and then-Mayor Richard Riordan reluctantly acquiescing, the city agreed to enter into the consent decree in November.

Over the next five years, the LAPD must make dozens of changes. The most complex one includes developing a computer system to keep track of complaints, use-of-force incidents and other information that could be used to identify rogue cops.

The department must also require officers to provide detailed information on all their traffic stops, in an effort to make sure they are not engaging in “racial profiling.”

Cherkasky will be expected to develop a set of criteria to measure the department’s compliance with the agreement.

He will warn city and police officials if there are violations, and report disputes over compliance issues to U.S. District Judge Gary Feess, who was randomly picked by the court to oversee the decree. Coincidentally, Feess served as general counsel to the Christopher Commission before he became a judge.

City officials said Cherkasky and Kroll Associates stood out among nearly 20 applicants for the monitoring job, in part because of their experience in taking on tough assignments and Cherkasky’s reputation for being thorough and fair.

Cherkasky headed the Investigations Division for the New York County district attorney’s office, where he investigated fraud, corruption, money laundering and organized crime figures.

He prosecuted mob leader John Gotti. He busted corrupt building inspectors in New York City. He headed the team that prosecuted Thomas and Joseph Gambino, the mobster brothers who controlled trucking in New York City’s garment industry.

He says he refuses to watch “The Sopranos,” the cable TV hit about a Mafia family, because he’s already “lived it.”

“The running joke is that I have my wife start the car in the morning,” Cherkasky said.

He said that although he’s never ignored the dangers of his job, he doesn’t let them control his life.

“I’m listed in the phone book,” Cherkasky said. “When you’re asking people to testify for you, you have to have that attitude that this is part of my business. . . . I’m out there, too.”

Liberal Background, but Unbiased Leaning

Although he comes from a liberal background, he is registered to vote as an independent because he believes prosecutors should remain unbiased.

In 1993, he unsuccessfully ran for district attorney in New York’s Westchester County. After his defeat, Cherkasky went to work for Kroll, where he focused on setting up a special monitoring section to make sure companies complied with terms of consent decrees.

In 1995, Cherkasky served as a court-appointed monitor for the cleanup of the New Jersey garbage collection industry--a role that earned him the title “garbage czar.”

A year later he was hired to advise an Orange County grand jury investigating the county bankruptcy. Shortly after that, he was appointed to oversee an International Brotherhood of Teamsters election and imposed fines on the eventual victor, James P. Hoffa, for campaign finance irregularities.

Cherkasky is “very careful, knowledgeable and independent,” said New York County Dist. Atty. Robert M. Morgenthau. “He has complete integrity. He calls them as he sees them. He wouldn’t hesitate to say what he finds and what he thinks. He won’t come in with any particular bias.”

Cherkasky also received high marks after his initial meeting with the LAPD.

“All we ever wanted is a fair assessment of what we are doing,” LAPD Deputy Chief David Gascon said. “We believe an objective person will look at us and see that this is an outstanding organization that is doing what needs to be done.

“These are bright, professional people,” Gascon said of Cherkasky and his team. “I don’t think we’ll have any problems with them at all. They are going to come in and do the right thing--and see that we are doing the right thing.”

Cherkasky will head a group of law enforcement experts that includes Bratton, former Baltimore Police Commissioner Tom Frazier and Phoenix Police Chief Harold Hurtt.

“What happened here, with the whole Rampart issue, has been something that is destructive to the faith that people have had in their police officers,” Cherkasky said. “This is not what people want; it’s not what the community wants. A war on crime is great, but in the vernacular of the 1980s, we have to make sure friendly fire doesn’t hit our constitutional rights.”

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Michael Cherkasky

* Age: 51

* Residence: Larchmont, N.Y.

* Education: Bachelor’s and law degrees from Case Western Reserve University.

* Career highlights: President and chief operating officer of Kroll Associates, an investigative and intelligence-gathering firm. During his long career with the New York County district attorney’s office, he investigated fraud, corruption, money laundering and organized crime figures, including John Gotti.

* Family: Married, four children.