3 Ex-Rampart Officers Charged in Beating and Cover-Up

Prosecutors in the LAPD corruption probe have quietly filed criminal charges against three former Rampart Division officers in connection with the alleged beating of a reputed gang member in 1998, according to court documents.

The action against the three officers represents a significant step forward in the investigations of police misconduct generated by former Officer Rafael Perez’s allegations of widespread corruption within the LAPD. Besides adding three officers to the growing roll of those hauled into court for alleged crimes, the latest developments reveal that some police officers may be cooperating with prosecutors attempting to confirm Perez’s accounts.

If so, that could reinvigorate the corruption investigation, which has not registered much obvious progress in recent months.

The charges against former officers Shawn Gomez, Manuel Chavez and Ethan Cohan were filed Friday. As part of secret agreements sealed by the court, Gomez pleaded no contest to filing a false police report in connection with the incident, and Chavez pleaded no contest to assault. The two men, who have since resigned from the Police Department, were released on their own recognizance and are scheduled to be sentenced in July.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Cohan, who is charged with five counts--including assault with a deadly weapon, perjury, filing a false police report and conspiracy. His attorney said Cohan plans to surrender to authorities and plead not guilty.

So far, eight LAPD officers have been charged in connection with the scandal. Perez detailed alleged crimes by police colleagues in return for a lighter sentence for stealing cocaine from the Police Department evidence locker.

The new charges are the first Rampart-related cases to be filed by Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, who has promised to move more aggressively than his predecessor, Gil Garcetti, to root out police corruption. Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for the D.A.’s office, declined comment.

The charges and subsequent pleas also seem to bolster the credibility of Perez, who has been accused by critics of making false accusations against his onetime colleagues in Rampart’s anti-gang CRASH unit.

Chavez’s attorney said that despite the plea, his client still maintains he committed no misconduct.

“My client did not do anything that Perez alleged he did,” said attorney Etan Z. Lorant. He said Chavez entered the plea rather than take the risk of fighting more charges that might stem from that incident.

Lorant said his client will cooperate with prosecutors. He noted that it was only after Perez’s charges were leveled that Chavez learned that the police report had been fabricated.

Gomez’s attorney declined comment Monday, citing a court order not to discuss the case.

The incident at the center of the latest charges first came to light 18 months ago, when Perez told LAPD investigators during a then-secret debriefing that he and other officers beat a man named Gabriel Aguirre on March 26, 1998, and then conspired to cover it up.

According to Perez, he and other officers were on patrol, looking for Aguirre, who was wanted on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. They found Aguirre, Perez said, sleeping in an abandoned apartment.

Perez said the officers, unprovoked, attacked Aguirre.

“Cohan probably kicked him probably at least 20 times,” Perez said. “Chavez hit him with [a] flashlight, uh, a bunch of times. . . . While the guy is kneeling down, facing the wall, Officer Chavez kicked him in the groin area from behind.”

Perez said Gomez and another officer, Camerino Mesina, participated in the assault on Aguirre.

After the beating, Perez said, the officers concocted a story to account for Aguirre’s injuries.

“We knew a complaint was gonna come down from this,” Perez said. “We started discussing about how we’re gonna, uh, justify, explain all this.”

As the officers spoke, Aguirre could hear them and said, “Oh, yeah. Now, you guys are gonna cover it up,” Perez recalled.

“I went over there and pushed him up against the wall,” Perez admitted to investigators. “ . . . An abrasion occurred where a little blood trickled down.” Aguirre was pushed so hard into a wall that his body punched a hole through the plaster, according to D.A. documents.

When a sergeant, Paul Byrnes, arrived on the scene, Perez said, he and the other officers told him two different stories.

“At first, we told him how it actually happened, how this guy was beat down,” Perez said. “And then, uh, we told him how we were gonna explain it.”

Perez said the sergeant, who has since been found not guilty of misconduct stemming from the incident by an LAPD disciplinary board, directed officers to pour beer on a nearby fire escape to help support their tale that Aguirre got some of his injuries when he slipped and fell during a chase.

“He helped in the covering up,” Perez said. “He’s one of the supervisors that you do not tell him a bologna story, you know, that you’re trying to create to cover it up,” Perez said. “You tell him the truth, how you thumped this guy or whatever happened. And then he’ll agree with you, or not agree with you, on how to cover it up. And if he doesn’t agree with what you’re saying, he’ll help you.”

Byrnes could not be reached for comment Monday. As part of the cover-up, Perez and Mesina coerced a gang member to back the officers’ fabricated account, according to documents. Mesina has not been charged in connection with the incident, according to court records.

According to prosecution docu ments, LAPD detectives have been to the scene of the alleged beating and identified two areas of the wall that have been repaired--indicating to them that either might be the spot where Aguirre allegedly was pushed through.

Attorney Harland Braun, who represents Cohan, said his client is attending law school in New York and plans to fly back to Los Angeles today to answer to the charges. The former officer will plead not guilty, Braun said.

Cohan was fired from the LAPD in 1999 in connection with the alleged beating of another gang member. That gang member was beaten by another officer, but LAPD officials said they believed that Cohan lied about his knowledge of that incident. Cohan also denies wrongdoing in that case.

Braun said he interpreted the sealed pleas by Gomez and Chavez as an indication that those officers were cooperating with authorities in connection with the Aguirre case.

After an inquiry by The Times on Monday, Braun said he learned that LAPD investigators were in New York and planning to contact Cohan directly. The lawyer said he presumed the investigators have been preparing to “squeeze” Cohan to get him to cooperate too.

“I’m his lawyer, and they didn’t tell me about any of this, so that makes me very suspicious,” Braun said.