Former Police Panel Head Agrees Parks Misled Board

Former Los Angeles Police Commission President Raquelle de la Rocha spoke publicly Wednesday in support of three current police commissioners who said this week that they based their decision to oust Chief Bernard C. Parks in part on him misleading them about one of his job performance reviews.

De la Rocha, who was called by the commission during their deliberations Monday to share her account, said Parks had knowingly given them a draft performance review instead of a final version. Contrary to the chief’s claims, she added, Parks knew the document was only a draft and no final evaluation was issued. “I told him explicitly,” she said.

Parks on Wednesday strongly objected to the allegation that he had acted deceitfully, and he gave a different version of events.

The chief acknowledged that he had contacted De la Rocha as she described, and that she told him his evaluation wasn’t finished. He said De la Rocha told him she needed more information, which he and others provided.

Parks then assumed, when he received the hand-delivered evaluation some time later, that it was the finished report, he said. He reiterated that the document looked like all the other completed ones.

The Police Commission voted 4 to 1 Tuesday to reject Parks’ application for a second five-year term, climaxing a drama that began in February when Mayor James K. Hahn voiced his opposition to the chief. Up until then, many city officials had assumed the chief’s position was secure.

Commissioners did not have to follow Hahn’s recommendation, but they did anyway, citing the disputed personnel evaluation among their reasons.

Commissioners said Parks submitted a long report to the commission defending his tenure, citing in several places excerpts from a 2001 performance evaluation signed by De la Rocha, who was commission president then.

Commissioners later determined that the evaluation had not been approved by the full commission, and was instead a draft written by De la Rocha, who was generally supportive of the chief but also sometimes took him to task.

Current Commission President Rick J. Caruso in particular characterized this finding as an influential factor in key votes against Parks. He said it led him and others to question the chief’s integrity.

De la Rocha said Wednesday that she had told Parks the evaluation was just a draft when he called her recently to ask for a copy. “He said, ‘At least it counts as to what you thought,’ ” she said.