Perez’s Partner to Serve 5 Years

Nino Durden, the partner of former LAPD officer Rafael Perez, was sentenced Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court to a five-year prison term for crimes connected to the Rampart corruption scandal.

Durden, 34, pleaded guilty in state court in March 2001 to conspiring to obstruct justice, perjury under oath, grand theft and filing a false police report. He has also pleaded guilty to civil rights violations in federal court and is scheduled to surrender to federal authorities Sept. 12.

Under the terms of a plea agreement, he will serve the five-year state prison sentence at the same time as a three-year federal sentence, authorities said, and he is expected to be free from federal prison by 2005. Because of credits for good behavior, state inmates typically serve less than their prescribed sentences.

Durden, who provided investigators with details on numerous crimes that he and Perez committed, including the cover-up of a shooting of an unarmed man, stood with his head bowed as Superior Court Judge David S. Wesley imposed the sentence. Wesley ordered Durden to surrender Sept. 12, saying that if he failed to do so, “There will be consequences to pay.”

The sentencing is “another step in the unfolding of the saga” of Rampart, head Deputy Dist. Atty. Bill Hodgman said outside court. “I think we are considerably along the way there, but there is still some more to be done and there is still some investigation to be done.”

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has prosecuted nine officers in connection with misconduct in LAPD’s Rampart Division. Seven officers, including Durden and Perez, have been convicted. Three of the jury convictions were overturned and are on appeal. One officer was acquitted and one still awaits trial.

During extensive debriefings with prosecutors and federal agents, Durden admitted that he and Perez shot an unarmed man, Javier Francisco Ovando in 1996, planted a gun on him and lied in court to help send him to prison on a 23-year sentence. Ovando, who was paralyzed below the waist, has since been released from prison and has received a $15-million settlement from the city of Los Angeles.

Durden also admitted guilt in three other incidents in which he said innocent people were either arrested or victimized. Durden said he and Perez framed one man on a weapons charge, stole $1,300 from another and stole property from a third, authorities said.

Durden’s statements to authorities served as a catalyst in prosecuting Perez, who was sentenced in federal court in May to two years in prison for violating Ovando’s civil rights. He also served three years in state prison for stealing cocaine from LAPD evidence lockers before being released last year. Perez was granted immunity from state prosecution for framing Ovando.

Though authorities originally believed that Durden would implicate other officers, he provided details only about crimes that he and his partner committed. Perez, on the other hand, reportedly implicated about 70 Rampart officers in what he said was a pattern of misconduct that involved illegal beatings, shootings and false arrests.

Durden’s attorney, Bill Seki, said outside court that Perez’s version is exaggerated. Seki added that his client knows what he did was wrong, but he should not have received a longer prison sentence than Perez.

“He’s extremely disappointed and probably somewhat angry that he has been made out to be the one to be the bad guy,” Seki said.

Hodgman said that Perez was the top figure in the Rampart misconduct, but that Durden also committed several crimes.

“Durden admitted his culpability in quite a range of misconduct, so as far as I’m concerned, I think the sentence he received today was very fair, even in light of his cooperation,” he said.

Hodgman said the debriefings of Durden helped provide prosecutors with an understanding of what happened at Rampart, though he said authorities will never completely know the extent of misconduct in the division.

“I think we had a situation that was more along the lines of a communist cell-type model as opposed to a vast conspiracy,” he said, adding that Perez gave officials “some truths, some lies, some exaggeration and some speculation.”