Former Officer Gets 60 Days

A former officer in LAPD’s Rampart Division was given a 60-day sentence Thursday for his role in the 1998 beating of a reputed gang member.

Manuel Chavez, 32, who pleaded no contest to assault under the color of authority more than two years ago as part of a plea bargain, also was ordered to serve three years’ probation. He must surrender to authorities by Aug. 22.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge David Wesley reduced Chavez’s original one-year sentence to two months after he cooperated with prosecutors.

The judge also said that he was not opposed to Chavez’s serving the time through electronic monitoring under house arrest.

A defense attempt to reduce the sentence further was denied.

“When the public trust is violated, when an officer wears that badge and the public trust is violated, it simply is not tolerated,” Wesley said.

Chavez was charged with assaulting Gerardo Zarate during a March 26, 1998, raid at an abandoned apartment.

Officers were looking for Gabriel Aguirre, who was wanted on an assault charge.

Aguirre, who was found asleep in the apartment, was attacked by Officer Ethan Cohan, according to court testimony. Chavez then conspired with other officers, including Cohan and Officer Shawn Gomez, to cover up the incident, testimony showed.

During the attack, Zarate, described by prosecutors as “just a guy who was in the room,” was kicked multiple times by Chavez, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Goudy said.

Asking the court, the victim and his family to forgive him, Chavez said: “My debt to society will never be paid.”

His friends and former colleagues testified on his behalf, asking the judge for leniency.

LAPD Lt. Anne Clark, who met Chavez when she was a supervisor at the LAPD’s Hollenbeck Division, said he had “completely reinvented himself.”

“He’s worked very hard to get his life back on track,” Clark said.

Since resigning in 2001 from the Los Angeles Police Department, Chavez has earned certification as an emergency medical technician, but “because of the felony conviction he cannot get a job doing that,” said his attorney, Etan Lorant. The conviction also may affect his client’s plans to become a physician’s assistant, Lorant said.

Chavez, Cohan and Gomez were the last officers charged in the Rampart corruption scandal, which began when disgraced former LAPD Officer Rafael Perez told authorities in 1999 of widespread misconduct in that station’s anti-gang CRASH unit.