Rampart revisited

The decision of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a jury award of $15 million to three Los Angeles police officers investigated and prosecuted -- and acquitted -- as part of the Rampart police abuse scandal is a reminder that the aftermath of that wrenching episode is with us still, costing taxpayers years after the events at issue and enriching criminals and cops alike. Given the magnitude of the city’s budget troubles these days, that’s cause enough for woe.

What makes matters worse is the basis for the court’s decision, which turns in part on the actions of then-Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, now a member of the City Council and candidate for county supervisor, and his then-counterpart, Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti. According to the court, when Garcetti expressed reservations about prosecuting Rampart cases without thorough investigations, Parks replied: “I don’t care. Let’s get the case behind us. If we prosecute the case, even if you lose the case, it’s over. It’s done.”

That’s a troubling remark and one that understandably caught the attention of the 9th Circuit, which cited it to support the claim by the officers that they were victims of an overzealous investigation. Trouble is, Parks insists that he never said it. “That’s a flat-out lie,” he told The Times on Wednesday. Instead, Parks says he was urging prosecutors to file cases against officers who had committed misconduct but was thwarted by a district attorney’s staff under instructions not to push too hard with Garcetti’s reelection approaching.

Who’s right in this ugly disagreement, now nearly a decade old? The court record sides entirely with Garcetti by ignoring Parks’ version of events. But that’s careless at best. Indeed, this opinion also reminds us that interoffice rivalries and personal disputes, whoever was to blame, helped undermine a full accounting of Rampart. We are lucky today to have a more cohesive law enforcement leadership -- our police chief and district attorney are on far better terms than their predecessors were in the 1990s -- but even now, a full public accounting of the scandal has never been delivered: One promised by the LAPD withered on the vine; another commissioned by the Los Angeles County Grand Jury was completed and then hidden from public view. Nine years since the scandal broke, its full scope remains a mystery, even as the city continues to pay.