By Patrick McGreevy, Daily News
August 26, 1998

A Los Angeles Police Department officer was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of stealing 6 pounds of cocaine, with a street value of $800,000, from an evidence storage area at LAPD headquarters. Officer Rafael Antonio Perez, 31, who allegedly forged another officer's signature to remove the cocaine, faces felony charges of grand theft, fraud and possession of cocaine with intent to sell, LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks said.

"Today we announce something that is very sad and tragic in the fact that we've had to arrest one of our own for being involved in very serious criminal activity," Parks said at a news conference in front of Parker Center. Perez, a nine-year veteran of the department, was assigned to the Rampart Division's anti-gang unit until his arrest at his home in the Wilshire area. Last year, Perez spent six months on loan to a narcotics investigation unit.

Parks said search warrants were obtained for inspections of Perez's police locker, car and home. The searches did not turn up any cocaine but produced other evidence helpful to the investigation, he said. "We have no idea what he's done with the narcotics," Parks said. "Our assumption is that he sold the narcotics, but we cannot validate it."

The chief said two civilians not employed by the department have been arrested on separate charges and may have helped the officer sell the drugs.

The investigation began in March when the cocaine was determined to be missing. The officer who supposedly last checked out the cocaine for use in court denied that he did so, and he said someone else must have used his identification card. Prosecutors said the cocaine already had been used in court, in a case that had been prosecuted two weeks earlier. Perez was not involved in that case.

An audit of 100,000 pieces of evidence confirmed that the cocaine was missing, and an investigation focused on Perez, Parks said. The District Attorney's Office filed three felony counts Tuesday, and Perez was being held in lieu of $550,000 bail, the chief said. Deputy District Attorney Richard Rosenthal said Perez is expected to be arraigned this afternoon in Los Angeles Municipal Court. Rosenthal said Perez faces a maximum prison sentence of eight years and four months if convicted on all charges against him.

An audit earlier this year by the City Controller's Office criticized the LAPD for lax controls over evidence storage. Parks said the allegation against Perez is harmful to the image of the department. "We feel somewhat concerned that it does tarnish the badge of the Los Angeles Police Department, that an individual would basically violate their code of ethics and the trust given to them by the public and commit this kind of act," he said.

Under Parks, the LAPD has been tightening discipline. So far this year, the department has fired more officers than were dismissed during all of 1997. Parks' supporters say he is appropriately a tougher disciplinarian than his predecessor, Willie L. Williams. But his approach has led to complaints from the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which is the police officers union.

Daily News Staff Writer Peter Hartlaub contributed to this story.