A Department Tainted
	LAPD Corruption Scandal Hampers Anti-Gang Efforts Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard said more than 50 officers will join the inquiry into police coruption, which is expected to take six weeks. It may affect hundreds of cases prosecuted with the testimony of tainted officers. (Reed Saxon/AP Photo)

The Associated Press
Sept. 22 — Police Chief Bernard Parks promised today to scour the entire city to get to the bottom of a rogue-cop scandal, while local leaders gathered to honor the Rampart station at the center of the probe.
     Parks said he ordered a board of inquiry to examine operations throughout Los Angeles in search of wrongdoing like that brought to light by Rafael Perez, a disgraced former narcotics agent from Rampart.
     So far, he said, the board has looked into criminal cases going back six years to see if they may have been corrupted by police lies or abuse of power.
     The chief also defended his department.
     “We have fired officers for being dishonest, for committing criminal acts and for doing things they are trained not to do,” he said. “But we have 13,000 employees, and no matter what training we give them, no matter how they are trained in diversity issues, there will be some who will not be up to par.”
    

A Dozen Officers Under Fire
One officer has been fired and 11 others, mostly members of Rampart’s anti-gang unit, have been relieved of duty with pay as a result of the scandal.
     The district attorney’s office has notified defense lawyers that hundreds of cases Perez worked on may have been tainted, and judges have lifted two injunctions against gang activity because they were imposed based on declarations by some officers now caught up in the corruption case.
     The injunctions, put into place in the past year, barred the 18th Street gang from gathering in two areas near downtown. The first one was suspended Tuesday until at least Oct. 22. The second was lifted today. An Oct. 7 hearing on whether to make it permanent was delayed until Dec. 7.
     “People in the community felt that the injunction had worked, had improved their lives,” Assistant City Attorney Mart Vranican Jr. said outside court today.
     “The gang presence was down in the streets. We’ve made a commitment to those communities that we were going to do something about the 18th Street gang and we’re going to continue to do that.”

Words From Jailed Cop
Perez, who was convicted of stealing $1 million worth of cocaine from an evidence locker, has told investigators that Rampart officers framed people for crimes they didn’t commit, lied in court to obtain convictions and, in at least one instance, shot a man in the head, put a gun in his hand and arrested him for assaulting a police officer.
     Javier Francisco Ovando, who was sentenced to 23 years in prison for assault, was released last week as a result Perez’s information. He was paralyzed from the waist down.
     Parks said the new bureau of inquiry has begun meeting and he expects to have a report on his desk in six weeks. The panel is headed by Deputy Chief Michael Bostic and includes 50 high-ranking LAPD officers, none lower than captain.
     Among them are several experts on police operations nationwide, Parks said.
     The panel is working in conjunction with Internal Affairs, the section that normally handles police misconduct.
     So far no officers have come forward to help with the investigation, but Parks said he didn’t find that surprising.
     “I had no expectations that they would be knocking down the doors of Internal Affairs. All we want is for the officers to be honest and to give us the correct information,” he said.

Copyright 1999 The Associated Press.