February 26, 2000, Saturday, Home Edition
SECTION: Part A; Page 1; Metro Desk

LENGTH: 1437 words

HEADLINE: A TEARFUL PEREZ GETS 5 YEARS; 
RAMPART: LAPD OFFICER TURNED INFORMANT APOLOGIZES FOR HIS ROLE IN CORRUPTION SCANDAL.

BYLINE: SCOTT GLOVER and MATT LAIT, TIMES STAFF WRITERS 


BODY:
      As he was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for stealing eight pounds of cocaine, former Los Angeles Police Officer Rafael Perez--the man who brought to light the worst corruption scandal in LAPD history--tearfully apologized to his family, the Police Department and the citizens of Los Angeles.

Saying that his prison term does "not take into account my greatest transgressions," Perez told a packed courtroom that there were no excuses for the "atrocities" he and other anti-gang officers in the LAPD's Rampart Division committed.

"For many years I proudly wore a badge of honor and integrity and enforced the laws in the standards befitting a Los Angeles police officer," said Perez, who was chained at the waist and dressed in a blue County Jail jumpsuit. "In the Rampart CRASH unit things began to change. The lines between right and wrong became fuzzy and indistinct. The 'us-against-them ethos of the overzealous cop began to consume me."

Wearing glasses and reading from a legal note pad, Perez, whose voice frequently quivered with emotion, continued: "To do our job fairly was not enough. My job became an intoxicant that I lusted after. . . . I can only say I succumbed to the seductress of power. Used wrongfully, it is a power that can bend the will of a man to satisfy a lustful moment. It can open locked vaults to facilitate theft. It can even subvert justice to hand down a lifetime behind bars."

The sentencing capped Perez's criminal drug case stemming from his theft of cocaine from LAPD facilities, but it does not end his involvement in the ongoing investigation into corruption at the Police Department. As part of his plea bargain for a lighter sentence on the drug charges, Perez--who has been in jail since his August 1998 arrest--agreed to tell investigators about other corrupt officers still in the department.

Despite a host of crimes in which Perez has implicated himself and others, court officials said he may be out of prison in as little as 16 months.

Prosecutors and detectives sat motionless during the remorseful soliloquy by Perez, who by his own account has been a skillful liar, especially in court, where he frequently perjured himself testifying against criminal defendants. But even cynical investigators seemed willing to believe Perez was contrite Friday.

"Do I believe him?" one LAPD detective said. "I don't know. I guess I do believe it was genuine."

"I think today, Mr. Perez spoke from the heart," said prosecutor Dan Murphy, who is leading the district attorney's team of lawyers building prosecutions on the Rampart scandal.

Police Union Calls for Longer Term

But Perez's comments of regret and sorrow did little to assuage the anger felt by many LAPD officers. Ted Hunt, the president of the police union, requested the right to speak at Perez's sentencing, saying that all honest LAPD officers were victimized by the rogue cop. The judge, however, denied his request.

In a statement released after the court hearing, union leaders said they believed Perez should have been given the maximum 12-year sentence for his crimes, instead of receiving his plea deal.

"We repudiate the criminal actions of Rafael Perez," the union representatives said in their statement. "We believe that Mr. Perez should have received the maximum amount of time in prison for his gross violations of the law, which include crimes against the people of California and the betrayal of the community-police trust."

Before the 32-year-old former Marine was sentenced, district attorney's officials told the judge they found no reason Perez's plea deal should not be honored. That agreement required that Perez testify honestly about all the crimes of which he has knowledge. Perez is immune from punishment for crimes to which he has admitted under the plea bargain agreement, but could be prosecuted for any crimes he has intentionally not disclosed.

Perez has failed a polygraph test, but investigators did not put much weight on the examination, particularly because many of the former officer's allegations have been corroborated, sources said.

In an interview with The Times on Friday, Police Chief Bernard C. Parks said he does not believe Perez was completely candid with investigators in regard to at least one area of inquiry: His association with, and knowledge of, former LAPD Officer David A. Mack, who was sentenced last year to 14 years in prison for robbing a bank of more than $ 700,000. Perez has said he was unaware that Mack was involved in any criminal activity.

"We believe he knows far more than he's talking about," Parks said. "He steers clear of Mack totally. . . . Mack is a guy they all fear."

Parks said police speculate that Perez knows more about Mack because they were close friends, worked off-duty jobs together and partied together in Las Vegas two days after Mack robbed a bank with an unidentified accomplice.

Nonetheless, police and district attorney's officials said such speculation was not enough to break the plea deal. In fact, despite the depravity of Perez's crimes as an officer, prosecutors and detectives know that their investigation would have been stymied without his cooperation.

"The only reason we know this information is because he told us," said Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Rosenthal, the prosecutor who has relentlessly pursued drug charges against Perez for nearly two years.

The corruption investigation has uncovered evidence of unjustified shootings, evidence planting, false arrests, beatings, witness intimidation and perjury. At least 21 officers have been relieved of duty or have quit or been fired in the wake of the scandal. About 70 officers are under investigation in connection with the ongoing probe by LAPD detectives as well as state and federal agents. Perez's admissions and allegations have also led to the reversal of 40 criminal convictions, and hundreds of other cases may yet be overturned.

Prosecutors, Murphy said, will spend "several years unwinding the negative impact upon the criminal justice system."

Perez said Friday that he was well aware of how he has undermined the public's faith in the Police Department and the judicial system.

Perez urged young officers to frequently reflect on why they became officers in the first place. The ends, he warned, do not justify the means.

"Whoever chases monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster himself," he said.

In transcripts of interviews with investigators, Perez described a criminal subculture at the LAPD's Rampart Division in which about 30 officers who were "in the loop" conspired to plant evidence, beat people and cover up unjustified shootings.

In perhaps his most dramatic disclosure, Perez has implicated himself and former partner Nino Durden in the shooting of unarmed 19-year-old man. Perez told investigators in September that he and Durden, after shooting Javier Francisco Ovando multiple times and leaving him paralyzed, then planted a gun on the young gang member and testified in court that he attacked them.

Ovando, who was convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison, has been released and is suing the city.

Perez told investigators he has helped to cover up two more unjustified shootings, including one in which a 21-year-old man was killed.

Fighting back tears, he spoke with remorse about how he grew up in Philadelphia dreaming of becoming a police officer, and how he fulfilled that dream when he was hired by the LAPD in 1989. He said he was a good cop until he joined the Rampart Division. There, he said, he started bending the rules to make arrests, and later blatantly broke laws as he tried to impress supervisors and satisfy his personal greed. He spoke of temptations that led him to break "vows and oaths."

"I cheated on my wife, I cheated on my employer. I cheated on all the people of Los Angeles," Perez said.

He turned toward his wife, Denise, seated in the front row of the courtroom, and was overcome with emotion, calling her "an incredible woman to stand by me through all of this."

Perez said he could think of no excuse that "could cure the pain experienced by the people I hurt."

"I tell you with every inch of my heart and soul that I am truly, truly sorry. I am also sorry for ruining the public's trust in their Police Department," he added. "By revealing the unpleasant truths behind the badge that at one point I so proudly wore, I hope to right some of the many wrongs."