ATTORNEYS CONFRONT D.A.; FLURRIES OF DEFENSE MOTIONS FLY IN ATTEMPT TO OPEN FILES ON ROGUE COP.

Byline: Beth Barrett and Greg Gittrich Staff Writer

Public defenders and private defense attorneys have stepped up their effort to force District Attorney Gil Garcetti to turn over evidence about LAPD Rampart Division corruption that could get hundreds of convictions overturned.

Concerned that suspects who were framed are being kept in jail needlessly, the defense lawyers have filed several motions in state Superior Court to gain key evidence that they say Garcetti has suppressed and continues to suppress - most notably rogue cop Rafael Perez's extensive statements to investigators.

The dispute promises to get more heated today if the City Attorney's Office receives, as expected, an edited transcript of Perez's statements from Garcetti's office.

``The district attorney is violating the Constitution,'' Deputy Alternate Public Defender Gary S. Wigodsky insisted Wednesday. ``The district attorney has a clear ethical and constitutional obligation to turn over the evidence promptly to us. Much of this information should have been given to us six, seven months ago.''

But Victoria Pipkin, a spokeswoman for the District Attorney's Office, said prosecutors are confident that they are not violating the law by refusing to meet the public defenders' demands.

``This is old news,'' Pipkin said. ``Every time we file a (petition for a) writ, the public defender or alternate public defender has filed a discovery motion and a motion for sanctions.''

To date, 60 convictions have been vacated. Almost all were overturned by Judge Larry Fidler at the request of the District Attorney's Office. Five other convictions are expected to be thrown out today, also at the request of county prosecutors.

Maintaining that they are being cut out of the process, the public defenders' offices pledged to file more motions today seeking access to Perez's statements.

``I think what they've done is totally wrong,'' said Head Deputy Public Defender Kelly Emling.

Emling said her office needs Perez's statements immediately to free innocent people from prison and exonerate the records of others in a timely manner.

The public defenders are most interested in obtaining the identities of cops and former cops fingered as dirty by Perez, the central figure in the scandal, and names of the people Perez believes were framed.

Garcetti's task force has maintained that transcripts or even excerpts cannot be given to the defense lawyers or the public because it could jeopardize the ongoing criminal probe and tip off officers that they are being investigated.

Adding to the public defenders' frustration, full transcripts of Perez's statements have been leaked to at least two media outlets, including the Daily News.

For the most part, petitions filed by prosecutors, seeking writs to throw out convictions, cite minimal evidence to support their requests. Therefore, it is difficult to use the evidence cited in one writ petition to get other people out of jail.

Fidler has agreed to review the public defenders' motions for Perez's statements as one combined request, rather than separately. The District Attorney's Office has until May 11 to file its response, officials said.

The public defenders would then have 30 days to respond. A hearing on the arguments would follow.

Meanwhile, Deputy City Attorney Paul Paquette said Wednesday he anticipates getting an edited version of the Perez transcript from the District Attorney's Office today, even as the public defenders are being denied the information.

Paquette said the ex-cop's confidential statements will be distributed on what he called an as-needed basis to plaintiff attorneys seeking civil damages in Rampart cases.

The City Attorney's Office has not been asked by the public defenders for a copy of the edited transcript, and it was unclear Wednesday whether they would get it if they asked. To get any of the information, attorneys would have to go to court, Paquette said.

``Everybody's on pins and needles,'' said Jorge Gonzalez, an attorney representing several Rampart civil plaintiffs.

While not commenting directly on disagreement between Garcetti and the public defenders, Chief Deputy City Attorney Timothy McOsker said the city's liability likely would increase if a wrongfully convicted person's time in prison is prolonged for any reason.

``There could be a greater expense to the city is people stay in jail longer than they otherwise would,'' McOsker said. ``(City Attorney) Jim Hahn has said our primary goals are to get folks out of jail who shouldn't be there and to get police officers who shouldn't be in the field out (of the field). It's not to avoid liability, but so we do justice.''

The financial fallout from the Rampart scandal has been estimated at $125 million. While early settlements with people who said they were beaten or wrongly detained by police have been relatively modest, the city is bracing for lawsuits by people who were imprisoned on false evidence.

The Public Defender's Office initially represented most people who were convicted on fabricated evidence and have had their convictions overturned. When that office could not take a case because there might be a conflict of interest among defendants, the Alternate Public Defender's Office handled that case.

Several hundred other convictions are expected to be overturned as the task force continues to probe Perez's allegations that he and other cops routinely framed suspected gang members in the Rampart Division and then lied in court to send them to prison. Perez was sentenced to five years in state prison on Feb. 25 for stealing about $1 million worth of cocaine from an LAPD evidence room.

``We don't even have a list of all the officers who Perez has named or the even the officers who have been fired or disciplined as a result of the scandal,'' Wigodsky said. ``We know what we read in the newspapers.''