BAD COP: LAPD CAN'T BE TRUSTED WITH PROBE 'IT'S LIKE THE FOX GUARDING THE HENHOUSE.Byline: Greg Gittrich and Beth Barrett Staff Writers Corrupt-cop-turned-snitch Rafael Perez scoffs at the notion that the Los Angeles Police Department "LAPD" and "L.A.P.D." redirect here. For other uses, see LAPD (disambiguation).  This article or section is written like an . can be trusted to investigate itself.
``How are you going to have LAPD 1. LAPD - Link Access Procedure on the D channel. 2. LAPD - Los Angeles Police Department. investigate? You know, it's like . . . the fox guarding the henhouse,'' Perez told a task force probing the largest LAPD corruption scandal in at least 50 years. ``You can't have LAPD investigating LAPD,'' the former elite Rampart CRASH officer said. ``There's too many relationships, too many friends, too many connections.'' Perez's words, contained in reams of confidential testimony obtained by the Daily News, echo the intense cries coming from many civil rights leaders Below is a list of civil rights leaders:
Seeking leniency le·ni·en·cy n. pl. le·ni·en·cies 1. The condition or quality of being lenient. See Synonyms at mercy. 2. A lenient act. Noun 1. on charges of stealing eight pounds of cocaine from a police evidence room, Perez has testified that he and other officers in the Rampart Division's CRASH anti-gang unit - Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums, usually known as CRASH, was a special unit of the Los Angeles Police Department established in the early 1970s to combat the rising problem of gangs in Los Angeles, California. - shot innocent people, planted guns and narcotics narcotics n. 1) techinically, drugs which dull the senses. 2) a popular generic term for drugs which cannot be legally possessed, sold, or transported except for medicinal uses for which a physician or dentist's prescription is required. on their victims, and routinely fabricated police reports and committed perjury perjury (pûr`jərē), in criminal law, the act of willfully and knowingly stating a falsehood under oath or under affirmation in judicial or administrative proceedings. in court. At least 57 cases involving 99 defendants have been confirmed by investigators to have been tainted by Perez and dozens of officers implicated im·pli·cate tr.v. im·pli·cat·ed, im·pli·cat·ing, im·pli·cates 1. To involve or connect intimately or incriminatingly: evidence that implicates others in the plot. 2. by a widening investigation. Perez's role and motives in the Rampart scandal cast doubt on his credibility, and police sources say he failed a lie-detector test, although many of his allegations have stood up under investigation. ``It's ironic that Perez would make those comments as he sits in his cold jail cell,'' said LAPD Cmdr. David Kalish, the department's chief spokesman. Mayor Richard Riordan Richard J. Riordan (born May 1, 1930) is a Republican politician from California, U.S. who served as the California Secretary of Education from 2003–2005 and as Mayor of Los Angeles from 1993–2001. Riordan ran for Governor of California unsuccessfully in 2002. takes the same view. Riordan completely rejected the idea that an independent commission should probe the developing scandal. ``The LAPD has done a great job,'' Riordan said in an interview last week. ``Everything that's come out has come out because of the LAPD investigation under Chief (Bernard) Parks.'' `Behind closed doors' Some 50 LAPD detectives and officers have been assigned by Parks to review tainted cases identified by or involving Perez since 1995, track down witnesses and compile cases against other corrupt cops. As a result, more than 70 cops are under either criminal or administrative investigation by the department, sources close to the probe said. About 20 cops have been either taken off the job indefinitely or fired. And more than 30 cases have been overturned by the courts. In recent days, Riordan also has noted that LAPD investigators are following the standards established after the 1991 beating of Rodney King Rodney Glen King (born April 9, 1965 in Fort Worth, Texas) is an African-American taxicab driver who was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department officers (Laurence Powell, Timothy Wind, Theodore Briseno and Sargent Stacey Koon) after being chased for speeding. to ensure probes are handled fairly. The Police Commission will review the department's probe after its conclusion and determine whether it was flawed, Riordan has said. But Elizabeth Schroeder, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, chapter, is one of many who argue more must be done. ``The Police Department cannot police itself.'' The LAPD's internal investigation in the wake of the Rampart scandal is flawed, she said, because it has been done in secret, without adequate independent civilian oversight. As such, there is no way to measure whether the review has been comprehensive enough to address the corruption problems, she added. ``We don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. where this has led, nor where it started,'' Schroeder said. ``Part of the frustration is that this is being done behind closed doors by the LAPD.'' `The Dope Dealer' Nearly 2,000 pages of transcripts detailing Perez's testimony and sources close to the task force investigation reveal that police became aware of Perez's cocaine theft days after he walked out of the LAPD evidence room in March 1998. For the next six months, investigators followed Perez, tapped his phones, watched his house from the roof of a nearby school and reviewed his arrest records. Perez contends he knew they were there, tipped off by his supervisors. ``There was nothing I could do, as far as the entire investigation,'' he said last month. ``In fact, I never did anything as far as trying to sabotage it or change it, or throw a wrench in it. . . . There was nothing I could do.'' Perez said he even saw investigators tailing him on La Brea Avenue La Brea Avenue is a prominent north/south thoroughfare in Los Angeles. After Hawthorne Boulevard intersects with Century Boulevard in Inglewood, La Brea Avenue is formed. La Brea passes north through Windsor Hills, Baldwin Hills, and Ladera Heights. and teachers at his daughter's school told his wife that police were perched on the school's roof, watching someone. Perez lived across the street. His immediate sergeants and fellow officers warned him that investigators were following him shortly before his arrest in August 1998, he said. ``You cannot investigate me and then call down to my division and say, `Hey look. You know, what's Perez doing today?' They're going to tell me. Rampart's a close division. ``And I don't know if you guys work IA (Internal Affairs Internal affairs may refer to:
According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Perez, cops later told him they referred to him by a condescending nickname, ``The Dope Dealer.'' One last burrito Perez was taken off duty Aug. 6, 1998, the day investigators searched his home. A sergeant who had warned Perez to ``be careful'' in the previous months walked up to him that day and simply said, ``It's time,'' Perez recalled. ``And don't ask me why I remember this. I'll remember this for the rest of my life. I had just come back from Taco Bell and had just taken a bite of a burrito.'' Perez said he walked upstairs to the captain's office, accompanied by the sergeant. ``That's when they take me down.'' |
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