COP CORRUPTION PARTLY FAULT OF GARCETTI, CHALLENGERS SAY.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Two challengers to District Attorney Gil Garcetti's re-election bid accused him Wednesday of failing to provide sufficient oversight to have prevented the Rampart Division police scandal that could jeopardize as many as 3,000 convictions.

Steve Cooley and Barry Groveman, running against Garcetti in the March 2000 primary, criticized the district attorney for not acting sooner to crack down on errant officers and prevent the scandal from widening.

Cooley, the head deputy district attorney who leads the welfare fraud division and was formerly head of the San Fernando Valley branch, said he believes Garcetti must explain his ``passivity both as a prosecutor and a manager'' in the escalating scandal.

He said Garcetti sent the wrong message to police in 1996 when he eliminated his officer-involved shooting team and failed to provide independent investigations ``which could have made a difference in the now tainted Rampart cases.''

Groveman, the outside attorney hired by Los Angeles Unified to investigate environmental problems at the Belmont Learning Complex, said Garcetti should have had more control over police informants used by Rampart officers in their investigations of suspects.

``In other words, there were allegations that there were unreliable or untrustworthy informants who were relied upon in these criminal cases,'' Groveman said.

``What was the district attorney doing? Does the district attorney have letters signed by deputy chiefs that authorized the requests for certain plea bargains or was it just police officers walking over there? Did anyone ask why they weren't getting these letters?''

Garcetti, who plans to restore the officer-involved-shooting team Jan. 15, declined direct comment.

Bill Carrick, his campaign consultant, dismissed the charges, saying the criticism is just ``these guys making more inflammatory charges to pump up their campaigns. From now until March, we'll see one inflammatory attack after another.''

Earlier, Garcetti held a news media briefing to dispute a Public Defender's Office estimate that the LAPD corruption scandal has tainted more than 3,000 cases, saying the figure was ``on the high side.''

``That certainly seems like an incredibly large number, certainly many more cases than I am personally aware of,'' Garcetti said. ``It may ultimately get to 3,000, but I'm not going to put a number on it. We certainly have been looking at hundreds of cases.''

Assistant Public Defender Robert Kalunian said the 3,000 case number is based on a decade's worth of cases handled by the 10 or 12 officers identified in the corruption probe.

``We are in the process of reviewing those closed cases to determine if we need to take any action to reopen those cases,'' he said.

So far, the District Attorney's Office has sought the release of four inmates who were wrongly convicted and convinced judges to vacate the convictions of seven other people who have been released from custody.

At the root of the scandal are allegations that police shot unarmed suspects, framed suspects and provided tainted testimony. A former officer, Rafael Perez, was arrested for stealing cocaine from an evidence locker and then told investigators of police wrongdoing.

Garcetti said his office began investigating the scandal 1-1/2 years ago, after LAPD investigators brought Perez to their attention.

``We never expected him to tell us, `No, this is what we did. We shot a gang member, we left him for dead and we planted a gun.' '' Garcetti said. ``This case is already bigger than anyone ever anticipated.''

Garcetti said he has moved one of his offices' top three assistant district attorneys - R. Dan Murphy - from the Pasadena office to head the investigation and has assigned seven full-time prosecutors to review the hundreds of cases.

Cooley, a Toluca Lake resident, accused Garcetti of trying to ``micromanage'' information about the scandal for political advantage.

``L.A. Confidential was a movie,'' Cooley said. ``Rampart is real.''

Groveman said handling of the Rampart case is reflective of Garcetti's performance as district attorney.

``Garcetti is truly on the ropes,'' Groveman said. ``This latest scandal just continues a legacy of failure - the O.J. Simpson trial, the child support scandal and now Rampart. Each time, they are major spectacles that do serious damage to the criminal justice system.''