D.A. INVESTIGATES POLICE INCIDENTS.Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer The Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County District Attorney's ``roll out'' team investigated 86 police shooting incidents and five in-custody deaths and prosecuted one officer in the first 12 months since it was restored. With a $1 million U.S. Bureau of Justice Administration grant that funded the program expiring in June, District Attorney Steve Cooley Stephen Lawrence ("Steve") Cooley (born May 1, 1947 in Los Angeles, California) is a veteran prosecutor who was elected as Los Angeles County's 36th District Attorney on November 7, 2000. He was sworn in for his second term on December 6, 2004. plans to ask the Board of Supervisors to provide money for the program in the county budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The team, called the District Attorney Response Team since it was restored last February, investigated officer-involved shooting incidents that led to death or injury and in-custody deaths in most police jurisdictions in the county. ``The program has been successful in the first year of its implementation,'' Cooley wrote in the report to county supervisors. ``Virtually every major law enforcement agency Noun 1. law enforcement agency - an agency responsible for insuring obedience to the laws FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation - a federal law enforcement agency that is the principal investigative arm of the Department of Justice in the county has joined the program.'' Last September, the District Attorney Office's Justice System Integrity Division filed its first criminal case against Vice Officer Ronald Orosco of the Los Angeles Police Department's 77th Street Division. Orosco, 31, pleaded not guilty to a grand jury indictment accusing him of shooting an unarmed motorist in the back, 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. the District Attorney's Office. Charles Beatty, 66, was shot early in the evening of June 14 after Orosco and his partner, both in plainclothes plain·clothes or plain-clothes adj. Wearing civilian clothes while on duty to avoid being identified as police or security: a plainclothes detective. , pulled Beatty over after he drove around their unmarked vehicle at Central and Florence avenues in South Los Angeles South Los Angeles is the official name for a large geographic and cultural area lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California. The area was formerly called South Central Los Angeles, and is still sometimes called South Central. . He was treated at County-USC Medical Center for a bullet wound in his back. John Spillane, head deputy of the District Attorney's Justice System Integrity Division, said that since the late 1970s when the roll-out team started, prosecutors pursued charges against officers in fewer than 10 cases. ``Historically, we have found - as most district attorneys in counties throughout the country - that our law enforcement officials do use force appropriately,'' he said. ``So one would expect that criminal charges would be brought very rarely.'' The Board of Supervisors' September 1999 vote to re-establish the roll- out team, which was disbanded in 1996 to cut costs, came amid a sweeping inquiry into the LAPD Rampart Division The Rampart Division of the Los Angeles Police Department serves communities to the west and northwest of Downtown Los Angeles including Echo Park, Pico-Union and Westlake, all together designated as the Rampart patrol area. corruption scandal. At that time, the board requested annual reports on DART. |
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