PROSECUTOR: GARCETTI PULLED PLUG ON CASE.

Byline: Beth Barrett and Greg Gittrich Staff Writers

Speaking out publicly for the first time, a veteran prosecutor who was yanked off the LAPD corruption probe has charged that his and others' efforts to indict rogue cops two months ago were thwarted to help District Attorney Gil Garcetti politically.

In correspondence and in an interview with the Daily News, Deputy District Attorney George Rosenstock said he and other prosecutors were ready to file criminal charges against at least four officers in the Rampart Division scandal until Garcetti put Dan Murphy, a head deputy district attorney, in charge of the task force in January.

Rosenstock, who has been described publicly by Garcetti as an excellent trial attorney, was banished Feb. 7 to routine duties in Long Beach. The transfer came a month before Garcetti ran second in the county primary and was forced into a November runoff.

Two days after Rosenstock's reassignment, another deputy district attorney was ordered to delay his efforts to file charges in a separate case against Rampart cops, according to Rosenstock, other sources and confidential documents.

``It was my clear impression that Mr. Murphy was leading the team as a political operative, with one agenda: avoid any action which might damage Mr. Garcetti's re-election chances - not as a professional prosecutor . . . He wanted to send one message to the team: advocate the 'company line,' or else,'' Rosenstock charged.

Charges delayed?

Rosenstock said Garcetti's political ambitions led to a policy to delay filing charges against dirty cops until this summer. The timing was designed to allow Garcetti to gain credit for the indictments without running the risk that the cases would come to trial before the November election against Head Deputy District Attorney Steve Cooley, sources said.

Murphy did not respond to requests for comment.

Garcetti again declined the Daily News' request for an interview. He has refused to be interviewed by the Daily News on the Rampart matter for more than two months.

Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for Garcetti's office, said: ``We can't respond to a letter we haven't seen. But any allegations that political considerations have any impact on the work of the Rampart team are simply false.''

Rosenstock's allegations that politics governed the district attorney's prosecutorial strategy echo charges made by other deputy district attorneys, officials at the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Public Defender's Office.

Further, Deputy District Attorney Albert H. MacKenzie said punitive transfers have become so common in the District Attorney's Office that they are jokingly referred to as ``freeway therapy.''

``It's become very politicized,'' said MacKenzie, who said the ``transfer method of discipline'' has been around since Garcetti's predecessor, Ira Reiner.

Cases selected

According to Rosenstock, the pattern that developed on the Rampart prosecution team was clear after Murphy took over. Murphy chose to ``cherry-pick cases for political purposes,'' Rosenstock said.

``I was consistently given support for my filing charges until Mr. Murphy arrived,'' Rosenstock said. ``Then, everything changed; the pace, the way particular offenses were whittled down or minimized. Nothing happened.''

While he was not the only prosecutor whose efforts were stymied, Rosenstock said he was the only one who openly challenged what he characterized as Murphy's attempt to deflate the best cases and put increased focus on what seemed to be the weakest ones, which would take longer to put together.

Several sources said Garcetti decided not to file charges immediately against individual cops, and is working to put together a larger conspiracy prosecution that would allow hearsay to be introduced as evidence and used to indict more officers.

That strategy, however, led several prosecutors to feel thwarted, according to Rosenstock, other sources and confidential documents.

There were table-pounding sessions, Rosenstock recalled, during which prosecutors tried to convince Murphy they could move forward on the most egregious cases, including five alleged gun-plant cases - at least two corroborated by physical evidence.

But their desire to immediately indict the cops was dismissed or trivialized by Murphy, who, Rosenstock said, increasingly raised objections including concerns about the credibility of dirty-cop-turned-key-witness Rafael Perez.

Murphy told reporters at Perez's Feb. 25 sentencing that the disgraced cop fully lived up to his part of the plea bargain by providing credible testimony against other cops. Perez was sentenced to five years in prison for stealing about $1 million worth of cocaine from an LAPD evidence locker.

'The biggest liar'

Behind closed doors, however, Murphy ranted to his own prosecutors that Perez was ``the biggest liar in the history of the LAPD,'' Rosenstock said.

``Mr. Murphy's role as political operative rather than prosecutor was made obvious by his railing that Officer Perez was a 'pathological' liar,'' he said.

Rosenstock said ``significant corroboration'' of many of Perez's allegations exists, including physical evidence and witness statements.

LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks has said that he has ordered some 50 detectives to fly around the country to substantiate Perez's claims. On Jan. 25, Parks was so confident that 57 cases had been tainted that he asked Garcetti to immediately overturn them, and to clear 99 people involved. At this point, only 50 have been overturned.

``It's been no secret we've been frustrated by the lack of criminal filings in these cases. However, the district attorney is an elected official who is charged with that responsibility and I'm sure there are many factors he must consider,'' LAPD spokesman Cmd. David Kalish said Thursday.

At least one other prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Richard Rosenthal, found his efforts to prosecute cops delayed, according to interviews and confidential documents.

Rosenthal told LAPD detectives Feb. 9 that his criminal case against Perez's partner, Nino Durden, appeared complete and ready for filing. But he then ``apologized'' to the detectives, saying he could not move forward because the District Attorney's Office had changed its strategy, documents reveal.

``All requests for material and investigative assistance on the Durden case ceased until March 8,'' a confidential police report states.

That was one day after the March 7 primary election in which Garcetti ran second to Cooley.

Rosenstock said it was well known among team members, and often discussed at team meetings, that Rosenthal was on the verge of filing against Durden.

``Richard Rosenthal said he had two gun-plant cases ready to file in January,'' Rosenstock said. ``I believe Richard was silenced because he saw what happened to me.''

Rosenthal remains on the Rampart task force. He could not be reached for comment.

Rosenstock was transferred off the elite task force after he repeatedly pushed his supervisors to file charges against ex-cop Brian Hewitt and other officers implicated in a February 1998 station-house beating.

The evidence gathered after the beating includes samples of the victim's blood splattered on the station-house walls, a swatch of carpet soaked with the victim's bloody vomit and testimony from an emergency room doctor who treated the victim.

Hewitt, who has denied any wrongdoing, was fired over the incident. On Wednesday, the City Council voted to pay the beating victim $231,000 to settle a civil rights lawsuit he filed over his treatment while in custody.

Case rejected

Rosenstock said he believed he had a winnable case against Hewitt and at least three other cops based on a conspiracy-to-obstruct-justice theory that included charges of false imprisonment, witness intimidation and possibly kidnapping in addition to the assault.

But Murphy refused. Garcetti has twice rejected the case; however, he decided in February to re-examine the incident after the Daily News disclosed the extent of the evidence gathered by police.

``The message was, 'Shut up and sit down or I'll invite you to leave,' '' Rosenstock said. ``My feeling was that the facts of the Hewitt case were so dramatic, the fact of declining prosecution was startling.''

Contradicting Garcetti's earlier claims that the deputy district attorney had requested the transfer to Long Beach, Rosenstock added: ``My assignment to a branch was obviously punitive.''

``Mr. Garcetti historically has utilized assignments to punish political dissenters,'' he said.

Since last September, Perez has told investigators that he and other cops shot at least one unarmed man, routinely framed suspected gangbangers on drugs and weapons charges, and then lied in court to send innocent people to jail.

No cop, other than Perez, has been indicted.

Rosenstock said he decided to break his silence after reading Daily News articles about his role based on sources and confidential documents and hearing Garcetti's false characterization of why he was reassigned.

``You can't run away from a job to keep your statistics up,'' Rosenstock said. ``You can't substitute your role as prosecutor for that of juror. You can't fear what the public perception will be.

``If you believe in your case, you have to litigate it. You can't whitewash possible murder and perjury. You have to stand up and be counted.''

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Photo: (color) Rosenstock