RAMPART'S FINAL CHAPTER D.A. FINDS NO EVIDENCE OF WIDESPREAD ABUSES IN LAPD.

Byline: Beth Barrett and Troy Anderson Staff Writers

District Attorney Steve Cooley wrote the final chapter Wednesday to the Rampart scandal, declaring that an exhaustive investigation turned up no evidence of widespread civil rights abuses or other criminality in the Los Angeles Police Department outside of Rafael Perez's rogue anti-gang unit.

The saga began more than two years ago when Perez - in a plea bargain on charges of stealing $1 million in cocaine from an evidence locker - confessed to being involved in dozens of cases of brutality, framings and lying. His statements incriminated his entire Rampart Division anti-gang unit and led to far-ranging investigations of all the Los Angeles Police Department's operations and practices.

But Cooley said investigations of 50 officers will be closed by the end of the year without any new prosecutions.

The Rampart scorecard: more than 100 people released from prison, $40 million in settlements with Rampart victims by the city, a federal court consent decree imposed on the LAPD, untold millions spent on investigations and nine Rampart officers charged. Four of the nine were convicted and sentenced, including Perez. Convictions of three others were overturned and are now on appeal. One was acquitted. One's case is pending.

``There is nothing like Rampart anywhere else (in the LAPD) to the best of the information we have developed,'' Cooley said in an interview. ``There's been no showing along those lines. The thoroughness with which we've approached this - the public can rely upon it.''

Cooley announced the end of the Rampart probe at a news conference in which a historic agreement was reached between the District Attorney's Office and 70 law enforcement agencies in the county, including the LAPD and Sheriff's Department, with only the Culver City Police Department not agreeing to it. The protocols spell out when and how suspected misconduct by law enforcement officers and other justice system employees should be reported to prosecutors.

City's worst fear

The conclusions reached by the District Attorney's Office's investigation of Rampart were similar to those reached in March 2000 by the LAPD's own Board of Inquiry, which described a culture of management mediocrity that poisoned the rank and file but limited the crimes associated with Rampart to a few rogue officers.

Mayor James Hahn, who was the city attorney as the scandal was unfolding, said the city's worst fear - that corruption within the LAPD was a widespread problem - apparently was unfounded. He said Los Angeles learned an important lesson and should keep up its vigilance in detecting police misconduct.

Hahn defended his decision to negotiate the consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice. The agreement calls for collecting racial profiling data and for continuous federal monitoring of LAPD practices.

``I still think that the consent decree makes sense to prevent future problems and that we need rigorous protocols that can detect problems much sooner,'' Hahn said.

``There is no way to minimize the fact that, even if there were only nine prosecutions, the prosecutions were about everyone's worst fear - of police officers admitting they fabricated evidence and sent people to jail on planted evidence. You can't minimize that.''

Similar Conclusions

Chief Bernard C. Parks said prosecutors validated what police investigators concluded. ``This is not the largest corruption scandal in LAPD history,'' he said.

He said federal agencies, including the U.S. Attorney's Office and Federal Bureau of Investigation, have reviewed the same information without reaching different conclusions.

``We think we did a heck of a job on the Board of Inquiry report, even though some people criticized us harshly as to how thorough we were, (claimed) that we were hiding information,'' Parks said. ``I'm pleased we have independent prosecutors saying we did a good job.''

Attorney Harland Braun - representing Rampart Officer Michael Buchanan, whose case was overturned and is on appeal, and Officer Ethan Cohan, whose case is pending - said Rampart was the police equivalent of the McMartin case. In that case, sensational allegations of child sexual abuse at the McMartin Pre-school in Manhattan Beach created near hysteria, but the principal suspects were all acquitted.

``Perez fooled the D.A.'s Office (under Gil Garcetti), and they fooled the L.A. Times, and it will probably cost the city over $100 million,'' Braun said. ``It's an amazing story.''

Braun accused Parks of subsequently engaging in a witch hunt to get rid of officers affiliated in any way with Rampart.

``That's why you have 80 officers and no cases, because there is so little evidence,'' Braun said.

Parks said 65 cases were treated in administrative proceedings, resulting in various punishments and in some cases exoneration of officers.

``We're obligated to take these to their fullest extent,'' Parks said. ``We don't want those serious charges in officers' packages not resolved.''

Parks said at the news conference that the new protocols for referring police misconduct cases and changes to the LAPD disciplinary system will help prevent anything like Rampart from occurring again.

``It's our belief these protocols take us a long way to send the message to the community primarily and to law enforcement officers that integrity is our number one priority,'' Parks said.

City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said Cooley's decision to conclude the inquiry should limit the city's liability. So far the city has settled about 55 cases for some $40 million, with about 100 cases unresolved.

``I've said - many times - we must finally put the dark shadow of Rampart behind us once and for all,'' Delgadillo said.

Police Commission President Rick Caruso said he was relieved by Cooley's announcement. ``The most important thing is to keep moving forward and getting this behind us, getting closure, so we can focus on long-term things.''

Los Angeles Police Protection League President Mitzi Grasso said union members are glad to move on. ``It was a shame the actions of a few affected so many honest and hard-working officers,'' Grasso said.

Ensuring investigation

The new protocols are intended to ensure that the District Attorney's Office investigates allegations of misconduct by law enforcement officials in the county.

``Never before in the 151-year history of the District Attorney's Office has that office issued written protocols which outline how, when and under what circumstances prosecutors will investigate allegations of criminal misconduct by law enforcement employees,'' Cooley said.

Since Cooley created the Justice System Integrity Division late last year, he said, he has seen a 300 percent increase in referrals from law enforcement agencies, mostly from the LAPD, concerning allegations of misconduct.

Since December 2000, the LAPD has referred 246 cases to the District Attorney's Office. Out of those cases, one officer has been convicted.

The three protocols:

--If there is probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed by a law enforcement employee, the allegation will be referred to the Justice System Integrity Division to review and prosecute if warranted.

--If a deputy district attorney suspects criminal misconduct by any justice system official, a supervisor must be notified at once and the report referred to the integrity division.

Misconduct declining

--The District Attorney Response Team will respond to any officer-involved shooting, regardless of whether the officer is on duty or off duty, and to every death of someone in custody.

Sheriff Lee Baca said the number of misconduct cases among his department's personnel has been declining.

``This is an unprecedented process that will not only bolster the credibility of what the district attorney is trying to achieve, but it will establish within the culture of the Sheriff's Department that we are no longer looking at things purely from a police cultural point of view when our officers are engaged in misconduct,'' Baca said.

``The facts are the facts. The facts themselves will dictate what the prosecutors will do and what the Sheriff's Department's management will do to discipline our employees.''