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Police 2005 Police
in Canada: Winnipeg
2003: Tokarchuk killing |
Edmonton | Saskatoon
| Toronto police have
secretly paid out $30M |
LAPD: Ramparts
scandal
L.A. police
corruption settlements estimated to reach $70 million
By Jeremiah Marquez, ASSOCIATED
PRESS, March 31, 2005
LOS ANGELES Declaring
the end to a dark chapter in Los Angeles history, officials on
Thursday announced the city would pay an estimated $70 million
to settle lawsuits stemming from the Rampart corruption scandal
that shook the Police Department.
Since the scandal broke more
than five years ago, 214 lawsuits have been brought by plaintiffs,
many with criminal backgrounds, who accused renegade officers
in the Rampart division's anti-gang unit of falsifying evidence,
framing suspects and covering up unjustified shootings.
"Today is a good day for the city of Los Angeles,"
police Chief William Bratton said at a news conference with city
leaders. "Ultimately we got to close the book on the sordid
chapters of the Rampart scandal."
So far, the city has paid out
more than $66 million to settle the lawsuits, with 27 claims
dismissed. It was unclear when the last eight lawsuits still
pending would be settled, though their estimated amounts were
calculated in the $70 million total, according to the city attorney's
office.
The payout was considerably
less than the $125 million projected by then-City Attorney James
Hahn in the early stages of the scandal. Hahn is now mayor of
the city.
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo
said the settlements turned out lower than expected partly because
city lawyers were willing to offer settlements up front.
"I'm confident that people
who were wronged by these rogue officers were justly compensated
and those who were seeking to exploit the situation were not
enriched," he said.
The scandal included the investigation
of 82 incidents involving 50 officers and the reversal of more
than 100 convictions tainted by police misconduct. Racial profiling,
excessive force and the Rampart scandal caused the federal government
in 2001 to impose a consent decree on the department mandating
reforms.
Additionally, a policy was
enacted several years ago under which the city attorney's office
would report to police officials if its lawyers believed officers
were lying or lacking credibility, Delgadillo said.
The city decided against taking
some cases to trial because of the records of implicated officers.
The average settlement was
$400,000 but 30 plaintiffs received $500,000 or more. Javier
Francisco Ovando, a gang member who was shot by police and left
paralyzed, received the largest settlement $15 million.
The suspected gang member had
been sentenced to 23 years in prison after two officers testified
he was armed when he was shot. His conviction was eventually
overturned.
As a result of the scandal,
more than a dozen officers left the force. Some were fired and
others resigned amid investigations of alleged misconduct.
Many of the misconduct allegations
were made by ex-officer Rafael Perez, who later emerged as the
main culprit after his accusations against other officers were
largely disproved. The scandal began when Perez testified about
police misconduct after he was caught stealing cocaine from a
police evidence room.
Los Angeles Police Scandal:
Now that Saskatoon police have been named by Amnesty International,
we should really pay attention to what has gone on in other cities
with rampant racism
 
Any of us who live in a city
where the police are failing to serve their communities (Saskatoon
and Toronto can start the list) have an interest in familiarizing
ourselves with the process which is now at work in L.A. It is
a rich story (no doubt several film scripts are in the works)
which demonstrates the seeming inability of huge bureaucracies
to right themselves. L. A. Mayor Richard Riordan is now faced
with paying out millions and millions in legitimate claims from
individuals who have been wronged. The debate is on about whether
cleaning out a few bad cops (or a few hundred in the case of
L.A.) can fix the problem or whether more dramatic solutions
are called for. Follow this one!
CNN Timeline and articles since Rodney
King 1996:
Beginning of the Rampart Scandal By LOU CANNON Cannon's article
can also be found here:
A U.S. site for police who
want to do the right thing . . ."Serve and Protect"
rather than "Stand and Watch" Scandal
shows why innocent plead guilty Chronological
list of articles in the L.A. Times Daily
News' coverage Shielded
from Justice: Police Brutality and Accountability in the U.S.,
Human Rights Watch
Exerpts From
Rafael Perez's Statement to the Court
This is the day that my punishment
for having stolen narcotics is handed down. Though it does not
take into account my greatest transgressions.
While sitting in my cell it
dawned on me this would be my chance to . . . publicly apologize
and ask for forgiveness for having violated the law, having violated
several vows and oaths I've made to my wife, the citizens of
Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Police Department.
But then the realization began
to sink in, what exactly could I possibility say . . . that would
be strong enough or geniune enough to warrant my pardon. The
atrocities that were committed by myself and those who stand
accused are unforgivable acts. The City of Los Angeles had and
has a right, among other things, to a fair and just system of
policing. Those rights in so many ways were violated.
Ever since I was a young boy
living in Philadelphia, I dreamed of becoming a police officer.
In June of 1989, that dre am
came true. For many years I proudly wore a badge of honor and
intergrity and enforeced the laws in the standards befitting
a Los Angeles police officer.
In the Rampart CRASH Unit things
began to change. The lines between right and wrong became fuzzy
and indistinct. The us-against-them ethos of the overzealous
cop began to consume me. And the ends justified the means. We
vaguely sensed we were doing the wrong things for the right reasons.
Time and again, I stepped over that line. Once crossed, I hurdled
over it again and again, landing with both feet sometimes on
innocent persons. My job became an intoxicant that I lusted after.
By then, I began to lust also for things of the flesh. The end
result, I cheated on my wife. I cheated on my employer, and I
cheated on all of you, the people of Los Angeles.
It didn't occur to me that
was I destroying lives. The lives of those whom we victimized
and their families who loved them. The life of my wife whom I
love beyond all reason and indeed my very own life. I won't offer
excuses as none could cure the pain experienced by the people
I hurt, namely all of the wrongly accused and convicted, my family
and friends, the criminal justice system, and the Los Angeles
Police Department.
To those people in organizations
that I have hurt, in such a profound way, and to the public at
large, I now tell you with every beat of my heart and soul, that
I am truly truly sorry. I am also sorry for ruining the public's
trust in their police department. By revealing the unpleasant
truths behind the badge that at one point I so proudly wore,
I hope to right some of the many wrongs. I will make every effort
now and until the successful conclusion of this investigation
to cooperate, provide insight and knowledge as to what went wrong
at Rampart Crash. . . .
There is no justification for
my misdeeds, either on or off duty. I can only say that I sucummbed
to the seductress of power. Used wrongfully it is a power that
can bend the will of a man to satisfy a lustful moment. It can
open locked bolts to facilitate theft. It can even subvert justice
to hand down a lifetime behind bars. On the latter, I apologize
to the courts and the juries that were my unwitting accomplices
on those occassions that I wanted to secure convictions. Beside
the exoneration of the innocent persons, I most want at this
time is to remind the greenest rookie cops that they too have
this power.
Used wrongfully.. . .[that
power] can plant the defendant's feet firmly on the path to the
death house. They need only to look to me and my impending prison
sentence, to remind them that for whatever reason they might
have to consider placing a finger on the scales of justice, it
is morally indefensible and contrary to our constitution. I will
ask rookie and young police officer alike to periodically revisit
their oath and the reason they entered law enforcement. I will
ask that you use me as an example of who you will avoid becoming.
Do not let the pressure of status, numbers and impressing supervisors
dicate the type of officer you become. The moment you cross that
first line, it will be impossible to step back. To the young
officers, I want to leave you with some admonishments: Listen
very closely because these are words that I wish someone would
have shared with me. I want to admonish you that you will be
enticed by fancy models and places that will make you believe
that there is a purpose and a reason for what they want you to
do and what they want you to be. You will hear such things as:
solid, can be trusted. . .hunt for the big elephant, special
chosen group. I admonish you to closely evaluate what you are
being told with those words. I asure you that they will pale
in comparison for what you will eventually be: shameful, regretful
and disappointed. Above the threshold of doors that lead to CRASH
offices, you will read such flip, awful statements as: "Some
rise by sin and some by virtue fall." As well as "we
intimidate those who intimidate others." To those mottos,
I offer this: Whoever chases monsters should see to it that in
the process he does not become a monster himself.
Judge ...., I thank you and
this court for its indulgence in its even-handedness in dealing
with me through one trial and the preparation of another. I apolgize
for having taken up the court's time and for earlier wanting
more than the justice due me.
I would also like to thank
Mr. Winston ....., my attorney who worked so tirelessly on my
behalf. He is just as irreplaceable as an attorney as he is a
friend. To my wife, whom I think is an incredible woman for having
stood by me through all this. who asked me how could she have
missed what was going on. I can only say this, I was living two
unmistakeable lives and each day the bad would consume a little
of the good. You were right. I was wrong, I was wrong. I pray
that one day, I can demonstrate my worthiness of being forgiven.
For the hope of God who has guided me through this road that
I must travel. I thank you for blessing me with a second chance
at life. My second half, I intend to live it wisely and without
regrets. Thank you.
In light of these developments,
O.J. Simpson is asking
the public to revisit his case. particularly the credibility
of Mark Fuhrman. Simpson trial
summary
L.A. sheriff
seeks to guard against LAPD-style problems with full-time civilian
review patrol
The Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department patrols an area of more than 3,000 square
miles -- areas not covered by the LAPD
July 9, 2000
In this story:
LAPD commission is part-time
| Union voices objections
LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- While
the Los Angeles Police Department continues to face the fallout
from a corruption scandal, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
is about to become the largest law-enforcement agency in the
nation to embrace a full-time independent review system composed
of civil rights lawyers and retired judges.
Los Angeles County Sheriff
Lee Baca, who says he is "fed up" with law enforcement
officers who do not uphold the law, vows that he will soon implement
the independent review system he proposed and the county Board
of Supervisors has already approved.
Said Baca: "Certain people
get attracted to this type of work; they pass our stringent background
investigations, they get through our academies, they take an
oath of office to defend the constitution of the state of California
as well as the United States -- and what do they do? They go
off in a total different direction. And I think the public is
fed up with this, and I know I am fed up with it."
LAPD commission is part-time
By contrast, the commission
that runs the LAPD is part-time, and the department has repeatedly
rejected the notion of full-time civilian oversight.
In the LAPD Rampart Division
scandal, three police officers face criminal charges, and on
Sunday the Los Angeles Times reported that the district attorney's
office may file criminal charges this week against a fourth.
Lawyers representing the three
officers charged in the LAPD corruption scandal -- Sgts. Edward
Ortiz and Brian Liddy, and Officer Paul Harper -- this week tried
to get the Los Angeles district attorney's office disqualified
from the case. But Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor denied
the motion, ruling that lawyers had failed to prove that the
district attorney's office is caught in a conflict of interest
and that any conflict would result in an unfair trial for the
officers.
Ortiz, 43, and Liddy, 38, have
been charged with filing false police reports, and Harper, 33,
with perjury. They were implicated of wrongdoing by former Rampart
officer Rafael Perez, who has been cooperating with investigators
in exchange for a lighter sentence after he was caught stealing
cocaine from a police evidence lock-up.
LAPD officers are said to have
beaten, framed and shot innocent people in the Rampart neighborhood,
a largely minority area near downtown Los Angeles. So far, the
revelations have resulted in 95 conviction dismissals. At least
70 police officers are under investigation.
Union voices objections
The union that represents most
of the uniformed officers in the sheriff's department says it
supports civilian review but doesn't like the notion of civil
rights lawyers taking part.
Roy Burns, president of the
deputy sheriffs' union, said, "We believe the citizens of
L.A. county could honestly and fairly evaluate our conduct. It's
... hiring civil rights attorneys that concerns our membership.
These are individuals who in the past have been our adversaries
... that have opposed us and, we believe, have an agenda."
With its more than 8,000 sworn
personnel, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department patrols
an area of more than 3,000 square miles with a population of
more than 2.5 million people -- areas not covered by the LAPD
or other municipal police departments.
And the sheriff says he wants
the public to know there is a new sense of accountability at
the department.
"If you screw up and violate
policy," Baca says, or you go out and commit a crime and
you wear a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department star on your
chest, you have to face the ultimate responsibility for what
you do wrong.
"And I'm not going to
do anything to make it easy for a person who willfully violates
policy."
CNN Correspondent Charles Feldman
and Reuters contributed to this report.
|
Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
