USA: L.A. Police officer Rafael Perez given five year reduced sentence for removing criminal evidence after agreeing to reveal police corruption

Record ID: 676067

  • Title: USA: L.A. Police officer Rafael Perez given five year reduced sentence for removing criminal evidence after agreeing to reveal police corruption
  • Date: 25th February 2000
  • Summary: (RECENT) (REUTERS) SLV LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARMENT RAMPART DIVISION HEADQUARTERS PULL INTO CU OF LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT RAMPART STATION SIGN SLV POLICE CAR PULLING INTO RAMPART PARKING SPACE (2 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 11th March 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA205TOK493SCSJEG7IKOUF1AZL
  • Story Text: The rogue officer who blew the whistle on Los Angeles police framing scores of innocent people in a poor Hispanic area of the city was sentenced on Friday (February 25) to five years in jail for stealing cocaine from an evidence locker.
    Rafael Perez, whose relatively light sentence was the result of a plea bargain in which he agreed to tell authorities everything he knew about the corruption inside the Rampart Division's anti-gang unit, wept openly at times as he apologised for being a bad cop.
    "I cheated on my wife, I cheated on my employer, I cheated on all of you, the people of Los Angeles," Perez said.He also apologised to the "innocent people that I hurt and for the pain I caused unjustly to their families.I am truly, truly sorry."
    Reading from a notebook, he called on young cops not to make the mistakes he made.
    "He who chases monsters must see that he does not become a monster himself," he said.
    He also told them to ignore signs they would see in anti-gang unit rooms which read, "Some rise by sin.Some by virtue fall."
    Perez, who also received immunity from prosecution for any criminal acts he may have carried out as a policeman, will actually spend only about two years and nine months -- just over 1000 days -- in jail after being credited with 549 days for time already served and 274 days for good conduct.
    He has already told investigators how he and other officers planted evidence on immigrant Hispanic gang members, doctored crime scenes and framed scores of innocent people.
    Perez said in court he had wanted to be a police officer ever since he was a young boy growing up in Philadelphia.
    After joining the LAPD in 1989, he said he was a good cop who stayed strictly within police guidelines.But when he was assigned to the Rampart anti-gang unit, "The lines between right and wrong became fuzzy and indistinct."
    "Theseemed to justify the means...My job became an intoxicant that I lusted after.I crossed over the line again and again, landing on both feet sometimes on innocent persons," he added.
    About 40 criminal convictions have been overturned so far based on Perez's testimony, with defence lawyers saying that thousands of cases will have to be reexamined based on his evidence.About 20 of his former Rampart colleagues have either been fired or relieved of duty because of the scandal.
    Los Angeles is bracing for hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuits from people convicted for crimes they say they never committed.
    Among those freed so far was a gang member who was shot and paralysed by Perez and his partner, Nino Durden, then arrested and convicted on charges of attacking police officers after the two cops planted a rifle on him.
    Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti has yet to charge any of the suspected corrupt officers with criminal charges saying his office was not prepared for the level of corruption it uncovered and has yet to gather the evidence it needs to ensure a conviction.
    "When he said, right at the beginning, 'We shot and left for dead and planted a gun on an innocent person' that was so far beyond the pale of expectation," said Garcetti, "It really shook us to the core."
    The challenge for LAPD chief Bernard Parks is to restore trust in a department marred by scandals ever since the police beatings of Rodney King sparked the infamous 'L.A.Riots' of 1992.
    "I think you're going to have a credibility issue even after we solve and identify all the problems," said Parks, "We can't speculate and start saying how many divisions are involved until we actually get into the investigation and begin to talk to officers.And, as they point us in other directions, we'll follow those leads."
    For now, all of the leads will be coming from a disgraced officer serving out the remainder of his five-year sentence.
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