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DA files attempted murder charges against LAPD officer

Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti filed attempted murder charges against a police officer Friday in the ongoing corruption scandal at the Los Angeles Police Department, CNN.com has learned.

Victoria Pitkin, spokeswoman for the district attorney's office, said officer Nino Durden was arrested at approximately 11 a.m. Friday morning.

Garcetti said Durden's actions were one of the most "egregious" criminal acts in the scandal, which came to light at the end of last summer.

Durden was charged for his alleged role in the 1996 shooting of Javier Francisco Ovando in 1996. Ovando was paralyzed by the shooting and was wrongly convicted and sentenced to 23 years in state prison.

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Three years into his sentence, Ovando was released after prosecutors determined he was innocent after Durden's partner, officer Rafael Perez, admitted he and Durden shot Ovando and planted a gun to cover up their action.

Perez started cooperating with the authorities as part of a plea bargain after he was caught stealing cocaine from a police evidence locker.

Since the corruption probe began in September, four officers have been slapped with felony criminal charges while at least 35 officers have been relieved of duty, fired or quit as a result of the investigation, CNN has learned.

The scandal, which began unfolding at the end of last summer, involves charges that officers working out of the drug and gang-plagued Rampart Division engaged in everything from shooting unarmed individuals to fabricating and planting evidence against innocent people.

The Justice Department is also investigating the department for what it calls a pattern of police misconduct and other institutional problems.

The LAPD has been hounded by problems since the widely publicized beating of motorist Rodney King in 1991.

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