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Another conviction overturned in LAPD scandal

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LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- A Superior Court judge in Los Angeles on Friday threw out another conviction in connection with the city's ongoing police corruption scandal.

Clinton Harris's conviction on possession of a firearm by a felon was set aside by Judge Larry P. Fidler in a proceeding that took just over a minute.

The dismissal is the 98th such action since former Los Angeles police officer Rafael Perez began cooperating with authorities after his conviction for stealing drugs from a police evidence locker.

Perez has admitted to witnessing or participating in evidence planting, falsifying arrest reports, perjury, framing and even shooting innocent people while he worked at the Rampart Division's anti-gang unit.

According to court documents, Perez and his former partner Nino Durden observed Harris wearing a gun in the waistband of his pants on October 23, 1996. In May, however, in a sworn interview, Perez admitted that the story was bogus -- that he did not observe Harris with a gun.

Perez's testimony was corroborated by civilian eyewitness accounts, according to court documents.

Harris was sentenced to three years in prison, and is currently on parole in an unrelated drug case.

Durden was arrested last week and charged with six criminal counts including attempted murder, for incidents unrelated to the Harris case.

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