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LAPD convictions could lead to more trials

Los Angeles police officer Paul Harper, acquitted of all charges, listens to closing arguments during the Rampart police corruption trial in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- The conviction of three Los Angeles police officers in the largest police corruption scandal in the city's history could be the first of many.

"Although these cases are difficult to prosecute, this demonstrates that we should not ignore them," Police Chief Bernard Parks said after the verdicts were read Wednesday. "Our investigations have not concluded."

Sgts. Brian Liddy, 39, and Edward Ortiz, 44, and Officer Michael Buchanan, 30, were found guilty of conspiracy to obstruct justice and filing false police reports in the first trial resulting from the LAPD's Rampart scandal. They were convicted of falsely accusing two reputed gang members of trying to run over them with their pickup truck.

Officer Paul Harper, 33, was acquitted of all charges.

The maximum prison term for Buchanan is eight years on perjury charges. Ortiz and Liddy face a maximum of three years on false arrest convictions.

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The maximum sentence for conspiracy is three years for each officer convicted.

Sentencing is scheduled for January 16, 2001.

Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti said the verdicts will be a warning to law enforcement.

"The greatest deterrent to any misconduct or potential misconduct of a police officer is the very real possibility he or she would go to prison," said Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti. "There is not a police officer I have ever met that wants to spend one day in state prison."

A lawyer for Ortiz claimed jurors were tainted because of the widespread publicity surrounding the corruption scandal.

"We lost this case because the jury speculated as to what the evidence was," said defense attorney Barry Levin. "What they listened to, I believe -- reports of corruption, perpetrated from long before this trial began -- and we were doomed from the beginning."

Ortiz insited that he did nothing wrong.

"I still believe to this day that we are innocent and that we did our job to keep the citizens of L.A., keep the streets safe from all the gangs and all the crime that's going on out there," he said.

Prosecutors based their case against the four officers primarily on interviews with former officer-turned-informant Rafael Perez, who is serving a reduced jail sentence as part of a plea agreement for stealing $1 million worth of cocaine from a police evidence locker.

During closing arguments, Harland Braun, attorney for Los Angeles police officer Michael Buchanan, looks at the prosecutors' table and declares that they did not prove their case

Perez had claimed the officers routinely planted evidence, fabricated arrest reports and shot unarmed civilians during gang raids west of downtown Los Angeles.

He did not testify in the trial because of questions about his credibility.

He served with the officers in the LAPD's now-disbanded anti-gang unit, known as CRASH (Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums).

Part of Perez's plea agreement included limited immunity for all crimes, except murder.

In another case, officer Nino Durden, Perez's former partner, faces attempted murder, robbery and assault charges during separate incidents in 1996.

Since the probe was launched in September 1999, 70 officers have been investigated and more than 100 convictions have been overturned. Dozens of officers have quit or been fired or suspended because of the scandal.

City officials have estimated it may cost as much as $125 million to settle lawsuits resulting from the case.

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Department of Justice proposed consent decree
City of Los Angeles notes on proposed plan
Independent Analysis of the Los Angeles Police Department's Board of Inquiry Report on the Rampart Scandal

American Civil Liberties Union
Pittsburgh Police Bureau
Los Angeles Police Department Web site
Justice Department Civil Rights Division
Los Angeles County District Attorney
U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California
Federal Bureau of Investigation

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