City Council rejects tobacco money to fund LA police corruption lawsuit settlements

March 16, 2000
Web posted at: 6:00 p.m. EST (2300 GMT)

From staff and wire reports.

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- The Los Angeles City Council has voted against using the city's share of the national tobacco settlement to pay for any possible lawsuits filed against the city as a result of the police corruption scandal.

Instead, the council Wednesday voted 10-1 to create a special reserve fund that would be used in liability cases related to the scandal.

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Mayor Richard Riordan last month proposed using money from Los Angeles' portion of the national tobacco settlement to pay for lawsuits stemming from the police corruption scandal.

At the time he made his tobacco proposal, Riordan said that the city could bond $100 million out of the $300 million it expects to get from last year's $206 billion national tobacco industry settlement with state attorneys general.

The tobacco money, meant to reimburse states for the Medicaid funds they spent on treating smoking-related illnesses, would come to the city in incremental payments over 25 years.

The police scandal began last fall after one police officer was caught stealing cocaine from a police evidence locker. To obtain a reduced prison sentence he told prosecutors that other officers in a now-disbanded, anti-gang unit that had operated in the Rampart neighborhood beat, framed and even shot suspects.

Allegations of tainted evidence have resulted in 39 criminal convictions overturned, 20 officers relieved of duty and at least 70 other officers under investigation.

By some estimates, the scandal may cost the city at least $125 million to $200 million in civil liability cases, based on wrongful arrests and overturned convictions.

At the mayor's request, the council agreed Wednesday to delay for one week an appropriation of $20 million dollars into the special reserve fund set aside for the police corruption probe. The $20 million sum will be the first of several installments that will be transferred into the fund -- called the "Reserve for Extraordinary Liability Claims" -- over the next few years. The money comes from the city's unappropriated general balance surplus.

Nathalie Rayes, a legislative deputy for City Councilman Mike Feuer, who is chairman of the Budget and Finance Committee, told CNN that using tobacco money to fund Rampart cases is "not completely ruled out." But the council believes that "it's not going to be needed," she added.

Rayes also told CNN that this sum will be the first of several installments that will be transferred into the fund during the next few years.

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The Los Angeles Police Department
ACLU: American Civil Liberties Union
Tobacco Settlement Information for States

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