Most of Perez's Allegations Are Confirmed, Panel Told
Rampart: Testimony in another officer's hearing says 70%-80% of informant's charges have been corroborated.
Investigators on the Los Angeles Police Department's corruption
task force have corroborated 70% to 80% of the allegations of police
abuse leveled by former police officer Rafael Perez, according to
testimony at a disciplinary hearing Monday.
Lt. Emmanuel Hernandez, who has been working on the corruption task
force since before Perez began cooperating with authorities last
September, testified that investigators do not believe that Perez has
intentionally lied about any case, police officials said. Although
authorities say they have found Perez to be wrong about some important
details, they attribute those statements to failed memory, not deliberate
deception.
Hernandez's testimony came during an internal LAPD disciplinary
hearing for Officer Humberto Tovar, who was found guilty of five counts
of police misconduct arising from a 1996 drug arrest in which the suspect
allegedly was framed. Tovar faces possible termination. A recommendation
on his punishment is expected Wednesday.
Hernandez's statements at the hearing represent the broadest
endorsement to date of Perez's account and demonstrate the degree to
which the LAPD has sought to verify his testimony about alleged police
misconduct. Perez, a former anti-gang officer now serving time in jail,
stands at the center of the web of scandal known as the Rampart case,
making his credibility a potentially key issue in any disciplinary
hearings and criminal prosecutions that arise from the corruption probe.
Many of Perez's former colleagues accuse him of lying. Police would
not provide details Monday about how investigators have corroborated
Perez's version of events. Detectives continue to try to corroborate the
remainder of Perez's information, police said.
Perez, who was convicted of stealing eight pounds of cocaine from LAPD
facilities, agreed to cooperate with authorities in exchange for a
lighter prison sentence.
"This is clear evidence that my client has been honest and forthright
ever since he accepted his [plea bargain] deal," said Winston Kevin
McKesson, Perez's attorney.
Although investigators say Perez's information has been largely
corroborated, the ex-officer apparently has erred in several cases in
which he has implicated colleagues in misconduct. In one case, Perez
accused an officer of attending an on-duty party at which officers drank
alcohol. That case fell apart, however, when the officer produced
documents and photographs refuting Perez's account and showing that he
was at Disneyland at the time he supposedly was attending the party.
Attorney Richard Macias, who represents Tovar, continued to seize on
Perez's lack of credibility after the hearing in which Tovar was found
guilty.
"What most disappointed us is that Officer Tovar, who has not been
charged with any crimes and who has not lied in court, was not believed
by the board, and Perez, who has admitted perjuring himself more than 100
times, was," Macias said.
Tovar was found guilty of five of seven counts against him stemming
from the March 23, 1996, arrest of Toby Semick.
Semick was arrested on suspicion of possessing marijuana. But Perez
has since told task force investigators that he planted drugs on Semick
after the suspect threw a gun into the sewer. Tovar was Perez's partner
at the time.
"I told him [Semick] . . . OK, you got away with the gun. But you're
still going," Perez said during an Oct. 15, 1999, interview with
investigators, transcripts of which have been obtained by The Times.
Perez told detectives that, though he wrote the arrest report, Tovar
was aware that Semick was being framed.
"I made it very obvious to him that, you know, we're going to do him
for something," Perez said. "We just couldn't figure out what. Then,
later on, after we had gotten back to our car . . . I told him [Tovar] we
were gonna plant marijuana on him."
In the October interview, given under oath, Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard
Rosenthal asked Perez where the marijuana came from.
"I believe I had that in my possession already," Perez said.
Perez testified to this version of events at Tovar's so-called Board
of Right hearing, said McKesson. Semick also testified at the board
hearing that he was framed. In his defense, Tovar testified that the
scenario described in the arrest report was true to the best of his
knowledge, said Macias, his attorney.
"At the time, there was no doubt in his mind that this was a
legitimate arrest," Macias said.
The district attorney's office rejected the drug case against Semick,
citing insufficient evidence, according to documents.
To date, Perez has implicated dozens of LAPD officers in a host of
alleged crimes and cases of misconduct. As a result of his admissions and
allegations, more than 70 criminal convictions have been overturned.
