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Prosecutors to appeal overturned convictions of LAPD officers

 

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Prosecutors announced Thursday they will appeal a California judge's decision to overturn the convictions of three LAPD officers stemming from the ongoing Rampart corruption scandal.

In December, Judge Jacqueline Connor reversed the guilty verdicts for Sgts. Edward Ortiz and Brian Liddy and Officer Michael Buchanan, citing juror misconduct. A fourth officer, Paul Harper, was cleared of all charges.

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"We believe Judge Connor erred in her ruling overturning the jury verdicts," said newly-elected District Attorney Steve Cooley. "After discussions with members of the Rampart Task Force, the Appellate Division and senior lawyers on my staff, I feel that the first step is challenging Judge Connor's ruling in the State Court of Appeals."

The officers were found guilty in November of conspiracy to obstruct justice in the first trial arising from a probe into widespread corruption in the Rampart Division's anti-gang unit. Ortiz and Liddy were found guilty of filing a false police report during the arrest of two gang members charged with striking Liddy and Buchanan with a pick up truck in July 1996 as both suspects allegedly tried to escape a police raid. Buchanan was convicted of perjury in that incident.

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 cocaine from a police evidence locker. Perez has limited immunity for crimes he witnessed or participated in, except for murder.

Perez, who did not testify because of concerns about his credibility, claimed officers routinely planted evidence, fabricated arrest reports and shot unarmed civilians during gang raids west of downtown Los Angeles. Following the convictions were a series of hearings in which the judge investigated allegations ranging from juror bias against the officers to allegedly flawed evidence used during jury deliberations.

Since the corruption scandal emerged in September 1999, 70 officers are under investigation and more than 100 criminal convictions have been overturned.

A fifth officer and former partner of Perez, Nino Durden, faces attempted murder charges this month for the shooting or Javier Francisco Ovando, a gang member Perez claims was framed and falsely imprisoned in 1996. In November, the city of Los Angeles settled a civil lawsuit with Ovando and paid him $15 million, the largest police abuse settlement in city history.

The city recently signed a federal consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice requiring a wide range of police reforms aimed at rooting out police corruption and ensuring that the LAPD does not violate the civil rights of citizens.



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