Blue: The LAPD and the Battle to Redeem American Policing (65 page)

mug party
:
Perez
, BA109900, “Statement of Rafael Antonio Perez,” December 14, 1999, 37.

“the benches”
:
Perez
, BA109900, “Statement of Rafael Antonio Perez,” December 14, 1999, 233
;
“Police in Secret Group Broke Law Routinely.”

Jack Daniel’s and cold beer . . . steaks
:
Perez
, BA109900, “Statement of Rafael Antonio Perez,” December 14, 1999, 37.

award plaques from a sergeant
: Ibid.; “Police in Secret Group Broke Law Routinely.”

two framed playing cards with red hearts and red bullets
: Ibid.

Javier Ovando . . . paralyzed and wheelchair-bound
: “One Bad Cop”; “Bad Cops”; “Los Angeles Paying Victims $70 Million for Police Graft,”
NYT
, April 1, 2005.

brought into L.A. County Superior Court on a gurney
: “Scandal Shows Why Innocent Plead Guilty”; “One Bad Cop.”

“The defendant . . . [had] equipped himself”
:
Ovando
BA139642, “Sentencing Memorandum,” March 7, 1997, 6.

“What would defense counsel have you believe?”
: “Scandal Shows Why Innocent Plead Guilty.”

as his pregnant girlfriend
: “One Bad Cop.”

Javier Ovando was found guilty of two counts of assaulting a police officer
:
Ovando
BA139642, “Sentencing Memorandum.”

Although Ovando had that number “18” tattooed on the back of his neck
: “One Bad Cop.”

he had no felony arrests
: Ibid.

LAPD detectives had never even bothered to interview him
:
Ovando
B110980, Ex. B, 2.

J. Stephen Czuleger . . . appointed during the 1980s by . . . George Deukmejian
: “Scandal Shows Why Innocent Plead Guilty.”

“What happened was dirty,” Toister later told
: “One Bad Cop.”

Javier Ovando . . . twenty-three years, four months in state prison
:
Ovando
B110980, Ex. A, 2; “Scandal Shows Why Innocent Plead Guilty.”

“the defendant has no remorse”
: “Scandal Shows Why Innocent Plead Guilty”; “One Bad Cop”; “Bad Cops.”

Richard Eide, Spring 1997, Los Angeles Police Academy

Captain Richard Eide stood on a roadway
: Author’s observations.

“We don’t have paramilitaristic
[sic]
training
”
: Richard Eide interview; “Community-Based Skepticism,”
LA Weekly
, February 28–March 6, 1997.

“The Police Department . . . has a job to do”
: Ibid.

“a catchall term”
: Ibid.

“the report went up on some shelf”
: Ron Noblet interview.

“The Police Commission Office started monitoring”
: Gary Greenebaum interview.

“The people who think the LAPD had problems”
: Richard Eide interview; “Community-Based Skepticism.”

Sergeant Nicholas Titiriga . . . “compiled a total of eighteen misconduct complaints”
: “The Simpson Legacy: Just under the Skin: Pushed by Change, Pulled by the Past: As the LAPD Pursues Community-Friendly Policing, a Paramilitary Tradition Dies Hard,”
LAT
, October 10, 1995.

“What reformers reject in the old department”
: Ibid.

Deirdre Hill . . . LAPD had “no in-service training”
: “LAPD to Issue Manual on Use of Force,”
LAT
, September 1, 1995.

“assassinating Williams behind his back”
: Allan Parachini interview; “Say Goodbye to Hollywood.”

“ultimate slam job”
: Ibid.

Willie Williams, March 1997, Parker Center

“the department cannot continue”
: “Los Angeles Police Board Dumps City’s First Black Chief,”
Chicago Tribune
, March 11, 1997; “Williams Won’t Get 2d Term as Los Angeles Police Chief; A Civilian Review Panel Pointed to Management Breakdowns; The Public Had Embraced Williams,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, March 11, 1997.

“problem officers”
: Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department,
Report of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department
, x–xii; “ ‘They Hit Me, So I Hit Back’: The Christopher Commission Spoke of 44 ‘Problem Officers’ in the LAPD; Now Their Names Have Been Obtained, Allowing an Examination of Their Records; Some of Them Speak Out,”
LAT
, October 4, 1992; “What Has Happened to the ‘LAPD 44’?”
LAT
, October 15, 1995.

Michael Falvo . . . shooting death
: “Officer Who Shot Boy Was ‘Problem’ Cop,”
LAT
, August 3, 1995.

Andrew Teague . . . falsifying evidence
: “LAPD Detective Won’t Be Charged with Perjury,”
LAT
, November 23, 1995.

“business as usual”
: Gary Greenebaum interview.

Willie Williams . . . an hourlong meeting
: “Frustrated Police Chief Chastises Top Staff at Meeting, Sources Say,”
LAT
, October 31, 1995.

The department needed to be “kick-started”
: Ibid.

“Senior officers unwilling to back him”
: Ibid.

“I’d like to get more help from you”
: Ibid.

PART THREE: SOMETHING BLUE

Bernard Parks, August 1997, Los Angeles City Hall

Note: Chief Parks refused to be interviewed for this book (Media Deputy Kimberly Briggs, e-mail message to Emily Maleki/Joe Domanick, August 1, 2014).

“It was an absolute love-in”
: “Parks Sworn In as LAPD Chief After 12–0 Vote,”
LAT
, August 13, 1997.

standing ovation
: Ibid.

not been asked a single question beforehand
: Ibid.

a crowd estimated at three thousand
: “The LAPD: Chief Parks,” Los Angeles Police Department, accessed January 25, 2015,
http://www.lapdonline.org/history_of_the_lapd/content_basic_view/1118
.

the same belt
: “The 50 Most Beautiful People in the World 1998, Bernard C. Parks: Police Chief,”
People
, May 11, 1998; Gary Greenebaum interview.

“I’m a man of Los Angeles”
: Gary Greenebaum interview.

“I don’t view conflict as something bad”
: “Parks Sworn In as LAPD Chief After 12–0 Vote.”

“I’m so thrilled”
: Ibid.

smart, knowledgeable, efficient technocrat
: Patrick Gannon interview; Charlie Beck interview.

David Mack, Thursday, November 6, 1997, South Central Bank of America

three-piece suit, a tweed beret, and dark sunglasses
: “Bad Cops,”
New Yorker
, May 21, 2001; “Who Killed B.I.G.?”
Rolling Stone
, June 7, 2001.

$722,000
: “Officer Charged in Bank Heist That Netted $722,000,”
LAT
, December 18, 1997; “Former Teller Pleads Guilty to Role in Bank Robbery,”
LAT
, July 15, 1999; “Ex–LAPD Officer Sentenced in Bank of America Robbery,”
LAT
, September 14, 1999.

“I have a headache”
: “Officer Charged in Bank Heist That Netted $722,000.”

Mack knocked Romero to the floor
: “Who Killed B.I.G.?”

he was joined by a black accomplice
: “Bad Cops.”

white getaway van driven by a third member
: “Former Teller Pleads Guilty to Role in Bank Robbery”; “Bad Cops.”

David Mack went to Las Vegas
: “Bad Cops”; “Who Killed B.I.G.?”

a fellow cop named Sammy Martin
: Ibid.

In addition to being Ray’s lover
: “Fall of Partners Feeds LAPD Corruption Probe,”
LAT
, September 13, 1999; “Bad Cops.”

Mack would also spend over $30,000
: “Ex–LAPD Officer Sentenced in Bank of America Robbery.”

Errolyn Romero . . . daughter of Belizean immigrants
: “Robbery Suspect Called LAPD Leader,”
LAT
, December 19, 1997.

she was working as a ticket-taker
: “Fall of Partners Feeds LAPD Corruption Probe”; “Who Killed B.I.G.?”

polygraph test that declared her “deceptive”
: “Officer Charged in Bank Heist That Netted $722,000”; “Former Teller Pleads Guilty to Role in Bank Robbery.”

David Mack’s LAPD business card
: “Officer Charged in Bank Heist That Netted $722,000”;
Frontline
, PBS, May 15, 2001; “Bad Cops”; “Who Killed B.I.G.?”

Mack, in turn, didn’t give them anybody
: “Fall of Partners Feeds LAPD Corruption Probe”; “Bad Cops.”

$1,500 cash in his wallet
: “Fall of Partners Feeds LAPD Corruption Probe”; “Ex–LAPD Officer Sentenced in Bank of America Robbery.”

owed the IRS $20,000
: “Ex–LAPD Officer Sentenced in Bank of America Robbery”; “The Dirtiest Cop Alive,”
Maxim
, November 2000.

$17,000 in credit card bills
: Ibid.

sentenced him to fourteen years and three months
: “Ex–LAPD Officer Sentenced in Bank of America Robbery.”

Romero to two and a half years
: “One Bad Cop,”
New York Times Magazine
, October 1, 2000.

Biggie Smalls
: “L.A. Confidential,”
Salon
, September 27, 2000; “Who Killed B.I.G.?”

Bernard Parks, Autumn 1997, Parker Center

Dotson had always liked him
: David Dotson interview.

“Bernie always got enmeshed in minutiae”
: Ibid.

“his people didn’t want to tell him anything”
: Ibid.

“They just pulled their hair out”
: Ibid.

“you can’t get an organization moving in any direction”
: Ibid.

“the kind of downward pressure”
: Ibid.

“He didn’t say, ‘Hey, guys, let’s get together’ ”
: Ibid.

“yellow-sheeting”
: Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department,
Report of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department
, 159.

can of Coke
: Charlie Beck interview.

Brian Hewitt, February 1998, Rampart Division

Brian Hewitt . . . blunt, hard-charging guy
: “Good Cop, Bad Cop,”
LA Weekly
, January 12, 2000.