$70 million for lawsuit settlement by LA Police

The city will end up paying an estimated $70 million to settle lawsuits stemming from the Rampart corruption scandal that shook the Los Angeles Police Department, a city official said Thursday.

Since the allegations surfaced more than five years ago, 214 lawsuits have been filed by mostly drug dealers, gang members and other criminals who said they had been framed, shot or beaten by officers in the Rampart division’s anti-gang unit.

Twenty-seven claims were dismissed and eight are pending settlements, which are part of the $70 million total payout, said Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office.

The scandal once involved the investigation of 82 incidents involving 50 officers and the reversal of more than 100 convictions tainted by police misconduct.

Racial profiling, excessive force and the Rampart scandal caused the federal government in 2001 to impose a consent decree on the department mandating reforms.

The payout is considerably less than the $125 million projected by then-City Attorney James Hahn in the early stages of the scandal. Hahn is now mayor of the city.

Despite the criminal backgrounds of many of the plaintiffs, city lawyers concluded when reviewing the records of the officers involved that more than three-fourths of the cases were too risky to let them proceed to trial.

“When you have a problem officer, it’s very difficult to go forward,” Chief Deputy City Attorney Terree A. Bowers told the Times. “This has got to be a wake-up call for the city. It could have been worse.”

The average settlement was $400,000 but 30 plaintiffs received $500,000 or more. Javier Francisco Ovando, a gang member who was shot by police and left paralyzed, received the largest settlement - $15 million.

He had been sentenced to 23 years in prison after two officers testified he was armed when he was shot. His conviction was eventually overturned.

More than 100 criminal convictions were overturned as a result of the scandal, and more than a dozen officers left the force, some after being fired and others resigning amid investigations of alleged misconduct.

Many of the misconduct allegations were made by ex-officer Rafael Perez, who later emerged as the main culprit after his accusations against other officers were largely disproved.