Five prominent Los Angeles attorneys filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Friday charging that Los Angeles Police Department officers in the scandal-tarnished Rampart Division have harassed and beaten members of a group that works to end gang violence.
Lead counsel Paul Hoffman told a news conference at Immanuel Presbyterian Church on Wilshire Boulevard that the primary goal of the lawsuit is to win an injunction prohibiting LAPD officers from interfering with Homies Unidos. The group offers current and former gang members employment assistance, arts classes and a high school equivalency program.
"We're the mirror image of a gang injunction," Hoffman said, referring to court orders that can severely restrict the activities of gang members. "We want the police to stop acting like gangs."
The suit also seeks unspecified damages for its four plaintiffs--Homies Unidos acting director Gerardo Lopez, Appolonio Vargas, Alex Sanchez and his wife, Christina Garcia. The plaintiffs allege that they have been searched without warrants, stopped on baseless charges or beaten by LAPD officers.
The suit names the city of Los Angeles, LAPD Chief Bernard C. Parks and two Rampart officers--Mario Marquez and Jesus Amezcua. It charges that Marquez and Amezcua were among those who unlawfully detained, questioned and brutalized the plaintiffs. The acts, the lawsuit charges, often occurred when the victims were going to or leaving Homies Unidos meetings at Immanuel Presbyterian.
An LAPD spokeswoman said neither the department nor the two officers could discuss the lawsuit.
"We can't comment on any pending litigation," said Capt. Sharyn Buck.
The suit says Homies Unidos members have been victimized by warrantless LAPD forays into their homes, baseless charges and sexual harassment. Vargas said he has been beaten or roughed up by CRASH Officer Amezcua 10 times in the last few years after leaving Homies Unidos meetings.
"Once he kicked me in the stomach and told me he would kick my teeth out," Vargas said.
Lopez said former Rampart CRASH Officer Michael Buchanan, who has since been implicated in the corruption scandal, beat him on his way to a Homies meeting shortly after the group began meeting in Los Angeles in 1997.
"They've intimidated a lot of dangerous minds that could have become positive minds," Lopez said.
