A veteran Rampart Division police officer was relieved of duty Friday after being accused of lying about a drug arrest. His suspension comes days before a judge is to decide whether to lift federal oversight of the department imposed because of a corruption scandal at the station six years ago.
Los Angeles Police Department Chief William J. Bratton suspended the officer after a six-month sting operation by internal affairs investigators. As part of the sting, officials set up a situation late Tuesday in which Officer Edward B. Zamora, 44, arrested an undercover detective, according to two sources.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday May 14, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 38 words Type of Material: Correction
LAPD officer: Two headlines on an article in Saturday's California section wrongly said a Los Angeles Police Department officer had been arrested after a sting operation. Officer Edward B. Zamora was relieved of duty Friday but not arrested.
Zamora said in his police report that the undercover detective dropped narcotics during the arrest, sources said, but surveillance officers knew that he hadn't.
The LAPD has presented its case against Zamora to prosecutors, who said they also are reviewing dozens of arrests Zamora made during his 16-year career. Zamora was accused in a civil lawsuit six years ago of planting drugs during a 1995 arrest, but an appeals court threw out the case.
The incident occurred during a sensitive moment for the LAPD: A federal judge is expected to rule as early as Monday on whether a consent decree the department entered into in the wake of the Rampart police corruption scandal should be lifted or extended.
Bratton wants U.S. District Judge Gary Feess to lift most of the federal oversight, saying the department has completed the vast majority of the reforms required by the U.S. Justice Department. But the monitor assigned to oversee the decree -- as well as some community activists -- believe the LAPD has further to go and that the full consent decree should be extended.
Bratton on Friday cited Zamora's suspension as a sign of how far the department has come.
The Ethics Enforcement Section, which carried out the sting, was created in 2001 as part of the reforms to help ferret out corruption. Detectives with the unit began investigating Zamora after they tracked a potentially problematic pattern of arrests and complaints.
"It is a reflection of how we are a different department," Bratton said. "This goes to the heart and soul of why the consent decree was created in the first place."
But others said Friday the case is not that clear cut. Although it shows the LAPD is monitoring the behavior of its officers, they said the case also suggests problems may still exist at the Rampart station.
