Los Angeles Police Department Rampart Division

Only rarely does a judge in a criminal case overturn the verdict reached by jurors in her own courtroom. Still rarer is the judge who admits to committing an error so serious it taints a verdict. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Connor did both Friday night in an extraordinary ruling that overturned the convictions of three Rampart Division police officers, impressing legal scholars with both her tightly reasoned legal arguments and her unusual candor.

For sale: One police station in the middle of Los Angeles. Slightly used. Looking for an office building with bulletproof windows, mirrored interrogation rooms and a big vault? It could be yours for just $4.5 million. The seller is motivated. The two-story structure west of downtown is also rather notorious. Among its previous occupants were members of the Los Angeles Police Department's anti-gang CRASH unit (short for Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums), who were accused of running a rogue operation that framed suspects, administered beatings, stole drugs and committed other crimes.

A former gang member who won a $15 million judgment after he was shot and framed by corrupt Los Angeles police officers more than a decade ago was arrested Sunday night after leading Glendale police on a high-speed chase, his second arrest in a week, authorities said. Javier Francisco Ovando, 31, was arrested about 8:15 p.m. Sunday after leading police on an hour-long chase that reached speeds of up to 90 mph on local streets and freeways, said Sgt. Tom Lorenz of the Glendale Police Department.

The Los Angeles Police Department's effort to end a federal consent decree imposed in the wake of the Rampart scandal got a boost Friday when the independent monitor overseeing the department said the decree should end. LAPD Chief William J. Bratton is hoping that a federal judge on Monday will end the decree, which calls for federal oversight of department operations. The decree was enacted in 2001 in the wake of a scandal in which LAPD officers were accused of misconduct, including framing suspects.

Federal investigators are preparing to search a garbage-strewn hillside near downtown Tijuana for the graves of three people who an informant claims were buried there by former Los Angeles Police Department officers Rafael Perez and David Mack, law enforcement sources confirmed Tuesday. The search, expected to occur within days, is part of an ongoing federal investigation aimed at corroborating the allegations of 23-year-old Sonia Flores, Perez's former lover.

Three Los Angeles police officers who were convicted last month of framing gang members will file a formal motion next week requesting a new trial, according to their lawyers. The attorneys contend that their clients--Sgts. Edward Ortiz and Brian Liddy, and Officer Michael Buchanan--were convicted Nov. 15 because some jurors were confused and at least one engaged in misconduct. The Los Angeles district attorney's office plans to argue against the request for a new trial.

Los Angeles County prosecutors Friday formally asked a state appeals court to reinstate last year's conspiracy convictions against three former officers of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division. In a 72-page motion to the 2nd District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles, Deputy Dist. Atty.

With the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division scandal as a backdrop, more than two dozen relatives of men and women killed by police in Southern California joined Tuesday to express their misery and a demand that authorities aggressively investigate excessive force allegations against those who wear a badge. "We are here to hear from the families of young men and women who have been murdered by the police with no retribution or justice," the Rev.

Three LAPD officers convicted of framing gang members seem to be losing ground in their bid for a new trial based on alleged juror misconduct. An alternate juror, Paola Rojas, testified Tuesday that she could not recall the foreman's saying that the officers were guilty on the first day of trial and she said that if she had heard the comment she would have reported it to the judge. But the officers are gaining on another front: their effort to win a new trial based on a misleading police report.

A judge Tuesday reversed the convictions of nine more people allegedly framed by officers in the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division. Seven adults and two juveniles had their cases thrown out by Superior Court Judge Larry P. Fidler, bringing the number of convictions set aside as a consequence of the ongoing police corruption scandal to 32.

The Los Angeles City Council approved a $20.5-million settlement Wednesday to bring to a close lawsuits brought by four Los Angeles Police officers who alleged that they were falsely arrested and maliciously prosecuted during the city's Rampart police corruption scandal that began in the late 1990s.

A former gang member who won a $15 million judgment after he was shot and framed by corrupt Los Angeles police officers more than a decade ago was arrested Sunday night after leading Glendale police on a high-speed chase, his second arrest in a week, authorities said. Javier Francisco Ovando, 31, was arrested about 8:15 p.m. Sunday after leading police on an hour-long chase that reached speeds of up to 90 mph on local streets and freeways, said Sgt. Tom Lorenz of the Glendale Police Department.

Three lawsuits filed by current or former Los Angeles police officers will proceed to trial, a federal judge ordered Monday. The decision comes amid a breakdown in settlement talks with the city. The three officers, and a fourth in a separate suit, allege they were falsely arrested and maliciously prosecuted during the Rampart Division corruption scandal. Attorneys expect the trial to start next May. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney acted after officials failed to approve a $16.

The Los Angeles City Council emerged from a closed session Friday without agreeing to settle several court cases brought by officers who say they were wrongly accused in the 1998 Rampart Division police scandal. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and six council members have openly opposed the city paying a $16.85-million settlement to the officers, even though the city's lawyer believes taxpayers could be compelled to pay up to $40 million if the city loses at trial.

Eight years after the Rampart police scandal erupted, several key Los Angeles city officials are fighting a proposed settlement for a final batch of lawsuits that could push the city's total bill for the corruption episode well beyond $100 million. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office and the City Council's budget committee oppose a $16.

The Los Angeles City Council agreed Wednesday to pay $675,000 to settle a lawsuit by the family of former Police Sgt. Paul Byrnes Jr., who died of a painkiller overdose after being swept up in the massive internal investigation into the Rampart corruption scandal. The Los Angeles Police Department probe eventually cleared Byrnes of wrongdoing, city officials said, but the lawsuit by his father and children alleges that the LAPD violated his civil rights.

A second prison inmate authorities now believe was framed by corrupt officers of the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division is expected to be freed from custody this week, while another will be released from parole and yet another will be ordered resentenced, according to sources close to the ongoing corruption probe. The three are among as many as 40 convicted individuals whose trials authorities believe may have been tainted by Rampart officers' misconduct.

The crowd was friendly, the room nearly full. The aromas of chicken and vegetables mingled in the basement auditorium as Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti finished up a typical 20-minute dinner speech that amounted to an extended primer on the tough decisions faced daily by Los Angeles County's top prosecutor. "Now, with that said, I know it's getting late for some people--I'll open it up to everyone, if you want to talk about Rampart, if you want to talk about Belmont, or . . ."

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton has appointed an advisory group, including former City Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, to help implement reforms recommended after the Rampart police corruption scandal, officials said Tuesday. In addition to Miscikowski, the group will include police union President Bob Baker, policing expert Merrick Bobb, civil rights attorney Connie Rice and top LAPD command officers.

The City Council agreed Wednesday to pay $810,000 to settle a lawsuit by Paul Bastidas, who alleged that Rampart anti-gang officers planted marijuana on him and wrongly arrested him in 1998 as part of a wider police corruption scandal. Bastidas served 30 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to felony sale of narcotics because, his lawsuit contends, he "felt helpless" against the police officers. A judge later vacated the conviction.