Police Corruption

Before they were interrupted by an extended holiday recess, jurors in the federal corruption trial of "America's sheriff" had listened to hours of testimony and undercover tapes that prosecutors said chronicled the alleged bawdy behavior, bribes and blatant greed that framed the indictment of Michael S. Carona.

Valery Kazakov was almost to the prosecutor's office when the killers caught him. He was shot as he cut through an alleyway, and when he stumbled bleeding into the street, a man bent down to stab the final breaths out of him. It was 3 o'clock in the afternoon, in the heart of the sleepy town of Pushkino. As far as the townspeople were concerned, it was a public execution.

Mike Carona's fall from "America's Sheriff" to convicted felon reached bottom Monday as a federal judge gave Orange County's former top law enforcement officer a half-hour lecture about honesty before sentencing him to 5 1/2 years in prison for attempting to obstruct a grand jury investigation. "I need a sheriff I can trust," U.S. District Judge Andrew J. Guilford told Carona. "Lying will not be tolerated in this courtroom, especially by the county's highest-ranking law enforcement officer."

Declaring that the Los Angeles Police Department has reformed itself significantly after decades of corruption and brutality complaints, a U.S. judge on Friday ended a long-running period of federal oversight. U.S. District Court Judge Gary A. Feess terminated the consent decree federal officials had imposed on the LAPD in 2001, after the Rampart corruption scandal.

Prosecutors on Tuesday painted a disturbing picture of former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona's management of California's second-largest sheriff's department, citing testimony that he accepted secret cash payments, had numerous illicit sexual affairs, and provided badges and concealed weapons licenses to campaign contributors. In his closing argument, Assistant U.S. Atty.

Sitting handcuffed at the witness stand, a former state corrections officer on Friday pointed his finger -- both figuratively and literally -- at a disgraced Los Angeles police officer accused of participating in a series of home-invasion-style robberies staged to look like legitimate police raids.

Testifying with the confidence and poise of the expert witness he once was, disgraced Los Angeles police Officer Ruben Palomares told a federal court jury Tuesday how he went from being an idealistic young officer who wanted to be a role model for troubled kids to a cynical and corrupt cop at the center of a home-invasion robbery ring. Dressed in a green prison jumpsuit, Palomares faced the jury, often arching his eyebrows or gesturing as best he could in handcuffs to help make his points.

The national police commissioner, who faces charges of corruption and trying to protect a convicted drug smuggler, has gone on extended leave, the South African president said Saturday. The National Prosecuting Authority said Friday that charges would be filed soon against Jackie Selebi, who also holds the largely ceremonial post of president of Interpol. Selebi has denied any wrongdoing.

A veteran Huntington Park police officer once assigned to a federal anti-drug task force was arrested Thursday on charges that he conspired with others to distribute large quantities of cocaine and marijuana, federal authorities said. Sgt. Alvaro Murillo, who allegedly was called "The Godfather" by his cohorts, is accused of using his job as a police officer to recruit informants in the drug world, then use them to help him steal narcotics from dealers.

Local police were relieved of duty Tuesday in the border cities of Nuevo Laredo, Matamoros and Reynosa as army troops disarmed the officers and searched for evidence that might link them to drug traffickers. In Nuevo Laredo, soldiers surrounded police headquarters at 8 a.m. and ordered officers to remain inside. Federal troops conducted a similar operation in Tijuana last January, at the beginning of an offensive against Mexico's drug cartels and their allies in the police.