Features

New trial sought for convicted L.A. cops

The Associated Press
Tuesday December 05, 2000

LOS ANGELES — Lawyers for the first three officers convicted in a police corruption scandal said Monday that they will seek a new trial. 

Sgts. Brian Liddy and Edward Ortiz and Officer Michael Buchanan were convicted Nov. 15 of conspiracy and perjury for framing gang members during a 1996 arrest.  

Prosecutors said the officers made false police reports claiming they were intentionally struck by a pickup truck. 

A fourth officer was acquitted. 

Defense attorneys said they will ask for a new trial next week. 

Harland Braun, representing Buchanan, said jurors wrongly relied on a computer-generated police report about the incident that said “great bodily injury” was involved – which the officers did not allege in their handwritten account. 

The police corruption investigation was sparked by statements from Rafael Perez, a former officer convicted of stealing cocaine from an evidence locker. Perez claimed that he and others in a Rampart-area anti-gang unit planted evidence, filed false reports and shot innocent people. 

Perez’s ex-lover was arraigned Monday for allegedly filing a false report with the FBI claiming Perez and another officer killed three people. 

Sonya Flores, 24, was arraigned before a federal judge. She was expected to plead guilty Tuesday and could face up to five years in prison.  

However, a 10-month sentence was being recommended, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office. 

Her attorney, Marshall Bitkower, said he hoped his client would receive a lighter sentence to a halfway house. 

Flores, appearing calm during her brief appearance before U.S. Judge Carla Woehrle, made no statement to reporters. 

“I think she’s apologized already,” Bitkower said after the hearing. 

Flores’ allegations, made public in October, contributed to Perez being discounted as a witness in the corruption trial of the other officers. 

 

 

They also sent federal authorities to Tijuana, Mexico, to dig for bodies she said were buried in a ravine. None were discovered and the so-called victims were later located and interviewed by the FBI. 

On Nov. 11, Flores recanted her allegations, telling reporters that she made them because she was angry at Perez. 

“Rafael got me pregnant and started seeing other women. He promised to leave his wife and marry me. All he did was use me and throw me away,” she said.