Read Blue: The LAPD and the Battle to Redeem American Policing Online

Authors: Joe Domanick

Tags: #West (AK, #MT, #HI, #True Crime, #Law Enforcement, #General, #WY), #NV, #Corruption & Misconduct, #United States, #ID, #Criminology, #History, #Social Science, #State & Local, #CA, #UT, #CO, #Political Science

Blue: The LAPD and the Battle to Redeem American Policing (67 page)

“Whoever chases monsters”
: “One Bad Cop.”

Nervously clutching her handbag . . . Denise Perez
: Author’s observations.

A former LAPD dispatcher
: “The Dirtiest Cop Alive”; “Perez’s Bitter Saga of Lies, Regrets, and Harm,”
LAT
, December 31, 2000.

“I proudly wore a badge of honor”
: “A Tearful Perez Gets 5 Years,”
LAT
, February 26, 2000.

Ray had “made a lot of eye contact with the female jurors”
:
Frontline
, PBS, May 15, 2001.

Ray “was too good-looking”
: Ibid.

deadlocked 8–4
: Ibid.

all the press corps’ then national stars
: Author’s observations.

“The atrocities committed by myself”
:
CBS
, February 24, 2000;
Frontline
, PBS, May 15, 2001.

“What I want most at this time”
:
Frontline
, PBS, May 15, 2001.

“living two unmistakable lives”
: “LAPD Whistleblower Apologizes,” CBS, February 24, 2000; “A Tearful Perez Gets 5 Years.”

plea-bargained five-year sentence in prison
: Ibid.

Bernard Parks, March 2000, Parker Center

“in the history of mankind”
: “Rampart Scandal Isolates Riordan,”
LAT
, March 12, 2000.

362-page inquiry
: “LAPD Condemned by Its Own Inquiry into Rampart Scandal,”
LAT
, March 1, 2000; “Report on Rampart Scandal Has a Hollow, Disturbing Ring,”
LAT
, March 3, 2000.

After dismissing every pointed question . . . Parks then left the stage
: Author’s observations.

Connie Rice, 2003, NAACP’s Advancement Project Offices, Los Angeles

Connie Rice was still irate
: Connie Rice interview.

seventy volumes of Rafael Perez’s testimony transcripts
: Ibid.

Kathleen Salvaty . . . “Connie, am I crazy or are there pages missing?”
: Ibid.; Rice,
Power Concedes Nothing
, 266.

“Perez is answering willy-nilly”
: Connie Rice interview.

“frustrated me very much about Rampart”
: Bill Boyarsky interview.

“Absolutely. Absolutely”
: Patrick Gannon interview.

Gerald Chaleff . . . was having deep concerns
: Gerald Chaleff interview.

asked Bernard Parks to grant department immunity to officers
: Ibid.

“Nope, can’t do that”
: Ibid.

“had nothing to do with officer discipline”
: Ibid.

“They couldn’t follow up”
: Connie Rice interview.

Bernard Parks, May 2000, Parker Center

“The LAPD . . . is engaged in a pattern or practice”
: Bill Lann Lee to James K. Hahn, “LAPD Notice of Investigation Letter,”
Esquire
, May 8, 2000.

James Hahn . . . tens of millions . . . to settle police abuse lawsuits
: “City Attorney Targets Costs of LAPD-Involved Lawsuits,”
LAT
, December 4, 1998; “Politics Trumps Justice,”
LAT
, November 18, 2001.

the City Council voted 10–2 to accept the consent decree
: “Outsiders to Oversee Reforms at LAPD,”
Washington Post
, September 22, 2000; “Can the LAPD Reform Itself?”
LAT
, September 24, 2000.

Steve Cooley, Wednesday, November 7, 2001, Parker Center

“With every book”
: “Politics Trumps Justice.”

“as high, wide, and deep as the facts indicated”
: Ibid.

“Every time I talk with that guy”
: Tim Rutten interview.

Police Commission voted 4–1 not to rehire Parks
: “The Bum Blockade, Zoot Suit Riot and Bloody Christmas,”
LA Weekly
, September 4, 2002.

Summing Up

150 stories on Rampart
: Domanick,
Covering Police in Times of Crisis
, 44.

“counted on one hand”
: Ibid., 46.

a new editor was brought in
: Bill Boyarsky interview.

city paid over $75 million to the victims . . . of Rampart CRASH officers
: “Los Angeles to Pay $13 Million to Settle May Day Melee Lawsuits,”
LAT
, February 5, 2009.

Javier Ovando was awarded $15 million
: “The Bum Blockade, Zoot Suit Riot and Bloody Christmas”; “LAPD Has Shed Scandalous Image, City Leaders Say,” AP, July 26, 2009.

he was arrested near the Nevada state line
: “Alleged Rampart Victim Arrested on Drug Charges,”
LAT
, March 21, 2001; “Rampart Victim Ovando in Court on Drug Charges,”
LAT
, April 20, 2001.

conspiracy to obstruct justice, perjury, and filing false reports
: “Ex-L.A. Cop Sentenced to 5 Years,”
CNN.com
, August 13, 2002,
http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/08/07/rampart.sentencing/index.html?_s=PM:LAW
.

Hewitt was banging Ishmael Jimenez around
: “Good Cop, Bad Cop.”

Ethan Cohan . . . fired . . . for failing to promptly report Hewitt
: Ibid.

“spoken with Chief Parks six to twelve times about the Rampart investigation”
:
Harper v. City of Los Angeles
, 06-55519, 06-55715 (United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, 2008), 4.

violating
their
civil rights
: Ibid.

compensatory damages of $5 million each
: Ibid.

“hounded” by the LAPD
: Ibid., 8.

“Let’s get the case behind us”
: Ibid., 4.

PART FOUR: SOMETHING NEW

William Bratton and Rikki Klieman, Summer 2002, Los Angeles and New York

Bratton had been flying from his home in New York to L.A.
: William Bratton interview; “NYPD’s Ex-Head Eyes Job at LAPD,”
LAT
, July 14, 2002.

Kroll Associates
: Ibid.

Dragnet
and
Badge 714
: Bratton and Knobler,
Turnaround
, 14.

Police Commission wanted a black chief
: Gary Greenebaum interview.

Los Angeles had almost 1,100 murders in 1992
: ABC News, November 22, 1992.

had dropped to 419 in 1998
: Ibid.

2002 . . . a troubling 647
: “Homicides Up 15% in Sheriff’s Territory,”
LAT
, January 12, 2006; “Top Cop in Los Angeles Says Cutting Crime Pays,”
WSJ
, November 29, 2008.

“start messing around within the department”
: William Bratton interview.

“walking into a deep freeze”
: Ibid.

“professional turnaround man”
: “NYPD’s Ex-Head Eyes Job at LAPD”; “Partners in Crime,”
Boston Globe
, August 29, 2002.

“put down his prepared remarks”
: “Bratton: The Making of a Police Visionary,”
Crime Report
, December 6, 2013; “They’ll Take Manhattan,” 156.

“the best of times and the worst of times”
: “Bratton: The Making of a Police Visionary”; “They’ll Take Manhattan,” 157.

“The only losers in New York City”
: Ibid.

“gains to the profession . . . undermined”
: William Bratton interview.

On the July Fourth weekend of 2002
: Rikki Klieman interview.

Rikki Klieman . . . “most outstanding women trial lawyers”
: “Law: The New Women in Court,”
Time
, May 1983; “Partners in Crime.”

raised poor in a Chicago suburb
: Klieman and Knobler,
Fairy Tales Can Come True
, 3; “Partners in Crime”; “Rikki Klieman, the Play’s the Thing,”
Lifestyles,
Fall 2002, 17.

garment-worker father and housewife mother
: Klieman and Knobler,
Fairy Tales Can Come True
, 1; “Partners in Crime”; “Rikki Klieman, the Play’s the Thing,” 17.

“would buy dresses for her at the Salvation Army”
: “Partners in Crime.”

theater arts major from Northwestern University
: Klieman and Knobler,
Fairy Tales Can Come True
, 15; “Partners in Crime”; “Rikki Klieman, the Play’s the Thing,” 17.

Waiting on restaurant tables
: Klieman and Knobler,
Fairy Tales Can Come True
, 30.

Boston University Law School
: Ibid., 39; “Partners in Crime”; “Rikki Klieman, the Play’s the Thing,” 18.

prosecutor . . . Middlesex County
: Klieman and Knobler,
Fairy Tales Can Come True
, 80–81 and 83.

1981 . . . criminal defense attorney
: Ibid., 122–23; “Rikki Klieman, the Play’s the Thing,” 18.

Valium
: Klieman and Knobler,
Fairy Tales Can Come True
, 103, 178, and 284; “They’ll Take Manhattan,” 156.

losing fifteen pounds
: Klieman and Knobler,
Fairy Tales Can Come True
, 284.

second marriage to a cop turned federal agent
: Ibid., 199–210; “Rikki Klieman, the Play’s the Thing,” 19.

collapsed on the defense table
: Klieman and Knobler,
Fairy Tales Can Come True
, 198; “They’ll Take Manhattan,” 156.

Court TV as a guest analyst during the O. J. Simpson trial
: Klieman and Knobler,
Fairy Tales Can Come True
, 288–89.

hired as an anchor
: Ibid., 291–94.

moving to New York
: Ibid., 294–97; Rikki Klieman interview.

cohost with Johnnie Cochran
: Klieman and Knobler,
Fairy Tales Can Come True
, 307–8.

Klieman had met Bratton . . . at a restaurant in Manhattan’s Regency Hotel
: Ibid., 310–11; “Partners in Crime.”

“If you were single, I’d marry you”
: Klieman and Knobler,
Fairy Tales Can Come True
, 311; Rikki Klieman interview.

“You should call me for lunch”
: Ibid.

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