U.S.

Alleged Bias In Rampart Jury

November 9, 2000 / 7:40 AM EST / CBS/AP

An alternate juror in the corruption trial of four police officers told a judge Tuesday she did not hear the jury foreman allegedly say that he believed the defendants were guilty before testimony began.

Claiming the foreman's alleged remark constituted juror misconduct, defense attorneys are seeking a mistrial in the first case against members of an anti-gang unit at the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart station.

Three officers were convicted Nov. 15 of charges involving framing gang members. The fourth was acquitted.

The alternate, Paola Rojas, testified at a Superior Court hearing about a remark Victor Flores allegedly made after the jury was selected but before he was chosen as foreman.

Another alternate, Wendy Christiansen, claimed during a previous hearing that Flores made the comment during a lunch with her and Rojas. Flores denied at a hearing last week that he made such a remark.

Asked by Judge Jacqueline A. Connor if there was lunchtime talk concerning the officers' guilt, Rojas said: "No. There was not. If there would have been I would have mentioned it."

Defense attorney Harland Braun said after the hearing that the judge has to decide which account to believe.

Christiansen also has claimed jurors talked about the case during the trial, violating instructions to not discuss the case until deliberations.

Christiansen told Connor during an earlier hearing that Flores made it clear to her he had made up his mind before the trial began.

"The very first day we were selected I had lunch with one alternate and juror number three," she said, referring to Flores, who later would be chosen jury foreman.

"A comment was made that he believed the defendants were guilty," she said.

Alternate jurors sit with regular jurors during a trial but do not take part in deliberations or vote on a defendant's guilt or innocence.

The judge scheduled a Dec. 15 hearing on the matter.

The jury of seven women and five men convicted Sgt. Brian Liddy, Sgt. Edward Ortiz and Officer Michael Buchanan of conspiracy and other crimes involving the framing of gang members four years ago. Officer Paul Harper was acquitted of all charges.

The four were the first members of the now-defunct Rampart station anti-gang unit to be tried on charges based on the allegations of ex-Officer Rafael Perez, who said officers beat, robbed, framed and sometimes shot innocent people in the city's tough Rampart neighborhood near downtown.

Perez struck a deal with investigators in exchange for a lighter sentence for stealing cocaine from a police evidence room.

The investigation of police corruption within the Rampart unit between 1995 and 1998 has led to charges being dismissed or overturned in about 100 cases.

Dozens of officers have quit or been suspended, and Police Chief Bernard Parks has said more officers likely will be prosecuted

In another case tainted by alleged Rampart officer misconduct, a Superior ourt official on Monday dismissed a murder charge against a man because his constitutional rights were violated during a preliminary hearing.

In August, prosecutors dropped a murder charge in another case after the sole eyewitness claimed he was coerced into identifying a suspect by a police sergeant.