LAPD Whistleblower Apologizes
In Los Angeles, Friday was sentencing day for the police officer who blew the whistle on a rogue LAPD unit accused of manufacturing evidence against dozens of suspects, CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes reports.
In stark contrast to the tough street cop who terrorized the neighborhood he patrolled, former Officer Rafael Perez broke down in tears as he asked forgiveness for his crimes. He told the court he was an example of what a police officer should not be.
"I was living two unmistakable lives, and each day the bad would consume a little of the good," he said.
Perez's first trial in December 1998 ended in a hung jury. Last September, he pleaded guilty to eight counts of theft and drug possession. He could have faced up to 14 years in prison. Instead, Perez was sentenced to five years for stealing cocaine from a police evidence locker, but his case is about much more than that.
It was Perez who uncovered the biggest scandal in LAPD history, admitting he and other officers shot an unarmed suspect in the head, planted evidence and lied under oath. Twenty officers have been relieved of duty and 40 tainted convictions have been overturned since Perez began talking; several hundred more cases are under review. The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office is looking into as many as 3,000 criminal convictions that may have been tainted by police misconduct.
"The atrocities committed by myself and those who stand accused are unforgivable acts," Perez said. "It didn't occur to me that we were destroying lives, lives of those whom we victimized and their families who loved them."
CBS News reported last month that despite intense scrutiny, officers in Perez’s embattled Rampart district are still under fire for allegations of using excessive force, this time against fellow law enforcement.
In a statement obtained exclusively by CBS News, an Immigration and Naturalization supervisor reveals what he saw the night LAPD Rampart officers confronted undercover INS agents. The supervisor says an LAPD officer told a handcuffed INS agent to "cooperate or he would shoot him."
The supervisor also says he watched six LAPD officers wrestle another INS agent to the ground while he "was screaming in apparent agony.
Next week, the Police Department releases its own internal investigation of the corruption scandal, but many question it’s fairness. Even the police union is now asking for an independent review: As University of Southern California law professor Irwin Chemernsky puts it, "In order to make sure that this never happens again, there has to be an investigation of the entire criminal justice system."
And the star witness in that investigation will be Rafael Perez, whose testimony alone is expected to exonerate thousands of victims wrongfully convicted.