Rampart Scandal - Rampart Investigation Cover Up

Rampart Investigation Cover Up

There have been multiple allegations that Chief Parks and members of the LAPD were actively involved in obstructing the Rampart Investigation. Parks was in charge of Internal Affairs when Gaines and other Rampart officers were first discovered to have ties to the Bloods and Death Row Records. Parks is said to have protected these officers from investigation. According to Rampart Corruption Task Force Detective Poole, Chief Parks failed to pursue the Hewitt Investigation for a full six months. When Poole presented Chief Parks with a 40 page report detailing the connection between Mack and the murder of Notorious B.I.G., the report was suppressed.

On September 26, 2000, Detective Poole, an 18 year veteran of the force, filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles and Chief Parks. Poole, lead investigator on the Lyga-Gaines shooting and member of the Rampart Corruption Task Force, resigned from the Department and claimed in his civil suit that Chief Parks shut down his efforts to fully investigate the extent of corruption within the Department. Poole specifies conversations and direct orders in which Chief Parks prevented him from pursuing his investigation into the criminal activities of David Mack and Kevin Gaines, notably involving the investigation of the murder of Christopher Wallace.

Many city officials, including Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti, expressed a lack of confidence with Chief Parks' handling of the investigation. On September 19, 2000, the Los Angeles City Council voted 10 to 2 to accept a consent decree allowing the U.S. Department of Justice to oversee and monitor reforms within the LAPD for a period of five years. The Justice Department, which had been investigating the LAPD since 1996, agreed not to pursue a civil rights lawsuit against the city. Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and Police Chief Bernard Parks opposed the consent decree, but were forced to back down in the face of overwhelming support by the city council.

The "L.A.P.D. Board of Inquiry into the Rampart Area Corruption Incident" was released in March 2000. The report made 108 recommendations for changes in LAPD policies and procedures. The Board of Inquiry report, sanctioned by Bernard Parks, was widely criticized for not addressing structural problems within the LAPD.

"An Independent Analysis of the Los Angeles Police Department's Board of Inquiry Report on the Rampart Scandal" was published in September 2000, by University of California, Irvine School of Law Dean, Erwin Chemerinsky at the request of the Police Protective League. Chemerinsky outlined six specific criticisms of the Board of Inquiry report, namely that the LAPD minimized the scope and nature of the corruption; and abetted the corruption through its own internal negligence or corrupt policies. Chemerinsky called for an independent commission to investigate corruption; and a consent decree between the City of Los Angeles and the Justice Department to monitor effective reform.

The "Report of the Rampart Independent Review Panel", published in November 2000, was created by a panel of over 190 community members. Its report issued 72 findings and 86 recommendations. The report noted the Police Commission had been "undermined by the Mayor's Office" and that the Inspector General's Office had been "hindered by ... lack of cooperation by the (LAPD) in responding to requests for information."