Don’t Let Clock Preclude Rampart Relief

Very quietly, Los Angeles city officials are allowing the one-year limit during which Rampart victims have to file a claim in state court against the city to run out. As a result, many people who were harmed, framed or improperly convicted through official police misconduct will never get their day in court.

This must not be allowed to happen. Justice would be better served if the City Council instructs City Atty. James K. Hahn not to employ the state statute of limitations in certain cases. As an alternative, the Legislature could vote to extend the time limit on these cases by a full year.

Using current state law, cities may move to dismiss police misconduct lawsuits filed after a year of the alleged wrongdoing. This one-year statute of limitations is the shortest in the country. By contrast, in New York it is three years.

What does this mean for a victim of any of the Los Angeles police officers suspected of misconduct? While there are exceptions to the statute of limitations rule, generally anyone who hasn’t filed his or her lawsuit within a year will be out of luck, regardless of the harm done to them. These legal technicalities are likely lost on a young immigrant in Pico-Union who not only knows very little about U.S. constitutional rights but also fears to demand them.

Hahn, whose job in part is to protect the public from rogue police officers, knows the clock is running. Yet he has so many institutional conflicts of interest that he might as well have two heads.

For example, Hahn is required by law to investigate and prosecute police misconduct and to disclose to defendants and their lawyers all previous cases of such misconduct--including the use of excessive force--that might contaminate a pending criminal case or even a prior criminal conviction. Yet Hahn also must defend the city against police-abuse lawsuits. Making matters even more complicated is the fact that Hahn’s office originally prosecuted some of the tainted Rampart cases.

So perhaps it’s not surprising that the city attorney would be reluctant to provide information about corrupt police officers, knowing this could be the basis of a future lawsuit for damages.

While Hahn’s conflict of interest is vivid, he is not alone in his moral and fiscal dilemma. The mayor and many City Council members also have participated in closed-door hearings on how to respond to disturbing and costly lawsuits against police. It is a sorry state of affairs that, in the wake of the alarming disclosures on Rampart, little is being said about the ticking of the clock.

While city officials allow Hahn to raise the statute of limitations as a defense against Rampart civil suits, one has to wonder why no one previously has exposed the pattern and practice of what the Justice Department describes as unconstitutional behavior in the LAPD. After all, these city officials have attended many a background briefing over the years to discuss lawsuit settlements brought against the city because of abusive cops.

Another hurdle for Rampart victims to clear before filing a lawsuit against the city is set up by Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti, who has been reluctant to turn over transcripts of LAPD Officer Rafael Perez’s interviews to defense attorneys. These lawyers still await information about whether their clients were victims of abuses at the hands of Perez and other Rampart cops.

The attitude of many leaders is to get Rampart behind us rather than to get to the bottom of it. There is the desire to limit the fiscal damage. Yet the cost of letting the Rampart victims have their day in court--by waiving the one-year statute of limitations--would be under $10 million, according to plaintiffs’ civil rights lawyers. That’s only a fraction of the $200 million or more that Rampart will end up costing the city. It’s worth the price to do what’s right.

Of course, there’s no mileage in telling citizens their tax dollars could have been spent opening parks and libraries or hiring new police, but instead will be paying for police misconduct settlements that might have been prevented if the Christopher Commission reforms had been implemented. But that is a lesson for another day.

Lengthy and public court proceedings about police misbehavior toward innocent people might crack the comforting myth of a “thin blue line” protecting the middle class from the underclass. But if the truth hurts, so be it.

The search for the truth of Rampart should not be limited prematurely. The ticking clock should be stopped. The state’s statute of limitations should be extended for a full year.