Rampart Officer Is Arrested at Gunpoint

A Los Angeles police officer charged with attempted murder in connection with the unfolding Rampart corruption scandal was arrested at gunpoint in the San Fernando Valley early Friday as he drove to his lawyer’s office to surrender, his attorney said.

Officer Nino Durden, his brother and two friends were pulled over near Durden’s Chatsworth condominium, said Bill Seki, one of his attorneys.

Despite a previously negotiated surrender agreement with the LAPD, officers with guns drawn ordered Durden and the others out of the car and told them to lie face down on the pavement, Seki said.

The traffic stop and arrest differed sharply from the LAPD’s handling of four other officers recently charged with corruption-related offenses. Each of them was allowed to surrender voluntarily.

Another of Durden’s attorneys, Darryl Mounger, said that he had made arrangements with LAPD Lt. Charles Carlton for his client to surrender as well, but that the department reneged on the agreement. “I guess this is the start of how this case is going to go,” Mounger said.

Carlton declined comment. LAPD Cmdr. David J. Kalish said the decision to arrest Durden was based in part on the serious nature of the charges against him and in part on police fears that he might flee.

Durden was charged Friday with attempted murder in the 1996 shooting of gang member Javier Francisco Ovando. The officer, a onetime partner of key Rampart scandal figure Rafael Perez, is also charged with five other criminal counts, including commission of an armed robbery while on duty. Durden is expected to be arraigned Monday. His recommended bail is $680,000.

At a news conference Friday morning, Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti called the attempted murder allegation against Durden “the most serious case we can prove at this time.”

As with the cases against the other officers, the allegations against Durden were lodged by Perez, a former officer and the main informant in the scandal. Perez, who was a Rampart Division anti-gang officer, is cooperating with authorities in exchange for a lighter sentence on drug theft charges.

Seki, who was a prosecutor in Garcetti’s office before becoming a defense lawyer, declined to comment on Durden’s guilt or innocence. But he said he found the attempted murder allegation hard to comprehend.

“You’ve got a police officer. If he’s going to kill somebody, he’s going to kill him,” he said. “I don’t think there would be any attempt.”

Seki added that, in his view, prosecutors will need more evidence against his client than the testimony of Perez, an admitted perjurer and drug thief, and Ovando, a gang member who once said he remembers nothing about the shooting.

At the news conference, Garcetti addressed concerns about Perez’s credibility.

“We’ve always known that any case against any LAPD officer based on the testimony alone of Officer Perez would be very difficult to sustain in front of 12 jurors,” he said. “Obviously you must have corroboration of what Officer Perez says to have any kind of a chance to go forward.”

In Durden’s case, Garcetti said, “we wouldn’t be filing unless we did feel that we had corroboration.”

To convict Durden of attempted murder, prosecutors will have to prove that the official police account of the Ovando shooting was fabricated to cover up the alleged 1996 crime.

According to that original version, Perez and Durden were on a stakeout in an apartment building when Ovando burst into the dark room where they were and pointed an “assault-type rifle” at them.

Durden allegedly yelled at Ovando to drop the gun. When he did not comply, both officers opened fire, police documents state. Durden fired one round; Perez fired three. Ovando was struck in the head, chest and hip and left paralyzed. After the shooting, he was convicted of assaulting police and sentenced to 23 years in prison--a conviction that has since been overturned.

In September, Perez told LAPD investigators that he and Durden concocted the story to cover up the fact that they shot the unarmed 19-year-old and then planted a gun on him.

What really happened, Perez has since said, is that he was looking out the window of the apartment, watching for gang activity on the street, when he heard voices coming from inside the apartment.

When Perez turned from the window, he said, he saw an agitated Durden yelling at Ovando. Seconds later, he said, he saw Durden go for his gun and shoot Ovando. Perez said he then opened fire as well.

Immediately after the shooting, while Perez held a gun on the wounded Ovando, Durden ran down to their squad car and got a “throw-down” gun to plant on the victim, Perez said.

In addition to attempted murder, Durden is charged with:

* Assault with a semiautomatic firearm in the Ovando shooting.

* Filing a false report and perjury, two counts growing out of the Oct. 25, 1996, arrest of Miguel Hernandez, who was allegedly framed on a weapons offense.

* Second-degree robbery for allegedly stealing jewelry and money from a suspected drug dealer Aug. 15, 1997.

* Filing a false report in connection with the Feb. 2, 1997, arrest of Jose Lara, who also was allegedly framed on a weapons charge.

Garcetti said Friday that prosecutors are continuing to pursue potential charges in another 1996 shooting involving Rampart officers, as well as an “overarching conspiracy case,” which he referred to as “the ideal” case.

“I can’t say that we are going to reach that ideal,” he said.