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Rafael (Ray) Perez
Perez is the officer at the center of the Rampart scandal. In 1998, he
was arrested for stealing cocaine from a police evidence room. After his trial ended in a hung jury, prosecutors traced more
drug thefts to Perez. Faced with the mounting evidence, Perez cut a deal with prosecutors in which he agreed to testify about
police misconduct in exchange for a five-year prison sentence. After reviewing more than 1,500 arrests, Perez identified 91
problematic cases, from bad shootings to fabricated evidence, most involving himself and his partner Nino Durden. Ultimately,
Perez implicated 70 officers in criminal or administrative wrongdoing. As a result, nearly 100 criminal convictions have been
overturned and millions of dollars in settlement suits have been paid out.
Nino Durden Along with partner Ray Perez, LAPD officer Nino Durden shot, framed and then testified against unarmed 19-year
old gang member Javier Ovando in 1996. Arrested for attempted murder in July 2000, Durden pled guilty to ten state and federal
charges, including the false arrest of Ovando, and is expected to receive a sentence of up to 8 years in prison. As part of
the plea deal, Durden is cooperating with investigators, including possible testimony against Perez.
David Mack A former partner of Ray Perez, LAPD officer David Mack was convicted of the November 1997
theft of $722,000 from a Bank of America branch in Los Angeles. Two days after the bank robbery, Mack took a gambling trip to Las Vegas with two other police officers, including Raphael Perez. In the course of investigating
the bank robbery, detectives developed leads that caused them to believe, at the time, that Mack was a possible suspect in
the 1997 murder of east-coast rap star, Biggie Smalls, a.k.a., the Notorious B.I.G. Mack is currently serving a 14 year sentence
and has reportedly claimed association as a Piru Blood, an L.A. gang with ties to Death Row Records.
Kevin Gaines In the spring of 1997, off-duty LAPD officer Kevin Gaines was killed in an apparent road-rage incident by LAPD
narcotics detective Frank Lyga. While investigating the shooting, detectives discovered that gaines was living with Sharitha
Knight, the estranged wife of Death Row Records founder Marion "Suge" Knight. Further investigation revealed that Gaines,
and other police officers, were spending off-duty hours working security for Death Row.
Frank Lyga
An LAPD narcotics detective, Frank Lyga shot and killed off-duty LAPD officer
Kevin Gaines after gaines threatened Lyga with a gun in an apparent road-rage incident. The shooting of a black officer --
Gaines -- by a white cop -- Lyga -- sparked a highly-publicized police controversy. After three separate internal investigations,
Lyga was ultimately exonerated -- the shooting was found to be "in-policy." But within months of being cleared, Lyga found
himself in trouble again when one pound of cocaine evidence booked from one of his previous busts was found missing from the
LAPD property room. Investigators learned that the missing cocaine had been stolen by Rafael Perez, who they suspected, at
the time, of targeting Lyga in retaliation for the shooting of Gaines.
Veronica Quesada
In their investigation of Ray Perez's cocaine thefts, detectives discovered
that he had called the apartment of his girlfriend Veronica Quesada on many occasions, including directly before and immediately
after he had stolen six pounds of cocaine from the LAPD property room. In searching Quesada's apartment, investigators found
money, drug paraphernalia, and a photo of Perez dressed like a Blood gang member and throwing Blood gang signs. Perez's involvement
with Quesada and her brother, Carlos Romero, an alleged cocaine dealer, helped prosecutors solidify their case against Perez.
It was later learned that Quesada had traveled to Las Vegas with Perez and Mack just two days after Mack's bank robbery in 1997.
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