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PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL
ATTORNEY CLIENT COMMUNICATION
ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT
To:
MEMORANDUM
The Independent Commission on the Los Angeles
Police Department
From: Greer c. Bosworth..~~~
June 20, 1991 Cf"/ Date:
Re: Interview with Gil Garcetti
On May 24, 1991 I conducted a telephone interview with
Gil Garcetti of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's
Office. The purpose of the interview was to obtain Garcetti's
views on the Los Angeles Police Department.ii
Garcetti's Background
Gil Garcetti is a native of Los Angeles and has been a
Deputy District Attorney for 23 years (since 1968). He
obtained his undergraduate degree at the University of Southern
California and received his law degree at University of
California at Los Angeles. At one time he was the Assistant
Head Deputy District Attorney in charge of the Consumer
Environmental Protection Agency. Between 1972 and 1978 he was
Head Deputy of the Special Investigations Division during John
Van DeKamp's tenure as Los Angeles County District Attorney.
Between 1984 and 1988, Garcetti was Chief Deputy under District
Attorney Ira Reiner. He is currently Head Deputy in Torrance.
Relationship Between the Special Investigations Division
and the LAPD
As the former head of the Special Investigations
Division, Garcetti acknowledged that the Division's sole
responsibility is to investigate and prosecute government
officials, including police officers. He noted that the
Special Investigations Division investigates incidents in which
police officers are involved in criminal activity other than in
i1 Garcetti requested that his comments remain confidential.
PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL
ATTORNEY CLIENT COMMUNICATION
ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT
Memo to Independent Commission
June 20, 1991
Page 2
performance of their duty and criminal activity related to job
performance. He discussed the "Roll Out Program" as a way to
explain the interaction between the Special Investigations
Division and the LAPD during his tenure as Head Deputy.
According to Garcetti, the Roll-Out Program was
initiated after the Eulia Love case in which the District
Attorney's (DA) office was notified of a police an
officer-involved shooting the day after the incident occurred.
Garcetti stated that the program was imposed by the City
Council. Although Police Darryl Chief Gates complied with the
City Council's order to conduct the Roll-Out Program, Gates did
so reluctantly and with noted objections.Z/
The theory of the Roll Out Program, according to
Garcetti, was to ensure that the DA's Office conducted a prompt
independent investigation of any officer-involved shooting. In
reality, however, the LAPD would conduct its investigation
first and the DA's investigator and deputy DA relied on the
LAPD's factual details to determine whether there was any
criminal culpability by the police officer involved.~/
Garcetti believes that Gates' attitude regarding the
Roll-Out Program influenced those of his officers. Garcetti
noted that during his tenure as Head Deputy, Lieutenant Charles
Higbie largely controlled the manner and extent to which the
DA's Office was involved in the investigation of officerinvolved
shootings at the scene or location of the
shooting.~/ Although Lieutenant Higbie was quite
knowledgeable and well respected within the Department, he also
was proficient in molding the investigative findings to favor
21 Garcetti noted that the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department
was extremely cooperative in assisting the DA's office
regarding officer-involved shootings.
~I The police would conduct their own investigation and
interview witnesses first. The DA would often interview
witnesses thereafter. There was a great deal of tension
between the police department and the DA's office regarding
the program.
~I Lieutenant Higbie investigated officer-involved shootings
whenever an individual was shot or killed and investigated
cases in which a suspect died in police custody.
4832B
PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL
ATTORNEY CLIENT COMMUNICATION
ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT
Memo to Independent Commission
June 20, 1991
Page 3
the involved police officer when the shooting involved
judgment/perception issues. At one point, the DA recommended
that the police officer involved in a shooting should be
isolated from the other officers at the scene, rather than
provide an opportunity for the officers to compare stories.
However, the Lieutenant rejected this idea reasoning that it
was necessary for officers to jointly recreate the facts
leading up to the shooting.21
The Roll-Out Program was discontinued after Van
DeKamp's term of office, but was reinstated when Ira Reiner
became LA County District Attorney. Garcetti would not
explicitly comment on the current relationship between the DA's
office and the LAPD.
Excessive Force Cases
It is Garcetti's opinion that excessive force cases
are usually very difficult to successfully prosecute.~/ He
cited as an example, a case that was similar to the Rodney King
case. (Jim Albracht, currently a Superior Court Judge,
prosecuted the case.) The first trial resulted in mistrial
with a hung jury; eleven to convict and one to acquit. In the
second trial, however, the police officers were acquitted. The
police officers did not take the stand in the first trial, but
did so in the second trial admitting that "they probably
committed the acts but claimed they were unconscious." There
was no race factor involved as the victim and the police
officers were Caucasian. Garcetti believes that in the second
trial the jury obviously wanted to believe the police officers'
testimony given the conduct and unsympathetic appearance of the
victim.
~I The LAPD's Internal Affairs Division on the other hand,
performed professionally and with a cooperative spirit in
its investigation of excessive force cases and other
non-officer involved shooting cases.
~I Garcetti indicated that he may be able to obtain
information regarding the number of cases opened, reviewed,
investigated, and prosecuted if this information would be
helpful to the Commission.
48328
PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL
ATTORNEY CLIENT COMMUNICATION
ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT
Memo to Independent Commission
June 20, 1991
Page 4
Public Perception of the LAPD
It is Garcetti's position that the LAPD takes the lead
from the chief who claims they are "the best." However,
Garcetti believes that this opinion is currently misplaced
because the Sheriff's Department and other Los Angeles County
Police Departments usually perform much better in terms of
their investigative efforts and results. He noted that Chief
Gates' comments are inappropriate for someone in his position
because his comments set the tone for the rest of the
department.
Garcetti has worked with numerous other Chief's of
Police including departments in Gardena, Redondo Beach, Santa
Monica, and Long Beach where the tone set by the Police Chief
is clearly less hostile, unlike the LAPD which has a "siege
mentality." Garcetti feels that the Commission must have a
mechanism to carry out any recommendations that it makes if
there is to be any fundamental change within the LAPD. It may
be necessary to change the structure of the Police Chief's
position so that the chief has some accountability to the
electorate or some accountability to someone who is subject to
the electorate.
Garcetti's Recommendations
1. Garcetti suggests that the Commission obtain
testimony from Professor Jim Fyfe of American University. He
is a former New York City police officer who is very
knowledgeable about police in general and assisted in the
evaluation of the Roll-Out Program.
2. Garcetti has major concerns about how the DA's
Office should handle situations when a deputy district attorney
knows that a police officer is lying on the stand or when there
is evidence that the officer is guilty of excessive force. Do
you report this police officer to your boss or to the police
officer's boss? What happens to the information once it is
reported? As an example, there is one officer involved in the
Rodney King incident who has had several reprimands for use of
excessive force. What is the threshold level reached before an
officer is removed from duty, referred to counseling, or
required to participate in additional training? Some objective
rule should be established to determine a threshold level which
once reached triggers affirmative action to curtail a police
officer's use of excessive force.
4832B
Object Description
| Title | LAPD interviews #3(c) (2 of 2), 1991 Apr.-July |
| Description | Los Angeles Police Department interviews #3(c) (2 of 2), 1991 April 16 - July 8. PART OF A SERIES: Materials in the series fall into one of several categories related to the Independent Commission's work product: (1) Commission meeting materials, which include meeting agendas, work plans, memoranda, and articles about police misconduct that were circulated and reviewed during the Commission's internal meetings; (2) public correspondence, which includes citizen complaints against the LAPD in the form of written testimony, articles, and an audio cassette tape, as well as letters drafted by citizens in support of the LAPD; (3) summaries of interviews held with LAPD officers regarding Departmental procedures and relations; (4) public meeting materials, which include transcripts, supplementary documents, and witness statements that were reviewed at the Commission's public meetings; (5) press releases related to the formation and work product of the Commission; and (6) miscellaneous materials reviewed by the Commission during its study, including LAPD personnel and training manuals, a memorandum of understanding, and messages from the LAPD's Mobile Digital Terminal (MDT) system. |
| Coverage date | 1991-04-16/1991-07-08 |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California |
| Date created | 1991-04-16/1991-07-08 |
| Type | texts |
| Format | 114 p. |
| Format (aat) |
memorandums transcriptions (documents) |
| Format (imt) | application/pdf |
| Language | English |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Part of collection | Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department, 1991 |
| Series | Independent Commission File List |
| File | Los Angeles Police Department Interviews |
| Box and folder | box 24, folder 16 |
| Provenance | The collection was given to the University of Southern California on July 31, 1991. |
| Rights | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained. |
| Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Repository name | USC Libraries Special Collections |
| Repository address | Doheny Memorial Library, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189 |
| Repository email | specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Filename | indep-box24-16 |
Description
| Title | Bosworth, memo, 1991-06-20 |
| Description | Memo re: interview with Gil Garcetti - from: Greer C Bosworth; to: The Independent Commission on the LAPD |
| Coverage date | 1991-06-20 |
| Date created | 1991-06-20 |
| Type | texts |
| Format | 4 p. |
| Format (aat) | transcriptions (documents) |
| Format (imt) | application/pdf |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Series | Independent Commission File List |
| File | Los Angeles Police Department Interviews |
| Box and folder | box 24, folder 16, item 15 |
| Physical access | Contact: Special Collections, Doheny Memorial Library, Libraries, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0189; specol@dots.usc.edu |
| Full text | PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL ATTORNEY CLIENT COMMUNICATION ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT To: MEMORANDUM The Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department From: Greer c. Bosworth..~~~ June 20, 1991 Cf"/ Date: Re: Interview with Gil Garcetti On May 24, 1991 I conducted a telephone interview with Gil Garcetti of the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office. The purpose of the interview was to obtain Garcetti's views on the Los Angeles Police Department.ii Garcetti's Background Gil Garcetti is a native of Los Angeles and has been a Deputy District Attorney for 23 years (since 1968). He obtained his undergraduate degree at the University of Southern California and received his law degree at University of California at Los Angeles. At one time he was the Assistant Head Deputy District Attorney in charge of the Consumer Environmental Protection Agency. Between 1972 and 1978 he was Head Deputy of the Special Investigations Division during John Van DeKamp's tenure as Los Angeles County District Attorney. Between 1984 and 1988, Garcetti was Chief Deputy under District Attorney Ira Reiner. He is currently Head Deputy in Torrance. Relationship Between the Special Investigations Division and the LAPD As the former head of the Special Investigations Division, Garcetti acknowledged that the Division's sole responsibility is to investigate and prosecute government officials, including police officers. He noted that the Special Investigations Division investigates incidents in which police officers are involved in criminal activity other than in i1 Garcetti requested that his comments remain confidential. PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL ATTORNEY CLIENT COMMUNICATION ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT Memo to Independent Commission June 20, 1991 Page 2 performance of their duty and criminal activity related to job performance. He discussed the "Roll Out Program" as a way to explain the interaction between the Special Investigations Division and the LAPD during his tenure as Head Deputy. According to Garcetti, the Roll-Out Program was initiated after the Eulia Love case in which the District Attorney's (DA) office was notified of a police an officer-involved shooting the day after the incident occurred. Garcetti stated that the program was imposed by the City Council. Although Police Darryl Chief Gates complied with the City Council's order to conduct the Roll-Out Program, Gates did so reluctantly and with noted objections.Z/ The theory of the Roll Out Program, according to Garcetti, was to ensure that the DA's Office conducted a prompt independent investigation of any officer-involved shooting. In reality, however, the LAPD would conduct its investigation first and the DA's investigator and deputy DA relied on the LAPD's factual details to determine whether there was any criminal culpability by the police officer involved.~/ Garcetti believes that Gates' attitude regarding the Roll-Out Program influenced those of his officers. Garcetti noted that during his tenure as Head Deputy, Lieutenant Charles Higbie largely controlled the manner and extent to which the DA's Office was involved in the investigation of officerinvolved shootings at the scene or location of the shooting.~/ Although Lieutenant Higbie was quite knowledgeable and well respected within the Department, he also was proficient in molding the investigative findings to favor 21 Garcetti noted that the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department was extremely cooperative in assisting the DA's office regarding officer-involved shootings. ~I The police would conduct their own investigation and interview witnesses first. The DA would often interview witnesses thereafter. There was a great deal of tension between the police department and the DA's office regarding the program. ~I Lieutenant Higbie investigated officer-involved shootings whenever an individual was shot or killed and investigated cases in which a suspect died in police custody. 4832B PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL ATTORNEY CLIENT COMMUNICATION ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT Memo to Independent Commission June 20, 1991 Page 3 the involved police officer when the shooting involved judgment/perception issues. At one point, the DA recommended that the police officer involved in a shooting should be isolated from the other officers at the scene, rather than provide an opportunity for the officers to compare stories. However, the Lieutenant rejected this idea reasoning that it was necessary for officers to jointly recreate the facts leading up to the shooting.21 The Roll-Out Program was discontinued after Van DeKamp's term of office, but was reinstated when Ira Reiner became LA County District Attorney. Garcetti would not explicitly comment on the current relationship between the DA's office and the LAPD. Excessive Force Cases It is Garcetti's opinion that excessive force cases are usually very difficult to successfully prosecute.~/ He cited as an example, a case that was similar to the Rodney King case. (Jim Albracht, currently a Superior Court Judge, prosecuted the case.) The first trial resulted in mistrial with a hung jury; eleven to convict and one to acquit. In the second trial, however, the police officers were acquitted. The police officers did not take the stand in the first trial, but did so in the second trial admitting that "they probably committed the acts but claimed they were unconscious." There was no race factor involved as the victim and the police officers were Caucasian. Garcetti believes that in the second trial the jury obviously wanted to believe the police officers' testimony given the conduct and unsympathetic appearance of the victim. ~I The LAPD's Internal Affairs Division on the other hand, performed professionally and with a cooperative spirit in its investigation of excessive force cases and other non-officer involved shooting cases. ~I Garcetti indicated that he may be able to obtain information regarding the number of cases opened, reviewed, investigated, and prosecuted if this information would be helpful to the Commission. 48328 PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL ATTORNEY CLIENT COMMUNICATION ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT Memo to Independent Commission June 20, 1991 Page 4 Public Perception of the LAPD It is Garcetti's position that the LAPD takes the lead from the chief who claims they are "the best." However, Garcetti believes that this opinion is currently misplaced because the Sheriff's Department and other Los Angeles County Police Departments usually perform much better in terms of their investigative efforts and results. He noted that Chief Gates' comments are inappropriate for someone in his position because his comments set the tone for the rest of the department. Garcetti has worked with numerous other Chief's of Police including departments in Gardena, Redondo Beach, Santa Monica, and Long Beach where the tone set by the Police Chief is clearly less hostile, unlike the LAPD which has a "siege mentality." Garcetti feels that the Commission must have a mechanism to carry out any recommendations that it makes if there is to be any fundamental change within the LAPD. It may be necessary to change the structure of the Police Chief's position so that the chief has some accountability to the electorate or some accountability to someone who is subject to the electorate. Garcetti's Recommendations 1. Garcetti suggests that the Commission obtain testimony from Professor Jim Fyfe of American University. He is a former New York City police officer who is very knowledgeable about police in general and assisted in the evaluation of the Roll-Out Program. 2. Garcetti has major concerns about how the DA's Office should handle situations when a deputy district attorney knows that a police officer is lying on the stand or when there is evidence that the officer is guilty of excessive force. Do you report this police officer to your boss or to the police officer's boss? What happens to the information once it is reported? As an example, there is one officer involved in the Rodney King incident who has had several reprimands for use of excessive force. What is the threshold level reached before an officer is removed from duty, referred to counseling, or required to participate in additional training? Some objective rule should be established to determine a threshold level which once reached triggers affirmative action to curtail a police officer's use of excessive force. 4832B |
| Filename | indep-box24-16-15.pdf |
| Archival file | Volume81/indep-box24-16-15.pdf |
