Despite hundreds of reforms made by the LAPD under an 8-year-old consent decree, a federal judge declined Monday to lift the strict oversight tool until the department addresses three key areas.
U.S. District Court Judge Gary Feess extended the consent decree for two more weeks rather than accepting a two-year transition agreement hammered out by the Justice Department and the LAPD. That would have allowed the decree to expire today while the Los Angeles Police Department tackled the remaining issues.
The Justice Department says the LAPD has implemented sufficient reforms to be free of the federal oversight imposed in 2001, in the aftermath of the Rampart corruption scandal.
During the investigation of Rampart Division corruption, a widespread pattern was uncovered of anti-gang officers framing suspects, stealing evidence and committing crimes.
Robert Hill, a 25-year veteran of the department, said he was called a "rat" and moved to an inferior assignment at a less desirable division after he reported that Sgt. Gilbert Curtis used racial slurs -- "wetbacks," for instance -- and made derogatory statements including, "If God loved them, why did he make them black?"
Hill, who is white, alleged in court papers that he was told by superiors to drop the complaint against the sergeant if he wanted to save his job.
Gregory Smith, Hill's attorney, told jurors in the trial that Hill suffered from depression after his superiors "cooked up this scheme" to punish him for violating a "code of silence" that existed within the department.
His career is over, his friends are gone and his reputation is nothing," Smith said.
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