Grand Jury Keeps Quiet on Rampart

The Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury conducted an investigation into the Rampart corruption scandal, but the findings were not published in the panel’s annual report released Friday, according to authorities.

Meanwhile, sheriff’s detectives have begun a criminal investigation into the whereabouts of a missing set of transcripts of statements by witnesses who were called to testify about the corruption scandal, according to law enforcement sources familiar with the case.

Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley asked the grand jury on Feb. 13 to investigate, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney.

“The grand jury agreed to do so. Thereafter, they conducted more than three weeks of hearings,” Gibbons said.

Gibbons declined to say what Cooley wanted the grand jury to investigate. She refused to answer further questions.

One source familiar with the grand jury investigation said the panel had been asked to answer the question of how the Rampart scandal was allowed to occur. Ten current and former Rampart Division officers have been charged in connection with the scandal.

Seven were convicted of corruption-related offenses.

But the convictions of three were overturned, and are under appeal by the district attorney’s office.

In addition to the criminal investigation of police misconduct, there have been several other inquiries into the administrative and managerial failures by Los Angeles Police Department officials that allowed corruption in Rampart to flourish.

The civil grand jury released its year-end report Friday, the final day of jurors’ service. While the report makes no mention of the Rampart scandal, the document notes that at least three high-ranking LAPD officials made presentations to the panel: then-Police Chief Bernard C. Parks, Deputy Police Chief David J. Gascon and Capt. Sergio Diaz.

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Times staff writer Beth Shuster contributed to this report.