------------------------------------------------------------
LAPD Retaliating Against Dissidents, Officers Say

By Andrea Ford and Richard A Serrano
Times Staff Writers
Los Angeles Times
July 22, 1991
Page A1

A number of Los Angeles police officers, some of whom testified 
before the Christopher Commission, contend that they are being 
punished for publicly criticizing their department and commanding 
officers after the Rodney G. King beating.

The officers include a veteran detective who said he has been 
reassigned to answer phones in a station house after publicly 
criticizing Police Chief Daryl F. Gates; a patrol officer who said 
she was suddenly and inexplicably ordered back to work from medical 
leave after a news report on her Christopher Commission testimony 
was published, and another patrol officer who said he was the 
victim of a racist prank after he testified.

The allegations came after Assistant Chief David D. Dotson was 
stripped of a key command after his criticisms of Gates to the 
Christopher Commission were made public. A week later, a deputy
chief who also criticized the department found that Gates had 
ordered audits of the units under his command.

There has also been speculation that some police officials have 
been rewarded for defending Gates in public.

Los Angeles Police Commissioner Stanley Sheinbaum said his panel, 
which oversees Police Department operations, has been contacted by 
several officers who believe that they have become the targets of
retaliation for speaking out about problems within the department.

"It raises a concern that people are being treated better for being 
pro-Gates and being retaliated against for being critical of 
Gates," Sheinbaum said. "If it's true, then it seems that
decisions are made by the chief on a personal basis rather than on 
what's good for the department."

"...one will always be concerned about retaliation, just as one 
would always be concerned about anything that would endorse a code of
silence. People in the department are afraid to speak out, and that
speaks right to the problem of morale."

The speculation that officers who supported Gates have been 
rewarded arose after it was disclosed that Lt. George Aliano, 
longtime president of the Police Protective League, the city's 
largest police union, is likely to be returned to police work with 
a promotion to the position of adjutant for a deputy chief.

Long an adversary of Gates, Aliano quickly came to the chief's 
defense during the public furor for Gates' ouster over the King 
incident.

In a second instance, Lt. Lyman Doster, who also publicly supported 
Gates, was transferred to what he described as the "coveted 
position" of City Council liaison for the Police Department.

The rumors of retaliation and rewards were fueled last Thursday 
when Gates, at a staff meeting, twice advised his top commanders 
that "a meticulous review" would be made of the entire department in
light of the Christopher Commission's findings.

"The impression I got was that 'meticulous review' means cover your
butt and the message there is that everybody better watch what they 
do." said the source, who asked not to be identified.

Shortly after the release of the Christopher Commission report on 
July 9, Gates relieved Dotson of his duties supervising the 
department's Internal Affairs Division, which investigates 
complaints against officers.

The move by Gates caused outrage, both at City Hall and in the Police
Commission, prompting cries that Gates was punishing Dotson for sharply
critical testimony he gave the Christopher Commission. Dotson told the
panel that the Police Department has "failed miserably" to hold 
supervisors accountable for excessive force by officers under their 
command.

The Police Commission subsequently ordered Gates to transfer the 
Internal Affairs Division back to Dotson's jurisdiction.

Gates also ordered an audit of Deputy Chief Glenn A. Levant's 
command after learning that he told the Christopher Commission
that officers were discouraging citizens from filing misconduct 
complaints against fellow officers.

Lower-level officers say they also have been targeted for audits.

Detective Bill Pavelic, a former supervisor in the Southwest
Division, said the audits are a favorite tool of some commanders 
who are looking for reasons to discipline officers who are critical 
of the department.

Pavelic, a 17-year veteran and longtime critic of the Police 
Department's leadership, said his commanders began repeatedly 
auditing his work earlier this year after he began talking with 
reporters about what he perceived as department favoritism toward 
students and adminisrators at USC after a rape and two beatings
that allegedly involved fraternity members and the sons of key 
alumni.

Pavelic said he became a target of direct retaliation after he 
delivered a scathing 45-minute, public condemnation of Gates last 
month at the so-called "People's Grand Jury on Police Abuses," an 
unofficial tribunal that organizers billed as an alternative to the 
Christopher Commission.

Two weeks later, while he was on leave, Pavelic said he received a 
phone call informing him that he was being reassigned from the
Crimes Against Persons unit to a desk job that is usually reserved 
for officers on light duty.

"This is all retaliatory," Pavelic said. "I predicted at the
People's Grand Jury that this is what would happen. This is another
form of discipline. This is what we do with the dissidents. Pavelic
said the reassignment can be seen no outher way because he is not on
light duty and had received at least 80 commendautions.

Pavelic said he had at least 80 commendations as a detective 
supervisor.

"I have worked numerous assignments, am considered an expert 
interrogator," he said. "My partner and I have highest clearance
and filing rates with the district attorney in the city on rape and 
sexual cases."

Police Department spokesman Lt. Fred Nixon would not confirm or 
deny Pavelic's characterization of his service record or discuss 
his current or past assignments, saying such matters were part of 
an officer's personnel record and thus considered confidential.

Nor would Nixon discuss allegations of retaliation by Janie Bouey, 
a four-year veteran who said she is now listed as absent without 
leave because she would not return to work against her physician's 
orders.

Bouey, who had been on medical leave since mid-March as the result 
of injuries she received in an on-duty car accident, said the order 
to return to work came last month, the same day an article appeared 
in the Los Angeles Sentinel recounting her testimony before a 
public hearing of the Christopher Commission.

"My doctor is a city physician who was treating me privately," 
Bouey said. "They made me go to another city physician who said I
was fine."

Later, Bouey said a Police Department employee at the Harbor 
Division, where she was last assigned, told her he overheard a 
police supervisor saying she would "get hurt" if she returned to 
work.

Bouey first went public with her complaints immediately after the 
King beating. At a press conference of the 30-member
African-American Peace Officers Assn. and in other interviews, she 
told of Ku Klux Klan business cards being left on her car in the 
police parking lot at the Foothill Division.

She said she began receiving telephoned death threats--from fellow 
officers, she believes--after she was shown in a newspaper photo 
wearing a T-shirt with the logo of the long-defunct Black Panther
Party.

Bouey said she bought the shirt last year at the funeral in Oakland 
of former Panther Party leader Huey P. Newton. The photo "was
taken in my back yard on my time," Bouey said. "I really didn't
think anything of it."

Garland Hardeman, an Inglewood City Councilman and a nine-year 
veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department who also testified 
before the Christopher Commission, said some officers may be 
bringing problems on themslves by being too strident in their 
condemnation of the department. "When you jump out there and put
yourself in harm's way you can't leave yourself open for department
violations," Hardeman said. "They will use them against you."

Hardeman said he has been harassed in the past for speaking out 
against racial discrimination in the Police Department.