LOS ANGELES — Names of 28 police officers implicated in crimes connected to the Rampart corruption probe have been turned over to public defenders, along with 3,242 pages of transcripts from disgraced former officer Rafael Perez.
Four of the named officers remain on active duty.
Unidentified sources quoted in Saturday's Los Angeles Times said that at least 40 current or former officers are suspected of criminal activity.
LAPD Cmdr. David J. Kalish, the department's spokesman, declined comment on why the four officers have not been relieved of duty.
So far, 30 Los Angeles Police Department have been relieved of duty in the burgeoning corruption scandal in which anti-gang officers in the LAPD's Rampart station allegedly planted evidence, shot unarmed suspects, falsified reports and gave false testimony to convict innocent people of crimes.
More than 80 felony convictions have been overturned since the scandal came to light last summer.
Los Angeles County District Attorney Gil Garcetti on Friday gave the public defender and the Indigent Defense Panel the transcribed interviews with Perez.
The disgraced officer and convicted thief, who gave testimony in exchange for a lighter sentence, led investigators to the LAPD's worst scandal in its history.
Victoria Pipkin, a spokeswoman for Garcetti, said the office will be forwarding names of other officers suspected of wrongdoing as early as next week.
Garcetti wrote in a confidential letter obtained by the Times that the 28 officers "are alleged in the transcripts to have participated in criminal activity ... to have committed acts involving moral turpitude or ... may have substantial material evidence favorable to an accused."
The county public defender and the Indigent Defense Panel, which is composed of private attorneys appointed by the court, represent individuals too poor to retain their own attorneys. Most of the people allegedly victimized by Rampart-related police misconduct fall into that category.
"We felt we should have had this information a long time ago," said Public Defender Michael P. Judge. "The failure to disclose this information has significantly impeded our ability to identify the cases that warrant reopening, as well as to successfully defend innocent people charged in current cases."