Nov. 17: Another inmate freed in Rampart Probe after taking a
plea--even though innocent--to avoid possible 3-strikes penalty
It didn't take long for another inamte to be freed who had taken a
plea--even though innocent--to avoid a 3-strikes penalty.
After
spending more than two years behind bars, Ruben Rojas, 30, is expected to have
his drug conviction overturned because authorities now believe it was based on
fabricated evidence and false testimony by Rampart Division officers.
Rojas was arrested March 5, 1997, after two officers from the Rampart Division,
Rafael Perez and Nino Durden allegedly watched him sell rock cocaine to two men
near Marathon and Dillon streets. Perez and Durden were working an undercover
narcotics detail, dressed in plainclothes and driving an unmarked van. Durden
testified at Rojas' preliminary hearing that he and Perez watched Rojas make
two separate drug sales. Both times, Durden testified, the alleged customer
handed Rojas money. Rojas walked to a nearby telephone pole, picked up what
appeared to be rocks of cocaine, and handed them to the customer.
After the second sale, Durden testified, the partners called for
uniformed officers in a marked patrol car to arrest Rojas. As the officers
rolled up and detained Rojas at a nearby apartment building, Durden said, he
went to the telephone pole and seized the crack cocaine. Perez, meanwhile, went
to the apartment building where Rojas was being held by the uniformed officers.
According to Durden, Perez searched Rojas and found two bindles of powder
cocaine in his front pants pockets. According to court papers, it was Perez who
later tested the crack and the powder cocaine for authenticity.
Despite Durden's testimony that he and Perez witnessed Rojas accept money from
both men to whom he allegedly sold drugs, officers did not find any cash at the
telephone pole or in Rojas' possession when he was arrested.
Two
months after pleading no contest to the charges in a plea bargain that sent him
to prison for six years, Rojas wrote a letter to the judge, proclaiming his
innocence.
In it, the gang member known as "Li'l Man" said that at
the time of the plea he was unaware of a witness who he maintains could have
cleared him and that he was given five minutes to make a potentially
life-altering decision. "I was informed that I was facing 25 years to life by
my defense counsel and that there was no way I could have won my case because I
was up against a police officer," Rojas wrote in black ink on loose-leaf
paper.
"I never did what I was charged for," Rojas added. "I'm not
guilty." "Another Inmate Set to be Freed in Police Probe," by Scott Glover and
Matt Lait, Nov. 17, 1999, Los Angeles Times.
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Date last modified: 2/28/00.