Witness in LAPD Case Recants Story

Nov. 10 -- An ex-lover of the disgraced officer at thecenter of a police corruption probe has recanted her allegationsthat he and another officer killed three people and buried theirbodies in Mexico.

The Los Angeles Times reported today that Sonia Flores, 23,failed a lie detector test, broke down in tears and admitted tofederal authorities that she made up the claims against formerOfficer Rafael Perez.

Flores fabricated the stories because she still feels jilted byPerez and wanted to see him behind bars for the rest of his life,said her attorney, Marshall Bitkower.

“She’s a woman scorned,” Bitkower said. “She had everybodyfooled.”

Flores had told federal authorities that Perez and formerOfficer David Mack buried three bodies in Tijuana. Her claims ledMexican authorities, at the request of the U.S. attorney’s officeand the FBI, to excavate a trash-filled ravine in Tijuana lastmonth in search of the bodies.

After Flores made her claims, prosecutors said a plea bargaindeal with Perez would not cover the murder allegations.

Not Called to Testify

Perez was not called to testify during the ongoing trial of fourLos Angeles officers accused of falsifying reports to frameinnocent people between March 1996 and April 1998.

The jury in that trial ended their first full day ofdeliberations without reaching a verdict Thursday. The panel isscheduled to reconvene Monday.

The case is the first stemming from allegations by Perez, whoclaims fellow officers in the Police Department’s Rampart stationbroke laws to arrest gang members and committed other crimes.

Perez made his allegations under a deal with prosecutors afterhe was caught stealing cocaine from an evidence locker. He agreedto cooperate in exchange for leniency.

Perez’s attorney, Winston Kevin McKesson, said he was pleasedthat Flores decided to come clean.

“It’s further evidence to support our contention that Perez hasbeen completely forthright,” McKesson said.