officers - The Black Vault

Mike Qualls, a spokesman for
' City Atty. James K. Hahn, said
~,. Saturday that the settlement was
leg_al and will be wrapped up
swiftly. Negotiations on the.agree­
~ent were completed Friday.evenmg,
Qualls said. "Our expectation
is this wi!l be concluded fairly
quickly Monday morning," he added.
Qualls and Gates' lawyer, Harry
G. Melkonian, said they doubt that
either the pc-lice commissioners or
anyone else l1as the legal standing
to block the council's settlement
with_ Gate_s .. '1our_ces. in ~_£adle:(~_
camp concede that it presents a
difficult legal hurdle.
·what Next?
It is not clear what the Police
Commission will do next, Garcia
said: But the commission president
added that he has retained attor-
. ney Paul Grossman to represent
. him personally in the matter.
"We might challenge [the council
settlement] in court, but that
would take a while," Garcia said.
."Presumably [Gates] would be in
office for some time . . . who·
knows where we'd be with ·our
investigation" by the time the
challenge was resolved.
"It perpetuates the drama in
· which he is a central character
when we bave (a furor over] a case
of serious police brutality," he said.
If Gates wins back his job, Bradley's
legal options are limited, said
Fabiani.
"The mayor still hopes that the
chief will see that his presence is
hurting the Police Department and
[that] the department will never
recover its fine reputation as long
as he is the chief," he said.
J, One legal option, sources ~aid,
would be to seek a delay in the
court action until after Tuesday~s
council election. ·
But Ferraro, a Gates supporter,
said it was doubtful there would be
much change in the council's position
after the election. He contended
that the council voted to reinstate
the chief because he was not
given due process ..
Forcing Gat~s to take a 60-day
leave of absence "is a terrible way
to treat someone who been chief
for 13 years," added Ferraro.
One way to increase political
pressure on the council would be to
arrange for the resignations of the
three. commissioners who had
placed Gates on leave, say sources
close to the efforts to remove the
· chief ..
· While Bradley has denied that
he influenced· the Police Commission's
decision, one source familiar
with the delibera•.ions acknowledged
that the ma);or's office was
in close touch with the commissioners.
"They felt a need to work
•
this through with the mayor," said
the source, who spoke on condition
of anonymity. "But to suggest that
the mayor picked up the phone and
forced the commission to do anything
is crazy."
The three police commissioners
approached the removal of Gates·
from different viewpoints, according
to City Hall sources. Vice
President Melanie Lomax was ada.,
mant that Gates should leave office,
Garcia preferred to proceed
slowly and Sam Williams felt that
Gate~ could be persuaded to resign,
the soiirces said.
After studying their legal options,
the three commissioners-all
lawyers-agreed to put Gates on
leave while pursuing an investigation
to determine , if there are
grounds to discipline or fire him.
They informed Bradley of their
intent on Tuesday; which prompted
the mayor to call on Gates to
resign, said Fabiani.
Is Bradley Right?
The intense fight over Gates'
tenure has further polarized the
city, politicized the tssue and obscur~d
the fundamental que~tions
of bruiality, racism and police
. training raised by the King beatjng,
civic leaders said.
"The basic issue of how the
Police Department relates .to the
community and the question of ··
undue violence have been totally
.lQst in an atmosphere of increasing
racial divis~veness,
in the debate
between the· mayor and the chief !
!ind between the mayor and the ·
council," said Ray Remy, president
.of the Los Angeles Area Chamber
of Commerce.
Councilman Joel Wachs, who
backed the move to reinstate
Gates: said the feud between the
mayor and the chief is "unbelievably
harmful" to Los Angeles. "If
you really care about this c~ty, it is
1im~ to say, 'OK. We are [looking]
into things that are significant in
the long range, and not have this
continuing battle between one individual
and another and one
branch of government and another.'·"
The controversy also has be-
•
come a political liability of sorts for
the mayor. Although a Times poll
fou_nd that 58% of Los Angeles
residents support the temporary
. ·removal of Gates, the poll also
· fou!ld that 60% believe Bradley is
t7ymg to further his political ambitions
rather than, as he stated to
mend a diviqed city. '
. The _harsh community reaction
and City Council outrage over
~ B~a~ley's handling of the King
crisis last week has fueled criticism
, of a behind-the-scenes campaign
to oust Gates that was handled by
Fabi_ani shortly after the March 3
~eatmg. Gates and Bradley, a retired.
LAPD officer, have been
longtime adversaries.
.. Ma~y city !eaders said the drive
to remove . Gates went "out of
control" with Bradley's call for
!Jates to resign and the commission
·vote to put the chief on leave. ·
The· confronta tiona! approach
was a_ departure from the mayor's
handlmg of Police Department issu_es
during his 17 years in office,
said former Police Chief Ed Davis.
Before last week, one former
Bradley strategist said, the mayor
· r~sponded to the King crisis pre­
. CI~~ly as one would expect him to.
'· It was a gentle, more measured
r~sponse," said the ex-Bradley
~Ide, _wh,o requested anonymity.
He didn t .blow the council apart.
. He was seen as keeping things
pretty well under control." .
Then came the mayor's startling
call for Gates to resign on Tu d.·
"All I k . es ay.
. now IS that I was shocked "
·said the former aide. "I don't k , .
where ·t · now
I went off the deep end It's
ou~ of kilter.". ·
. If B.7adley's reaction seems "ex­
·~aordm~y," it is only because the
.n? :pisode is an extraordinary
cr~sJs m the city's history Fab· .
said. ' I~m
"I acted in good faith on what I
felt were legitimate concerns "
Bradley said Saturday "Ther '
d" · · · e was
IVISiveness in the city. The chief
was at the center of the storm of
protests and so long as he remained
m the position it was not likely to
change." .
.Some of Bradley~~t:ongest sup-
---- , .... ""A