After a jury in 2012
convicted two other officers but deadlocked on Manuel Ortiz, a new panel finds
him guilty of lying under oath.
By Corina Knoll
A 40-year-old Los Angeles
police officer charged with lying under oath during his testimony in a drug
possession case five years ago was convicted Thursday at his retrial.
Manuel Ortiz was first put
on trial in 2012 along with two former Los Angeles police officers accused of
writing false reports and perjury. Prosecutors said that a grainy
black-and-white surveillance video — that ended up leading to the drug case's
dismissal — contradicted what they said on the stand.
Evan Samuel and Richard
Amio were convicted and sentenced to community labor and probation, but the
jury was hung 11 to 1 in favor of guilt when it came to Ortiz.
This time, a panel of six
women and six men found Ortiz guilty of perjury and conspiracy to obstruct
justice.
His attorney, Bill Seki,
said he was disappointed and surprised by the verdict that followed the
weeklong trial. "I stand by the fact that Mr. Ortiz was unaware of what
was contained in the report and unaware of the testimony of the other
officers," he said.
Ortiz, Amio and Samuel were
among a group of Hollywood Division gang officers who followed Guillermo
Alarcon Jr. into the carport of an apartment complex and arrested him on
suspicion of drug possession.
Ortiz testified during a
preliminary hearing that he did not help search for the drugs. His daily field
activity report that day would later reveal that he had written "assisted
in locating evidence."
At Alarcon's 2008 trial,
Amio and Samuel testified that Alarcon ran away when they approached and threw
a small black box that broke open to reveal rock and powder cocaine. They said
they recovered the drugs immediately. The charges rested almost entirely on
their word.
The trial ended abruptly
when a defense attorney produced the video that showed the drug search took
more than 20 minutes and that it was Ortiz who discovered the black key box
stuffed with cocaine.
"Be creative in your
writing," one officer tells another.
"Oh yeah, don't worry,
sin duda [no doubt]."
Officers laugh and then
someone else says, "Come on, this is a man who put a case on somebody who
has no dope. And he's doing time … two years."
Prosecutors acknowledged
the footage was inconsistent with Samuel and Amio's testimony and the charges
against Alarcon were dismissed. The two officers were later found guilty of one
count of conspiracy each and multiple counts of perjury.
Ortiz's attorney called his
client's retrial a case about "a pawn in a game of words" and said
the real tragedy was that a drug dealer walked free.
"It's not like drugs
were planted on him," Seki said Tuesday in court about Alarcon. "They
weren't put on his body. Those were his drugs."
He reminded jurors about
witnesses who attested that Ortiz was "someone who will go the extra yard
when he knows something's wrong."
Seki pinned the blame on
Amio and Samuel.
"They're the ones who
created that conspiracy," he said. "An innocent bystander was swept
in."
But Deputy Dist. Atty.
Geoffrey Rendon drew the jury's attention to a moment in the video when
officers react to Ortiz finding the cocaine.
"Manny Ortiz!"
someone says.
"Where was it at, Mac
dawg?" comes another voice.
"They're excited
because he's a hero that day," Rendon said Tuesday in his closing
statement.
He said Ortiz had committed
"just about the worst crime."
"They had a choice and
they chose to lie," Rendon said. "They chose to manipulate the
system. It is tough for a prosecutor to stand up here and talk about a case
where police officers lie because of what it does to our system, because of the
shadow that it casts."
Ortiz, who joined the force
about 2000, has been on administrative leave. He could face up to three years
and eight months behind bars. His sentencing is scheduled for April 9.
corina.knoll@latimes.com
