In March 2000, when the events in this case were unfolding, the intense scrutiny focused on LA police officers was at an all-time high. In September, 1999, one of the worst law enforcement corruption scandals in history came to light and involved widespread abuses by a unit of the LAPD assigned to the Rampart area of the city.
The scandal began unraveling when Rafael Perez, a member of the Rampart unit, was being tried on drug-theft charges, and revealed that he and another officer had shot an unarmed man, and to cover it up, had planted a gun on the dead man.
In the end, in exchange for leniency, Perez implicated dozens of officers in criminal misconduct, that included attempted murder, beatings, planting evidence, false imprisonment, theft of money and drugs, unauthorized searches, obstruction of justice, perjury, and filing false police reports, according to the Report of the Rampart Independent Review Panel 5 (2000).
Before it was all over, the scandal resulted in the overturning of more than 100 convictions, the exodus of more than a dozen police officers, the payment of $70 million in damages to victims, and the LAPD's entry into a consent decree with the US Department of Justice requiring extensive reforms.
Against this background, in February 2000, a lawyer representing a defendant in a case assigned to Ceballos' court, asked him to investigate whether one of the arresting deputies had lied in an affidavit to obtain a search warrant to search the defendant's property. The defense attorney also filed a motion to challenge the warrant.
Ceballos agreed to look into the matter and started by reviewing the file and speaking to the prosecutor on the case. While comparing the photographs and a videotape of the property searched to the property described in the affidavit, Ceballos noticed a clear mischaracterization in the affidavit, and saw that it did not at all match what the photographs were depicting, so Ceballos decided to visit the crime scene to check it out further.
After verifying the mischaracterization, Ceballos called and spoke to the deputy and confronted him with the accusation that he had lied in the affidavit, and according to court filings, the deputy told Ceballos: "Well, that's what they told me," referring to two other deputies.
When Ceballos showed his fellow prosecutors the photographs and videotape and described what he found at the crime scene, every prosecutor he consulted with agreed that the validity of the warrant was questionable.
He then showed his supervisors the videotape and photographs and described what he had observed at the property and says they too agreed that there was a problem with the warrant.
After all this, Ceballos determined that the prosecution could not justify pursuing the case if the warrant was invalid and prepared a memorandum reporting that the affidavit relied on was inaccurate, misleading, and contained possibly outright false information and recommended that the cases against the 3 defendants be dismissed.
Ceballos' original memo accused the deputy of perjury but after she reviewed the memo, his supervisor directed Ceballos to make it less accusatory, because it was to be shared with the Sheriff's Department.
Ceballos complied, but he continued to assert that the deputy's characterizations were "grossly inaccurate," "clearly misleading," omitted key facts, and were possibly fabricated.
Ceballos maintains that he spoke up to bring the abuse of authority to light and believes that he was ethically bound to report the misconduct. He also wrote a second memo reporting a conversation he had with the deputy, in which he stated that the deputies' affidavit appeared to be "grossly inaccurate."
The revised memorandums were faxed to the Sheriff's Department, and a meeting was held, with Ceballos, his supervisors, and representatives from the Department. According to court filings, a lieutenant verbally attacked Ceballos, accused him of acting like a "public defender," criticized him for not putting the case on, and demanded his removal from the case.
At the end of the meeting, it was decided to proceed with the case pending the outcome of the motion to challenge the warrant. The defense issued a subpoena to Ceballos to testify at the hearing and he informed his supervisor that in his view, both memos contained material that needed to be turned over to the defense before the hearing.
The supervisor initially said they could not disclose the memoranda because they would be sued by the deputy sheriffs for defamation and instructed Ceballos to write a new memo with only the statements of the deputy, and to omit everything else.
The scandal began unraveling when Rafael Perez, a member of the Rampart unit, was being tried on drug-theft charges, and revealed that he and another officer had shot an unarmed man, and to cover it up, had planted a gun on the dead man.
In the end, in exchange for leniency, Perez implicated dozens of officers in criminal misconduct, that included attempted murder, beatings, planting evidence, false imprisonment, theft of money and drugs, unauthorized searches, obstruction of justice, perjury, and filing false police reports, according to the Report of the Rampart Independent Review Panel 5 (2000).
Before it was all over, the scandal resulted in the overturning of more than 100 convictions, the exodus of more than a dozen police officers, the payment of $70 million in damages to victims, and the LAPD's entry into a consent decree with the US Department of Justice requiring extensive reforms.
Ceballos agreed to look into the matter and started by reviewing the file and speaking to the prosecutor on the case. While comparing the photographs and a videotape of the property searched to the property described in the affidavit, Ceballos noticed a clear mischaracterization in the affidavit, and saw that it did not at all match what the photographs were depicting, so Ceballos decided to visit the crime scene to check it out further.
After verifying the mischaracterization, Ceballos called and spoke to the deputy and confronted him with the accusation that he had lied in the affidavit, and according to court filings, the deputy told Ceballos: "Well, that's what they told me," referring to two other deputies.
When Ceballos showed his fellow prosecutors the photographs and videotape and described what he found at the crime scene, every prosecutor he consulted with agreed that the validity of the warrant was questionable.
He then showed his supervisors the videotape and photographs and described what he had observed at the property and says they too agreed that there was a problem with the warrant.
After all this, Ceballos determined that the prosecution could not justify pursuing the case if the warrant was invalid and prepared a memorandum reporting that the affidavit relied on was inaccurate, misleading, and contained possibly outright false information and recommended that the cases against the 3 defendants be dismissed.
Ceballos' original memo accused the deputy of perjury but after she reviewed the memo, his supervisor directed Ceballos to make it less accusatory, because it was to be shared with the Sheriff's Department.
Ceballos complied, but he continued to assert that the deputy's characterizations were "grossly inaccurate," "clearly misleading," omitted key facts, and were possibly fabricated.
Ceballos maintains that he spoke up to bring the abuse of authority to light and believes that he was ethically bound to report the misconduct. He also wrote a second memo reporting a conversation he had with the deputy, in which he stated that the deputies' affidavit appeared to be "grossly inaccurate."
The revised memorandums were faxed to the Sheriff's Department, and a meeting was held, with Ceballos, his supervisors, and representatives from the Department. According to court filings, a lieutenant verbally attacked Ceballos, accused him of acting like a "public defender," criticized him for not putting the case on, and demanded his removal from the case.
At the end of the meeting, it was decided to proceed with the case pending the outcome of the motion to challenge the warrant. The defense issued a subpoena to Ceballos to testify at the hearing and he informed his supervisor that in his view, both memos contained material that needed to be turned over to the defense before the hearing.
The supervisor initially said they could not disclose the memoranda because they would be sued by the deputy sheriffs for defamation and instructed Ceballos to write a new memo with only the statements of the deputy, and to omit everything else.
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