Federal judge rules that LAPD can be sued as a "criminal enterprise"

by Mike Niendorff Thursday, Aug. 31, 2000 at 10:08 AM
niendorf@ix.netcom.com

On Monday, in a first-of-its-kind lawsuit, a federal district ct. judge ruled that the LAPD's Rampart Division can be sued under federal "RICO" law as a "criminal enterprise". Among other things, this extends the statute of limitations for civil rights actions against the city by ten times -- raising it from 1 year (normal) to ten years (RICO). It also triples the city's civil liability, since RICO allows for triple damages.

What more can I say? For the full story, see the following LA Times article:

http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20000829/t000081019.html

Class-action status has not yet been granted, but is expected. If the city and police administrations were nervous about the Rampart scandal before, they've got to be sweating bullets now.

MDN