Former Los Angeles California Police Officer Ruben Palomares Faces Sentencing For 40+ Robberies Staged To Look Like Police Raids
May 12th, 2008
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - A former Los Angeles police officer who admitted being the ringleader of a group of law enforcement officers who committed home invasion robberies staged to look like police raids is scheduled to be sentenced by a federal judge today.
Ruben Palomares, 38, admitted to leading more than 40 phony raids from early 1999 to June 2001 at homes in working-class neighborhoods in Los Angeles County.
Along with Palomares, members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Long Beach Police Department and the California Department of Corrections took part in the raids.
Palomares, who once worked in the LAPD’s Rampart Division, testified in January against two of his co-conspirators, ex-LAPD Officer William Ferguson and his brother, ex-Long Beach Police Officer Joseph Ferguson. Both men were convicted.
During his testimony, Palomares described a “war” between police and criminals and said he became disillusioned after the corruption scandal that hit the Rampart Division in the late 1990s. He said he and other law enforcement officers decided to rob drug dealers as a way to combat criminals — and make quick money.
Acting on tips from an informant, Palomares and other uniformed officers went to homes where drugs or cash were believed to be stashed.
Palomares said he would tell the residents that officers were conducting a “narcotics investigation,” then search the house. Victims were often threatened, restrained or assaulted during the searches, he said.
The officers would then split the stolen cash or sell the drugs on the street for profit, Palomares said.
In some instances, the officers got incorrect information from their informants and innocent people were robbed, Palomares said.
Prosecutors said that on one occasion, Palomares and others tortured a Compton drug dealer at his home, beating him and shoving a gun in his mouth when no drugs or cash were found.
Palomares was arrested in San Diego in June 2001 while making a drug deal with an undercover federal agent.
He is scheduled to be sentenced this afternoon by U.S. District Judge Gary Allen Feess in downtown Los Angeles.
