LOS ANGELES, Dec. 10 (UPI) -- Prosecutors won't be seeking a re-trial for three Los Angeles police officers charged in the Rampart corruption scandal.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office announced late Thursday it would drop the charges in part because some of the witnesses who testified in the officers' first trial four years ago were no longer available.
The trio was convicted on charges of obstruction of justice, but an appellate judge determined the jurors had misinterpreted reports the officers had claimed they had been injured during a 1996 arrest.
The Rampart scandal was based on rogue cop Rafael Perez's allegations gang unit officers in the LAPD's Rampart Division routinely planted evidence, filed false reports and roughed up suspects in the 1990s.
The prosecutor's office said it still believed the original convictions were valid and that the appeals court overstepped its bounds; however, their case was now too weak to proceed.
