LA police guilty of conspiracy

Brian Liddy, one of the three officers convicted

A court in Los Angeles has convicted three police officers of conspiracy in the first case to result from the police department's investigation into officer corruption.

The jury found Brian Liddy, Edward Ortiz and Michael Buchanan guilty of obstructing justice and filing false reports - they are expected to be sentenced at a later date.

The LAPD has never recovered from the Rodney King affair

A fourth man, Paul Harper, was acquitted.

The charges stemmed from three cases between March 1996 and April 1998, when the officers were members of a now disbanded anti-gang unit in the city's Rampart police station.

The so-called Rampart scandal came to light when a disgraced former officer, Rafael Perez, agreed to inform on his colleagues after he was caught trying to steal nearly $1m worth of cocaine from a police evidence locker.

In return for a lesser sentence, Mr Perez identified dozens of fellow officers who he claimed had abused their power by beating, robbing and even shooting innocent people.

Mr Perez was expected to be a key witness in the trial, but prosecutors decided not to call him after he demanded immunity from murder allegations - later withdrawn - made by a former lover.

Million-dollar settlements

Perez's former partner in the Los Angeles police department (LAPD), Nelo Durdan, is currently awaiting trial. He has been charged with attempted murder and armed robbery.

It is one of the worst scandals to hit the LAPD

The prosecution claims he and Perez gunned down a 22-year-old youth, planted a gun on him and then lied in court to get him convicted.

Twenty other officers have left the force since the scandal broke and nearly 100 criminal cases have either been dropped or the convictions overturned because they were based on the evidence of policemen whose credibility is now under question.

The Los Angeles attorney's office has already agreed to pay $10.9m to settle cases connected to the scandal, and some estimate that the figure could cost the city $125m.

The LAPD has never fully recovered from the so-called Rodney King affair, when the vicious beating of a black man by four white officers was captured on video tape.