Oakland to fire 11 cops in search warrant case OAKLAND The scandal has thrown into jeopardy dozens of prosecutions of drug suspects

Oakland intends to fire 11 police officers for allegedly lying to obtain search warrants in drug cases, officials said Thursday.

The two sergeants and nine officers face dismissal in a scandal that has thrown into jeopardy the prosecutions of dozens of suspects. At least 12 have already had their cases dismissed because warrants that police used to obtain evidence were obtained on the basis of lies by officers, according to attorneys involved in the cases.

The officers told judges that substances seized from drug suspects had been identified by the Oakland police crime lab as narcotics when, in fact, they had not, authorities said. Those false statements were used to persuade judges to issue warrants that police relied on to gather more evidence.

Some officers also lied to internal affairs investigators looking into the allegations, City Attorney John Russo said.

The officers "knew or should have known that information in their affidavits regarding the testing of drugs was false," Russo said.

"These terminations are difficult for the city, but they show that honesty and integrity are non-negotiable for officers in the Oakland Police Department," Russo said. "The terminations demonstrate that the Oakland Police Department's internal review systems and reform measures are operating soundly and in the interests of justice."

Police spokesman Officer Jeff Thomason would not comment on the matter Thursday, saying state law barred police from discussing personnel matters.

However, Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan has said that what the officers did amounted to procedural errors. Police Chief Wayne Tucker stressed earlier that internal affairs investigators uncovered the problem and that officers were being retrained.

"We discovered it; we're fixing it," Tucker said in October.

The city is facing two federal civil rights lawsuits over the warrants issue. One complaint was filed on behalf of two men whose East Oakland homes were searched last year.

Jason Hodge, a spokesman for the men's attorney, said Thursday that Russo's announcement "strengthens and validates our case. The city does not have a leg to stand on. They had a number of rogue officers who are basically trampling on the rights of Oakland residents, and now they're going to have to pay."

The other civil complaint is a class-action lawsuit filed by a group of plaintiffs, including Reginald Oliver, 39. Prosecutors were forced to drop a charge of illegally possessing ammunition against Oliver after discovering that the search warrant for his home had been obtained by an officer who made intentionally false and/or misleading statements on an affidavit to a judge, the suit said.

Both suits name Officer Karla Rush, an eight-year officer who sources said is among those the city wants to fire. The names of the other officers were not made public.

Mary Sansen, an attorney for the officers, blasted the city Thursday, saying the blame rests with police commanders who she said failed to train officers on how to write search-warrant affidavits properly.

"The fact that I have anybody who's being terminated over this case is just simply outrageous," Sansen said. "Some of my officers have routinely been denied any form of training. I have clients who are writing search warrants who have never been to search-writing school, who have been expected to pick up as they go."

The search-warrant issue was discussed Thursday at a court hearing in San Francisco before U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson. The judge is overseeing department reforms in the wake of the Riders scandal, which involved a group of officers accused of planting evidence and beating suspects in West Oakland.

Two criminal trials of three former officers ended in mistrials. The case led to a $10.5 million civil settlement with citizens who said they were abused by the officers, along with a court order mandating the reforms that Henderson is overseeing.

An independent monitoring team created as part of the effort said in a report last week on the warrants issue that, "Although the detection and investigation of this alleged misconduct reflects well on the department, the underlying misconduct, if true, is clear indication that the organizational and community values that have been integrated into some parts of the department have not yet taken root throughout OPD."