Chief Assails Plea Bargain in Shooting

Los Angeles Police Chief Willie L. Williams on Wednesday sternly denounced a controversial plea bargain and said his office will ask a judge to revoke the deal, which calls for a man accused of shooting at two police officers to avoid a prison term and instead spend nine months in jail.

“The agreement was wrong,” Williams said. “It sends the wrong message to our officers. It sends the wrong message to the public regarding this type of assault.”

The message to officers, Williams added, “is that if you get assaulted or shot at, it doesn’t matter. Whether that was the intent of the message, that is the message that was received by our people. And I am here to say that that is not the message from this chief of police.”

Williams said he had directed his chief of staff, Assistant Chief Ronald Banks, to appear at next week’s sentencing hearing and to ask the judge to set aside the plea bargain in the case of Gilberto Romero, who was accused of firing a .22-caliber pistol six times in the direction of the two officers.

Moreover, Williams said he had spoken with Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti and expressed his “extreme displeasure.”

Suzanne Childs, a spokeswoman for the district attorney, said: “Mr. Garcetti learned about the case this morning and immediately reviewed it with members of our office. He had amicable discussions with Chief Williams and others, but because of the new ethical rules and the pending hearing on Tuesday, he feels it is inappropriate to publicly express his feelings at the moment.”

Whether the plea agreement, disclosed Wednesday in The Times, can be broken at this point is unclear, even if the chief and district attorney oppose it. Williams acknowledged that the agreement is a binding recommendation, but said it is up to the judge to decide whether to accept it.

“It is my intention [to do] whatever I can do legally to express my concerns [that] it is the wrong agreement and should not be accepted,” Williams said. “That will be done next Tuesday.”

The chief’s public denunciation of the deal came after officials representing the county’s top prosecutor met with police in the Northeast Division, where the incident took place. In addition, Williams said his top staff spent several hours registering the LAPD’s objections to the deal and trying to undo it.

At day’s end, Williams said he also intended to speak personally to the two officers involved in the incident, Raul Pedroza and Andy Aguayo, both of whom work in the Northeast Division on a special anti-gang unit.

Police wanted Romero, 18, charged with attempted murder of a police officer and, if convicted, sent to state prison. Instead, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kelly Chun agreed to a plea bargain that calls for Romero to plead guilty to an assault and spend nine months in County Jail.

Romero, who wears a gang tattoo but has no prior criminal record, told police in a statement that he fired the gun but that he was shooting at another gang member and was not trying to murder the officers. A witness questioned that account, but she is young and reluctant to testify, factors that sources said contributed to the prosecutor’s desire to accept a plea.