N.Y. Firm Chosen to Monitor Reforms

The Los Angeles City Council voted Friday to recommend former New York prosecutor Michael G. Cherkasky as the independent monitor to oversee police reforms, despite concern that his team has no local representation.

Acting on a joint recommendation of the city and the U.S. Justice Department, the council voted 9-3 to enter into a contract with Kroll Associates Inc. as the “independent monitor.” Cherkasky, the firm’s president and CEO, will serve as the “primary monitor” of the implementation of reforms at the Los Angeles Police Department ordered as part of a federal court consent decree.

U.S. District Judge Gary A. Feess will make the final decision.

Cherkasky and his firm stood out among 19 applicants for the monitor’s job, in part because of his experience as a monitor of other court orders and, before that, his 13 years as a prosecutor in New York, said Deputy Mayor Kelly Martin.

“He was a very aggressive prosecutor,” Martin told the council. “He is very tough-minded. He is also fair-minded. He brought to the table experience we thought was important.”

Cherkasky, 51, cited his court-appointed role overseeing the 1998 election of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He imposed fines on the eventual victor, James P. Hoffa, for campaign finance irregularities, Martin noted.

He worked for 13 years as a county prosecutor, including time as head of the Investigations Division for the New York County district attorney’s office, where Cherkasky investigated fraud, corruption and money laundering, as well as organized crime figures including John Gotti. In 1995, he advised an Orange County Grand Jury investigating the county bankruptcy.

“I appreciate what happened in the Los Angeles City Council today, and I now look forward to the matter being submitted to the court,” Cherkasky said, declining to comment further pending the judge’s decision.

Attorney Mark Rosenbaum of the American Civil Liberties Union said he did not know enough about Cherkasky and Kroll to decide whether they are a good choice, because the selection was openly debated only Friday during a two-hour session.

“It’s like asking the people of the city to marry a blind date,” said Rosenbaum, whose organization has been granted friend-of-the-court status.

Councilmen Mark Ridley-Thomas, Nate Holden and Mike Hernandez voted against the recommendation, after failing to convince their colleagues to delay action for a week. The trio objected that the recommendation of Cherkasky was made only on Friday.

“I have never had to make a decision with as little information as was given to me today, and I think this decision is one of the most important ones I’ve made as a council member,” Hernandez said.

He and others questioned the lack of local representation in the monitoring team, as well as the lack of diversity. Of the eight top officials involved in Cherkasky’s team, one is a woman and one is a minority.

Hernandez said the makeup of the monitoring team might hurt its credibility in minority communities that feel they have been the victim of police misconduct.

When the council wavered about whether to vote, Council President Ruth Galanter warned that failure to act could leave the decision to a federal judge. The recommendation was first scheduled for March 1.

“We will find ourselves looking as if the council is holding up police reform,” Galanter told her colleagues.

Under the plan approved by the council, Cherkasky will head a monitoring team that will include former New York City Police Commissioner William Bratton, former Baltimore Police Commissioner Tom Frazier and Phoenix Police Chief Harold Hurtt. The five-year contract with the New York-based Kroll Associates is budgeted at $11 million.

Threatened with a lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department over a “pattern or practice” of police misconduct, including allegations stemming from the Rampart Division scandal, the city agreed to settle last November by going along with a decree that spells out reforms over the next five years.

They include creation of an LAPD unit to investigate officer-involved shootings, a boost in Police Commission and inspector general powers, and installation of a computerized tracking system for police conduct that will serve as an early warning system for problem officers.

“The monitor will report quarterly to the federal court on the city of Los Angeles’ compliance with the requirements of the consent decree,” said a statement by the Justice Department confirming it is joining in the recommendation of Kroll Associates and Cherkasky.

The city negotiating team included former Los Angeles Police Commission President Gerald Chaleff, representing the council, and Deputy Police Chief Julius Davis, representing the LAPD.

“They [the Kroll group] did not prejudge the Police Department,” Davis said. “They are willing to approach the task in an objective way, and that is important to us.”