[ Home | Contents | Search | Post | Reply | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Kari
Date: 5/14/03
Time: 8:44:40 PM
Remote Name: 66.82.9.19
AP State Wire News Stories Golden Globes changes show time to Jan. 25, 2004
EPA to take over Valley pollution regulation if regional officials fail, according to settlement
Minor earthquake hits desert near Palm Springs
Educators say revised budget is better, but still difficult
Appeals court upholds Los Angeles demonstration rules
Complete Index
Former LA police officer gets prison for drug trafficking
The Associated Press
Published: May 14, 2003, 04:05:12 PM PDT
SAN DIEGO (AP) - A former Los Angeles police officer who said he failed his government and his family was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for trafficking cocaine and carrying a firearm. Ruben Palomares, a former Rampart Division officer, told U.S. District Judge Thomas J. Whelan that he has turned his life over to God and decided to become a minister after his June 2001 arrest.
About a dozen family members watched as he apologized for "the worst thing in my life I've done."
Palomares and four associates were arrested after trying to buy more than 20 pounds of cocaine from an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent. The men had $140,000 in cash when they were arrested in San Ysidro, near the U.S.-Mexican border.
The Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that Palomares is suspected of running a criminal network with friends, relatives and other police officers who stole drugs, money and property in home-invasion style robberies, sometimes while wearing police uniforms