Alleged Rampart Victim Arrested on Drug Charges

LAS VEGAS —  A 23-year-old Los Angeles man who received a record $15-million settlement after he was shot and paralyzed by Los Angeles police officers is facing drug charges after heading here for a gambling getaway.

Javier Francisco Ovando was among six people arrested when his Las Vegas-bound vehicle was stopped for speeding just inside the Nevada state line March 13 by officers from the California and Nevada highway patrols.

The officers discovered more than $50,000 in cash on Ovando, and found marijuana and cocaine in the vehicle, said a spokeswoman for the Clark County Detention Center.

Clark County Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Christopher Laurent said Ovando, who posted $26,000 bail and was released two days after his arrest, will face felony arraignment near Jean, Nev., on April 17.

Laurent said that he knew few details of the arrest but that his office filed four felony charges against Ovando--possession and transporting a controlled substance, possession of marijuana and trafficking in cocaine.

Ovando’s attorney, Gregory Moreno, said the cash was from the police misconduct settlement--the largest in Los Angeles city history.

“No drugs were found on his person. He wasn’t trafficking,” Moreno said. “They assumed a Latino with that much money was trafficking.

“If there were any drugs in that car,” the attorney said, “they belonged to people out to have a good time in Vegas. Ultimately, the only possible charges could be possession of illegal drugs for personal use.”

Ovando was stripped of his prescription drugs for pain and seizures resulting from his police injuries, Moreno said.

Ovando, who uses a wheelchair, suffered a brain injury when he was shot in the chest and head, allegedly by LAPD Officers Rafael Perez and Nino Durden, in 1996, when he was 19. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison after the officers allegedly planted a gun on him and accused him of trying to attack them.

Ovando served 2 1/2 years before his conviction was overturned in 1999 with the unfolding of the Rampart police corruption scandal. His was one of about 100 cases voided in the wake of the police scandal.

After reaching the settlement in November, Ovando said he planned “to continue my life, to live my life.” With his first $6-million installment, he bought a van and a Lincoln Navigator, a five-bedroom hillside home and a home in Honduras for his mother, Moreno said.

It was unclear what vehicle was involved in the traffic stop. Moreno said that his client was in the front passenger seat and that the five others, including the driver, were “friends from the neighborhood.”

The attorney said Ovando is “totally dismayed at this point. It’s pretty unlucky. For a fellow like him, it’s difficult to find people to hang around with, in his circumstances. He won’t point the finger at anybody, but he definitely wasn’t trafficking in drugs.

“We’ll have to see what charges, if any, will stick here,” Moreno said. “We’ll see this thing through.”

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Times staff writer Louis Sahagun in Los Angeles contributed to this story.