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About Bill Pavelic on “AMERICAN TRAGEDY” BY LARRY SHILLER

2007-09-07

"...Bill Pavelic was especially proud of his street sense. Bill Pavelic had been one of the few (LAPD) Caucasian cops; he liked to tell friends, who understood how things really worked in the black community. He got so deep into it that he saw things, he was certain, through nonwhite eyes. He discovered that African-Americans and dark-skinned immigrants of all backgrounds had a lot to fear from the LAPD.  When the department couldn't prove something, some cops had no problem framing people who couldn't fight back. Pavelic complained loudly, and soon enough he was seen as disloyal. Before long, he was out..."

 "...I know (LAPD) Robbery-Homicide Division. I've actually seen them frame innocent people.  You can't take anything for granted..."   

"...Bill Pavelic studied the LAPD's crime-scene logs. He called friends at LAPD to see what else he could learn. Bill Pavelic put in twenty-hour days, and finally what happened in the early hours of June 13 started to come together..."

"... Bill Pavelic got a call from an officer on another matter. As they spoke, he realized that the cop was connected to the Simpson investigation. He said the department thought there was more than one killer. The wounds suggested each victim was murdered with a different weapon. Goldman's injuries indicated he had fought fiercely before he died..."

 "...Bill Pavelic felt that there was no private investigator in town better at living inside the collective mind of the LAPD than himself. He was an expert on the department's rules and procedures. He'd been on the force for eighteen years, won hundreds of medals, commendations, favorable incident reports..."

 "...It was Pavelic who gave them their first real hope, however elusive: Bill Pavelic saw corruption in the police casework..."

"...Under any circumstances, Bill Pavelic would have looked for it. His career with the LAPD had ended in angry protest.  In 1984, Bill Pavelic had testified against fellow officers who killed a fleeing suspect. One cop was fired, another suspended for six months. Bill Pavelic assumed he was stigmatized forever. But by 1990, he'd made it to supervising detective in the Southwest Division. Then he got in trouble again.

His men were investigating a date rape at USC when their bosses began showing a heavy-handed interest.  Pavelic, his partner, and their immediate supervisor eventually concluded that then-chief Daryl Gates and a deputy chief were listening to the suspect's father, a prominent lawyer with influence inside the department.

Bill Pavelic and his men protested publicly. And Bill raised similar charges again before a "people's tribunal" when activist groups held hearings on the LAPD after the Rodney King beating.  Pavelic told the crowd that lying and covering up were the norm in the department.  That earned him a desk job. In 1992, he and the brass reached an accommodation. Bill Pavelic took a disability pension for asthma and chest pains. He told one doctor he'd rather spend time in a gulag than go back to work..."

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