Vernon’s Role in Promotion of Officer Probed : Police: Critics say the assistant chief blocked an inquiry into complaints that a white man who shares his religious beliefs was unduly advanced.

The Los Angeles Police Department is investigating allegations that Assistant Chief Robert L. Vernon blocked an internal inquiry over complaints that a white male detective who shared Vernon’s Christian beliefs was unduly promoted over minority and female candidates.

Testifying before a state legislative subcommittee on police conduct and racism, a Latino sergeant accused Vernon of postponing action on the complaints until it was technically too late to do anything about them.

“Vernon played a very big role,� said Sgt. Al Ruvalcaba, a director of the 1,000-member Latin American Law Enforcement Assn., who said the association has received numerous complaints from its members about the promotion, which occurred in October, 1990.

“We have the good-old-boy system,� the sergeant told state senators. “It’s de facto discrimination.�

Vernon, who has come under fire for allegedly allowing his Christian views to influence his decisions as the department’s second highest-ranking officer, could not be reached for comment on Wednesday. But Cdmr. Robert Gil, an LAPD spokesman, said the way the detective’s selection was handled--and the grievance filed by four officers--was under review.

Ruvalcaba said he was troubled by the apparent interference by Vernon, an elder at the Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, and told the legislators that there was a “white Christian Mafia� in the LAPD.

“This is how institutional bias is perpetrated,� Ruvalcaba said.

The sergeant was one of about two dozen witnesses, including civil rights lawyers, community activists and law enforcement officers, who testified at the hearing, the second in a series being held by Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles).

The detective who was promoted, Lee Prentiss of the Rampart Division, called Ruvalcaba’s testimony a “witch hunt.� He said his religion was nobody’s business but his own, yet he did say he did not attend Vernon’s church.

Prentiss, a former mayor of South Pasadena, said perhaps the allegations against him came up at the hearing because he once ran against Torres for political office. Besides the allegations of religious favoritism, other witnesses gave accounts of widespread racism and prejudice at police agencies throughout California.

The March 3 beating of Altadena motorist Rodney G. King by LAPD officers was referred to often, as were the more recent cases of an East Los Angeles teen-ager and a former mental patient from Ladera Heights, who were shot to death in incidents involving Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies.

“People can understand about one or two shots fired at a fleeing suspect who probably has a weapon,� said Geoffrey Gibb, a director of a 900-member Langston Bar Assn., which represents black attorneys in Los Angeles.

But, referring to the Ladera Heights shooting in August, Gibb said people “can’t understand about nine shots into the back of a disturbed young man, lying face down on the ground, whose mother was trying to calm him down.�

Bolstering the complaints about police brutality and discrimination, two black California Highway Patrol officers told the subcommittee that they have experienced blatant racism on the job.

The officers recounted instances of racism by their white colleagues.

Gregory Thomas, 26, who is based in Riverside, testified that he was repeatedly called “boy� by a white officer and that his complaints about this to his superiors fell on deaf ears.

Furthermore, Thomas said, another white officer told him about brutally beating a Latino man, bashing his head against a car and pulling his hair to the point that the suspect cried. “He bragged about this,� said Thomas, who maintained that his formal complaints about the incident resulted in no disciplinary action. He said eight officers, including a supervisor, witnessed the beating. In addition, Thomas said, the officer involved in the beating made racist jokes to Thomas on the anniversary of the birth of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Officer Robert Burks, 40, who works in the Highway Patrol office in San Bernardino, said he believes racism exists “within the department.� Burks said he believes he was denied advancement because he is black.

In response to the testimony, the deputy commissioner of the California Highway Patrol, Dwight Helmick, said that neither racism nor brutality is tolerated in the department.

At the close of Wednesday’s hearing, committee members urged an investigation of the CHP, and Torres suggested the establishment of a statewide police oversight agency that would be similar to the Fair Political Practices Commission that monitors conflict-of-interest charges against politicians.