LAPD offers details of reopened investigation of Dorner firing

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck addressed his decision to reopen the investigation into the 2009 firing of former officer Christopher Jordan Dorner at a Sunday news conference, saying it was time to publicly put Dorner's accusations to rest.

"I hear the ghosts of the past of the Los Angeles Police Department. I hear that people think that maybe there is something to what he says, and I want to put that to rest," Beck said at the news conference. Beck and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced a $1-million reward for information leading to Dorner's capture.

"The only way I know how to put that to rest is to review what has already been reviewed at multiple levels," he said.

Dorner was stripped of his badge in 2009 after a police disciplinary board found him guilty of making false statements against his training officer, Teresa Evans. In August 2007, Dorner accused Evans of kicking a mentally ill man during an arrest in San Pedro.

The internal affairs investigation concluded that Evans had not kicked the man and that Dorner was lying.

Police said Dorner has killed three people, including a Riverside police officer, and injured two others over the last week in a campaign to take revenge on those he blamed for his dismissal from the LAPD. 

A long manifesto posted to what police believe to have been Dorner's Facebook page alleges racism throughout the infrastructure of LAPD.

Gerry Chaleff, LAPD special assistant for constitutional policing, is to lead the renewed investigation into Dorner's firing.

Beck, who has led the LAPD since 2009, insisted he was reopening the investigation into Dorner's firing to ensure public confidence in his department.

"If there anything to what he says or anything new in what he brings up his manifesto, we will deal with it and we will do it in a public way," Beck said.

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-- Andrew Blankstein and Wesley Lowery

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Photo: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, left, listens to Police Chief Charlie Beck at the news conference. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times