LAPD detective's use of the N-word roils infamous gang murder case
LOS ANGELES - At a Little Tokyo bar, drinks fueled a heated discussion among a group of lawyers and a Los Angeles police investigator.
Then talk turned to police corruption.
Veteran LAPD Detective Brian McCartin told his three companions about his experience encountering black gang members. He referred to them using the N-word.
"What, you've never used that word in the privacy of your own living room?" he asked when the slur was met with shock, according to court documents.
Among the group was Deputy District Attorney Robert Rabbani, who was prosecuting Cleamon Johnson, a black gang leader known as "Big Evil" and charged with five murders. McCartin was his lead investigator.
The May 2014 conversation, which surfaced in court earlier this year, has become a thorny legal issue in the pending death penalty case against Johnson and offers a glimpse inside a police department that tried over the last two decades to weed out the systemic, casual racism
