Gino Floyd "Nino" Durden (born May 5, 1963) is a former American police officer in the

Los Angeles Police Department The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), officially known as the City of Los Angeles Police Department, is the municipal police department of Los Angeles, California. With 9,974 police officers and 3,000 civilian staff, it is the third-large ...

Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (CRASH) unit implicated in the LAPD Rampart scandal. Durden, along with Officer Rafael Pérez, was involved in the shooting and framing of gang member

Javier Ovando Javier Francisco Ovando (born 1977), is a Honduran man who became a central figure in the LAPD Rampart scandal when he was shot and framed by corrupt Rampart officers Rafael Pérez and Nino Durden. Ovando is an immigrant to the United States a ...

. Both officers later made false statements against Ovando in court.''Rampart Scandal Timeline''
PBS.org.

Arrest and charges

Durden was arrested in July 2000. According to media reports, like the other officers directly involved, Durden was booked wearing his LAPD uniform. Durden was charged with attempted murder, assault with a semiautomatic firearm in the Ovando shooting, filing a false report and perjury – two counts stemming from the October 25, 1996, arrest of Miguel Hernandez, who was allegedly framed on a weapons offense, second-degree robbery for allegedly stealing jewelry and money from a suspected drug dealer on August 15, 1997, and filing a false report in connection with the February 2, 1997, arrest of Jose Lara, who also was allegedly framed on a weapons charge. Durden pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to five years in prison on six California state charges, including perjury, filing false police reports and conspiracy to obstruct justice, on August 6, 2002.
CNN.com. 13 August 2002. Accessed 16 June 2008. The sentence was served concurrently with a three-year sentence for federal charges of civil rights violations and possession of an illegal firearm. He was released on April 22, 2005 and placed on parole.

Media

Throughout the timeline of the incidents reported in the Rampart investigation, Durden was working in the LAPD's South Bureau (

South Los Angeles South Los Angeles, also known as South Central Los Angeles or simply South Central, is a region in southwestern Los Angeles County, lying mostly within the city limits of Los Angeles, south of downtown. It is "defined on Los Angeles city maps as ...

) and had worked there since 1997, after the arrest of fellow LAPD officer Rafael Pérez. He was featured in several episodes of the

FOX Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

series '' LAPD: Life On the Beat'' before his involvement in the scandal became known.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Durden, Nino 1963 births Living people American people convicted of assault American people convicted of attempted murder People convicted of obstruction of justice American perjurers American police officers convicted of crimes American prisoners and detainees Criminals from California Los Angeles Police Department officers Criminals from Los Angeles Police officers convicted of planting evidence Prisoners and detainees of California