Perata aides: call off federal probe
Fifteen ex-aides to former state Sen. Don Perata asked the Justice Department today to call off the hounds in a federal probe of him.
The staffers wrote of being tired of FBI agents staking out their homes, reporters calling their personal phones and awkward questions from their children and neighbors about the police activity.
"As former staff to state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, we write to express our grave concerns about the Sacramento U.S. attorney office’s decision to resuscitate a case the San Francisco office recently dropped after five years of investigation," said the letter to U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr., which asked for a moratorium on the probe until he reviews the case.
The aides said grand juries subpoenaed their emails and files during the last four years, and there were other inconveniences.
``FBI agents interviewed some of us – in some cases, repeatedly – sometimes waiting in front of our houses, contacting our families, or calling on our mobile phones during work hours,’’ the letter said. ``This ordeal has affected our lives, our families and our reputations.’’
Acting U.S. Atty. Lawrence G. Brown in Sacramento said recently he has agreed to review the investigative files put together by FBI agents as part of a probe into Perata’s possible role in bond measures for seismic work on a Bay Area transit system, billboards along freeways and federal approval of an airport roadway. Investigators have been seeking to determine whether Perata relatives and campaign contributors benefited from his actions and whether any money flowed illegally back to him.
Lauren Horwood, a spokeswoman for Brown, could not be reached for comment on the letter.
--Patrick McGreevy
