'Bell 8' corruption hearings to start at 1:30 p.m.
The preliminary hearings for eight current and former Bell city officials have been assigned to Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Henry J. Hall and will begin Monday at 1:30 p.m.
The officials are charged with corruption and misappropriating more than $5.5 million in public funds.
The charges were filed after a series of articles by The Times disclosed extremely high salaries for former City Administrator Robert Rizzo, whose compensation totaled about $1.5 million, and several city council members, who were earning nearly $100,000 annually.
The charges have been divided into three cases and were going to be heard by judges in different courtrooms. But because of overlapping witnesses and defendants, the cases were all sent to Hall.
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-- Corina Knoll
Photo: Former Bell city manager Robert Rizzo in Superior Court for his preliminary hearing Monday morning. The proceedings were moved to another courtroom and will resume at 1:30 p.m. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times
EDITOR'S PICKS:
I hope they get what is coming to them. Let the judge make an example of them and give them all the maximum punishment so may others can learn from this hypocrisy of so called people.
Posted by: Grateful Citizen | February 07, 2011 at 02:08 PM