Former mayor ends Assembly run after guilty plea in bribery case

John Tran, a former Rosemead mayor and city councilman whose guilty plea in a federal bribery case was made public Friday, has agreed to end his run for a state Assembly seat, his attorney said.

Tran, an El Monte Unified School District board member, had been running for a seat vacated by termed-out Assemblyman Mike Eng (D-Monterey Park).

But Tran’s attorney, Michael Zweiback, said late Friday that Tran is ending his campaign and that he has submitted his resignation to the school board.

“John understands that his elected position and public service is over,” Zweiback said. “He’s done a lot of good things for the community, and he wanted to spare his constituents and his family the pain of a long trial.”

Tran, 36, pleaded guilty to soliciting and accepting more than $10,000 in bribes from a developer who was attempting to build a large-scale, mixed-use project in Rosemead, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

From 2005 to 2007, Tran, a councilman at the time, occasionally visited the developer, who was seeking approval for the project. Tran sought and received $10,000 in cash and a $3,200 check from the developer, who became a confidential informant in the federal investigation, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

The developer was not named in court documents.

In exchange for his guilty plea, the U.S. attorney’s office will not pursue charges of extortion and obstruction of justice against Tran, who faces up to 10 years in prison and $250,000 in fines.

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-- Kurt Streeter

Photo: John Tran  in 1999. Credit: Ken Hively / Los Angeles Times