Bell trial: Former D.A. calls verdicts 'step in the right direction'

The former district attorney who called Bell's scandalous salaries "corruption on steroids" called Wednesday's guilty verdicts "a step in the right direction."

Former Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley spoke about the verdicts Wednesday afternoon at a retirement lunch for a longtime spokeswoman for the D.A.'s office. Cooley, who retired in December, said the jury's decision proved prosecutors were "conscientious and accurate" in filing charges.

"There are still some chapters that need to be written in terms of the justice system's response to the Bell scandal, namely Rizzo and Spaccia," Cooley said, referring to two other ex-city officials still awaiting trial. "We will wait for that to be resolved in a couple of months, but I think this is a step in the right direction."

CHEAT SHEET: Bell corruption verdicts

The salaries earned by officials in the small, blue-collar town made national headlines in 2010 and resulted in one of the largest corruption cases in Los Angeles County history. Former City Administrator Robert Rizzo made nearly $800,000; his former assistant Angela Spaccia earned nearly $400,000 annually; and the six other ex-council members that stood trial received salaries of almost $100,000.

Five of those last six ex-officials were convicted on some counts of public corruption on Wednesday.

Ex-Mayor Oscar Hernandez, Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal were each found guilty of five counts of misappropriation of funds relating to the Solid Waste and Recycling Authority between Jan. 1, 2006, and July 26, 2010.

FULL COVERAGE: Bell corruption trial

George Cole and Victor Bello also were found guilty of misappropriation of funds from the same department: Cole of two counts between Jan. 1, 2006, and Dec. 31, 2007; and Bello of four counts between Jan. 1, 2006, and Dec. 31, 2009.

But each of those five ex-council members were found not guilty for the same counts related to the Public Finance Authority during the same time periods.

Luis Artiga, whose verdict was read last, was acquitted of each of the counts he faced.

TIMELINE: 'Corruption on steroids'

But despite a four-week trial and 18 days of deliberations, the jury remained undecided on about half of the counts, allegations related to the Community Housing and Surplus Property authorities.

Several jurors said they did not believe there was anything else that could be done to help them reach a verdict. But four jurors said they could use additional information about state laws.

The jurors handed Judge Kathleen Kennedy several questions after lunch, but she postponed further discussion about continued deliberations and ordered jurors to return Thursday at 9 a.m.

The jury told Kennedy that the vote was 9 to 3 on the remaining counts, but did not indicate whether they were leaning toward guilty or not guilty.

"We are in receipt of your questions, but we are not ready to respond to you quite yet," Kennedy said before sending them home.

Cooley said he would need more information about "what the issues may have been that led to the not guilty verdicts, but said "the fact that a number of them are guilty is very positive."

"I hope that public entities both here in Los Angeles County and elsewhere get a message that they cannot all loot the public treasury with abandon," he said. "At least in Los Angeles County, there's been someone who will pursue it. It was the case when I was D.A., and it's the case with Jackie Lacey as D.A."

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Photo: Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley announced the indictment of eight Bell city officials in September 2010. Credit: Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times

Two sentenced to prison for collecting benefits for inmates

Two people convicted of collecting unemployment benefits for incarcerated gang members -- including a man who ended up behind bars after a detective recognized the tattoo of an unsolved murder scene emblazoned on his chest -- will now serve prison time themselves.

Juan Garcia, 48, and Sandra Jaimez, 46, were sentenced Tuesday by Norwalk Superior Court Judge Robert Higa to five years in prison. They were also ordered to return the more than $20,000 they bilked from the state's Employment Development Department, according to a statement released by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

A second woman, Cynthia Limas, pleaded guilty to her role in the scheme last year.

Between October 2008 and August 2010, the defendants cashed unemployment checks for inmate Anthony Garcia, the son of Juan Garcia, and submitted change of address forms in his name, officials said.

In a statement released last year after prosecutors filed charges against Juan Garcia and the two women, then-Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley called the case an example of money going to people “who don’t deserve these benefits.”

“It’s no wonder the state is facing such financial difficulties,” Cooley said.

The older Garcia and Jaimez each pleaded guilty to making false unemployment insurance claims, prosecutors said. Juan Garcia also pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree burglary and Jaimez to one count of possession for sale of methamphetamine and one count of felony child abuse.

The defendants kept some of the money for themselves; the rest went to the younger Garcia and other incarcerated gang members, the district attorney's office said.

The case has its roots in something an L.A. County Sheriff's Department homicide detective noticed on a lucky day in 2008.

As he leafed through a stack of photos, one mug shot caught his attention. He paused to stare at the photo of Anthony Garcia, who had been picked up on a minor offense. Soon it clicked: the detailed tattoo on the younger Garcia’s chest alluded to the unsolved murder of John Juarez at a liquor store a few years earlier.

Anthony Garcia eventually confessed to the murder and is serving a 65-years-to-life sentence.

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Bell corruption trial: Still no verdict after 17 days

Jurors in the Bell corruption trial adjourned Tuesday, again without a verdict in the trial of six former council members accused of raiding the small town's treasury by pulling down extraordinary salaries.

Wednesday will mark the 18th day of deliberations -- nearly the same length of the testimony in the trial.

Since being handed the case Feb. 22, the panel appears to have struggled to determine whether Luis Artiga, Victor Bello, George Cole, Oscar Hernandez, Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal misappropriated public funds by taking salaries of up to $100,000, beefed up by serving on city boards and authorities that rarely met. 

Hernandez, Jacobo and Mirabal face 20 counts while Bello faces 16. Artiga faces 12 counts;  Cole has eight. All face prison time if convicted.

Legal experts say the general rule of thumb when it comes to deliberations tends to be one day for every week of testimony. Anything longer could be a strong sign of a hung jury or a deadlock on some counts.

The four-week trial began Jan. 24.

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Photo: Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy during Bell trial. Credit: Associated Press.

 

 

After 13 years in prison, man found to be innocent could be freed

A California man could be released Tuesday afternoon after more than 13 years in prison for a crime a federal judge and the California Innocence Project say he didn’t commit.

Daniel Larsen is scheduled to appear in federal court in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday afternoon, where his attorneys hope he will be released after a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judge ordered his release in 2010.

Larsen was convicted in 1999 of carrying a concealed knife, a third strike for the twice-convicted burglar. Police claimed he had tossed the 6-inch blade under a car after a brawl in a Northridge bar.

Larsen has maintained his innocence throughout the years and eventually got the California Innocence Project to take up his cause. The organization found several witnesses –- including a former chief of police – who stated that they saw a different man throw away the knife, not Larsen.

Larsen’s defense attorney during his trial never called a witness in his defense. That attorney was eventually disbarred.

The Innocence Project filed an appeal under habeas corpus that eventually reached the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. That judge found Larsen to be “actually innocent,” a legal term that allows Larsen to be released from prison while his case works its way through the courts.

The judge found Larsen was not given an adequate defense. The state Attorney General’s office is fighting Larsen’s release on technicalities related to the filing of his appeals and maintains he is guilty.

Tuesday could be Larsen’s first taste of freedom since his conviction in 1999.

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Photo: Brian Banks, center, carries petitions calling for the release of Daniel Larsen at a press conference in August 2012. Credit: Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times

Attorney sentenced for trying to smuggle drugs to client

An attorney who authorities said tried to smuggle heroin and methamphetamine to his client at a jail holding facility in downtown Los Angeles -- and was later caught at another courthouse with rock cocaine -- was sentenced to jail Friday, authorities said.

Kenneth Roger Markman, 49, was sentenced to a year in County Jail and a one-year residential treatment program as part of three years of supervised probation, according to a statement from the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.

Last month, Markman pleaded no contest to conspiracy and drug charges, authorities said.  

Markman was first arrested Oct. 21, 2011, after trying to smuggle 26 balloons containing heroin and methamphetamine into a jail holding facility at the criminal courts building in downtown Los Angeles. The drugs were intended for Markman’s client, Jorge Zaragoza, 36, a suspected gang member scheduled to appear in court that day in connection with an attempted carjacking case, authorities said.

The attorney was arrested a month later at the Antelope Valley Courthouse after a security officer spotted suspicious items as Markman went through security, authorities said. Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies, who prevented Markman from grabbing his belongings and fleeing the building, discovered “drug paraphernalia and two bindles of rock cocaine” in Markman’s wallet, prosecutors said.

The State Bar of California has suspended Markman. A decision is pending on whether he will be allowed to continue to practice law, authorities said.

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Boot camp counselors face charges of abusing youths

An instructor for a youth boot camp in Los Angeles is due in court this month on charges he beat several kids there and sexually assaulted one of them.

Edgar Alvarado, 36, is charged with three felony counts of causing great bodily injury on a child, one felony count of corporal injury on a child and one felony count of sexual battery. One of the female victims has accused Alvarado of inappropriately touching her.

He is being held in lieu of $480,000 bail and is scheduled to appear in court March 28.

According to Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies, Alvarado and a co-worker, Ruben Romero, continuously hit nine boys and two females ages 12 to 17 years old repeatedly while they attended 180 Recon, a camp meant to reform troubled youths. Alvarado lists himself as a retired Marine on the site.

Romero faces three misdemeanor battery charges and is out on bail.

According to the camp’s website, the program begins with “breaking them down in order to build them back up” as model citizens. Kids who go there may have a bad attitude, skip school, use drugs or exhibit violent or criminal behavior. Recon 180 is supposed to give youths a 180-degree turn in their lives and instill some “good old-fashioned morals,” according to the site.

But that’s not what they received, according to sheriff’s deputies. Instead, they were allegedly physically abused at the company’s Camp Coulter in the Angeles Crest Mountains and at its East L.A. headquarters.

The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department asks if anyone has any information to call its special victims bureau at (877) 710-5273.

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Man charged in crash that led to 2 men losing legs

A Paramount man was charged Tuesday with drunken driving after he allegedly drove his BMW into two men standing outside a downtown L.A. strip club, severing their legs, prosecutors said.

Terrence Conrad Meeks, 40, was scheduled to be arraigned on charges including a special allegation that more than one person was injured, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said. If convicted, he faces up to five years in state prison.

Meeks is accused of leaving Sam's Hofbrau on Olympic Boulevard near McGarry Street early Sunday and  allegedly ramming his BMW into the men, pinning them against a parked Mini Cooper, prosecutors and police said.

One victim's legs were both severed below the knees; the other man's right leg was crushed and later amputated, prosecutors said. Both remain hospitalized.

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Bell corruption trial: Illness forces jurors to be sent home

In the latest setback in the Bell corruption case, the judge sent jurors home Tuesday after a panel member became ill.

Jurors have now deliberated for 12 days, but a verdict has proved elusive.

The jury was forced to restart its effort five days into deliberations after the judge removed a juror for misconduct because she had done research on the Internet in violation of court orders.

CRISIS IN BELL: High salaries stir outrage

When jurors reported to court Tuesday morning, they sent a note to Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy telling her that juror No. 7 was sick. Court officials said they did not know how long the juror would be out or when deliberations will resume.

Former Bell City Council members Luis Artiga, Victor Bello, George Cole, Oscar Hernandez, Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal are on trial for misappropriation of public funds.

The former city leaders are charged with boosting their salaries to as much as $100,000 a year by sitting on city boards that did little work, if any.

The council members have argued that the huge salaries were the work of former City Manager Robert Rizzo and that former City Atty. Edward Lee never told them anything was wrong with their elevated paychecks.

Bell corruption trial: Jurors may be struggling

Before adjourning Monday, jurors in the corruption case of six former Bell City Council members again asked to have testimony read back to them, an indication that they are still trying to decide if the high salaries the elected officials were pulling in were legal.

If jurors find the salaries were legal, they can vote to acquit.

If jurors find the salaries were illegal, they must decide whether council members knew that what they were doing was wrong or that a reasonable person in their position should have known.

CRISIS IN BELL: High salaries stir outrage

Jurors on Monday asked to hear testimony from Feb. 11 when former councilman George Mirabal was questioned by his attorney, Alex Kessel, about a section of the City Charter having to do with council pay and a section of the state Constitution.

Mirabal testified that reading those documents led him to believe his salary was legal, said Stanley L. Friedman, the attorney for defendant Oscar Hernandez.

“It looks very favorable for Mr. Hernandez and it looks favorable across the board for all defendants because the jury is giving serious consideration to defense arguments that the salaries were legal,” Friedman said Monday.

Jurors have now deliberated for 12 days, although they were interrupted five days into the process when Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy dismissed one panel member for misconduct after the woman admitted she had consulted the Internet for help.

Kennedy replaced her with an alternate and told jurors to start deliberations anew.

Bell corruption trial: Still no verdict, jurors now on day 12

Although a Los Angeles Superior Court judge expressed optimism that a verdict was close in the Bell corruption trial, jurors remained behind closed doors Monday, locked in their 12th day of deliberations.

“I think we may hear something from the jury today,” Judge Kathleen Kennedy said as last week was coming to a close. “Fridays are really good days for verdicts.”

But the day passed without a decision, forcing the jury to start another week of discussions to determine whether six former Bell council members illegally boosted their annual salaries, which ran as high as $100,000, by drawing pay from serving on boards and authorities that seldom met.

CRISIS IN BELL: High salaries stir outrage

The trial of Luis Artiga, Victor Bello, George Cole, Oscar Hernandez, Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal began Jan. 24 and the case went to the jury Feb. 22. Less than a week after they started, the deliberations hit a bump with the report of a deadlock and the removal of a juror.

That juror, a white-haired woman who earlier had tearfully requested to leave, saying she was being picked on by others, was replaced by an alternate. Kennedy then instructed the panel to restart their efforts and act as if the earlier days of deliberations had not taken place.

A week later, the jury requested a reading of the testimony of a district attorney’s investigator who had been called as a witness.

The testimony concerned the investigator’s request for documents establishing the pay for council members and those serving on boards. In a separate note, jurors asked for copies of five documents that pertained to resolutions regarding salaries of the authorities.

“We would like six copies of each so we can speed up deliberations,” the note said.

The next day, jurors sent another note to the judge asking whether members of the Bell Community Housing Authority could be paid only for meetings or whether they could also receive pay for other duties.

State law says housing authority members can be paid $50 a meeting for up to four meetings a month. Defense attorneys have argued that their clients worked tirelessly for Bell and could receive additional compensation for work outside meetings.

The case is the first chapter in a broader prosecution of alleged municipal corruption in which authorities contend that the city's then-chief executive -- Robert Rizzo -- dipped into the city treasury by paying huge salaries, loaning city money and padding retirement accounts, at a time when the city's finances were starting to crumble.

The revelation of Rizzo’s near-$800,000 annual paycheck led to outrage in the small, blue-collar city, which ended up firing most of the city’s administration and holding a recall election.

Rizzo and Angela Spaccia, Bell's former assistant city administrative officer, are expected to go on trial later this year.

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Photo: Former Bell city council members in court. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times