Former California city officials convicted in corruption trial

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Five former elected officials from the scandal-plagued California city of Bell were convicted on Wednesday of misusing municipal funds by collecting exorbitant salaries in a case that drew national attention as a symbol of public corruption.

The trial stemmed from an explosive scandal in Bell, a small, mostly blue-collar municipality near Los Angeles, following revelations in 2010 that its city manager, Robert Rizzo, was paid a salary of $787,000 - or nearly twice that of President Barack Obama.

Rizzo faces a separate trial with his onetime assistant, Angela Spaccia, on public corruption-related charges.

The Bell scandal fueled a statewide debate over public pay and led to upheaval in the city of over 35,000 residents, who in 2011 voted to replace all their council members.

Capping two weeks of deliberations, a Los Angeles County jury on Wednesday found ex-Mayor Oscar Hernandez and former City Council members Teresa Jacobo and George Mirabal each guilty on five felony counts of misappropriation of public funds and acquitted them of five other counts.

Former Councilman George Cole was convicted of two counts and acquitted of two others, while ex-Councilman Victor Bellow was found guilty of four counts and acquitted of four others.

A sixth defendant, former Councilman Luis Artiga, was acquitted of all 12 counts against him and wept openly as Judge Kathleen Kennedy told him he was free to go.

After acquitting Artiga, the jury of seven women and five men said they deadlocked, 9-3, on remaining counts against his five co-defendants and indicated they might be able to reach a unanimous verdict with some further instructions from the judge.

The jury went home for the day on Wednesday and was expected to return the next morning to resume its deliberations.

All six former officials on trial had been accused of giving themselves extravagant pay for sitting on various municipal boards - the Community Housing Authority, Surplus Property Authority, Public Financing Authority and Solid Waste and Recycling Authority - that rarely met to conduct business.

Bellow's attorney, Leo Moriarty, said outside court it was unclear how much time behind bars the convicted defendants could face, but he added that they could be sentenced to probation under the counts on which they have been found guilty.

Defense lawyers argued that their clients were wrongly accused, had worked hard for the city and earned their salaries.

The eight former city officials arrested in September 2010 in the investigation were collectively accused of bilking taxpayers out of roughly $5.5 million through excessive salaries, benefits and illicit loans of public money. Then-Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley called it a case of "corruption on steroids."

The California legislature approved a number of bills aimed at dealing with the 2010 Bell scandal, including one to reimburse city residents overcharged on property taxes.

Bell Mayor Ali Saleh, who was elected in 2011 when voters tossed out the previous council members, said the convictions bring "some closure" for residents.

"Our community will rest when the legal process has come full circle and justice has been served," he said.

The Bell scandal came to light when the Los Angeles Times in a series of articles revealed the city's officials had secretly enriched themselves, and the paper won the Pulitzer Prize in 2011 for its coverage of the story.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman, Dana Feldman and Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Dan Grebler and Lisa Shumaker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-california-city-officials-convicted-corruption-trial-005531026.html

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