Woo hoo woo hoo hoo!
And speaking of the notoriously corrupt city of Bell, here’s second day coverage of the plea deals by the former city council members.
Also:
Edited to add 4/11: Second day story on the Spaccia conviction. Nut from that story: in addition to the prison time, Spaccia has also been ordered to pay $8 million in restitution.
Woo hoo woo hoo hoo! A great day!
Let us all say the magic words together now:
You’re going down in flames, you tax-fattened hyenas!
(Yes, it is a plea. Yes, they are getting a lighter sentence than they would have if they had gone to trial and been convicted. Yes, they’ve already been convicted of other charges. Yes, it wouldn’t surprise me to see all the sentences served concurrently. But can’t you let me be happy, even if it is just for a short time? Thank you.)
Samuel In used to be a building inspector in LA.
Samuel In pled guilty to taking $30,000 in bribes while on the job. Samuel In is now serving a 2 1/2 year federal prison sentence.
Samuel In is receiving, and will continue to receive, a $72,000 yearly pension.
Two years ago, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a measure requiring public employees convicted of a felony to give up retirement benefits earned during the period when their crimes were committed.
But the forfeiture requirement doesn’t apply to Los Angeles because it is governed by the City Council under a voter-approved charter, and the City Council manages its own pension systems.
And:
Also on FARK, but noted here for the record: Antenna Gate.
Gee, Officer Krupke, if you have nothing to hide, why are you afraid of being recorded?
Mike the Musicologist forwarded an amusing article from the Sacramento Bee about indicted California Democratic State Senator Leland “Uncle” Yee.
Among other things, “Uncle” used campaign funds for his trips to the Philippines, where he allegedly tried to arrange his illegal gun deals:
Also interesting: “Uncle” spent a total of $62,000 in campaign funds at the New Asia restaurant in San Francisco. I believe this is the New Asia in question.
Yeah, you were waiting for “Shrimp Boy” to show up, weren’t you? And by the way, the owner of New Asia is charged with receiving and transporting stolen property: specifically, 15 cases of Johnnie Walker Blue Label.
Edited to add: I was finishing up this post as I was coming off my lunch hour, so I pushed research duties to Mike the Musicologist. For those of you (like me) who aren’t that up on your Johnnie Walker label colors, Blue is at the highest end of the Walker line in regular production (as opposed to the occasional special edition/one off runs). Wikipedia says it goes for $200 – $300 a bottle, but the prices Mike and I turned up were more like $1,000 for a case (six bottles). So we’re talking $15,000 worth of blended Scotch. Not exactly something to sneeze at, for sure, but it seems kind of petty compared to “Tell me about the rockets, Leland!” and contract killers.
Plus, you know, this probably puts New Asia’s liquor license in danger. And what’s a liquor license in San Francisco worth? I bet a lot more than $15K.
“Who’s Packing What: The Weapons in the Leland Yee Scandal”
Or, as we’ve taken to calling him, indicted California Democratic State Senator Leland “Uncle” Yee.
By way of Mike the Musicologist, who observes that indicted California Democratic State Senator Leland “Uncle” Yee and his friends have bad taste in weapons.
Two 9s and a .45? I wonder how loud the clank was as he walked.
Also. (By way of Robb Allen.)
In case you’re coming into the Leland Yee/Raymond “Shrimp Boy” scandal late, and haven’t been reading this blog or Battleswarm, the LAT has a handy guide to the affair, which answers many of the burning questions (such as “why is he called ‘Shrimp Boy’?”).
(I cannot tell a lie: I enjoy typing Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow. Almost as much as – no, strike that, I enjoy it even more than typing Robert “Ratso” Rizzo.)
Also, in case you were wondering, the California state Senate has suspended Sen. Yee without pay. The same august body has also suspended Sen. Roderick White, who was convicted of perjury and voter fraud, and Sen. Ronald Calderon, indicted on bribery and corruption charges.
Man is released from death row after 46 years, after courts rule that his confession was coerced and evidence against him was fabricated.
Williamson County? No. Texas? No. Japan.
More on Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow. And more. Since I made the observation the other day:
(And you should also be reading Battleswarm: Lawrence has been able to devote a little more time to his coverage than I have.)
I stumbled across this while looking for “Shrimp Boy” links:
I have nothing to say about this story, I just want to insert an obscure reference here:
(Perhaps they could give her a job: maybe keeping people from hanging around the food court.)
(Previously. WP article also contains yet another photo of the bishop’s residence that looks like a Thomas Kinkade painting, but at least this one wasn’t taken with a fish-eye lens.)
More information about the charges against Leland Yee is trickling out.
As you may recall from yesterday’s post, Senator Yee advocated “tighter restrictions” on “semi-automatic weapons”. Well, guess what? The charges against Senator Yee include “conspiracy to traffic in firearms”.
The full complaint is available from the SFGate site. By way of Overlawyered, we found a summary from San Francisco Magazine (complete with bonus “The Wire” references!):
…he offered to set up an arms deal with Islamic rebels for $2 million in cash.
Tell me about the rockets, George Leland!
I single that out because Keith Jackson is apparently a well known “political consultant” and political figure. And he was a former president of the San Francisco Board of Education. And the charges against him, other than gun trafficking and “wire fraud of honest services”, include involvement in a “murder for hire” conspiracy.
I didn’t link to Overlawyered earlier because I wanted to save the best part for last: Yee was named to the “Gun Violence Prevention Honor Roll” by the Brady Campaign. Seriously, I am not making this stuff up.
Of course, these are just charges, and Senator Yee hasn’t been convicted yet. But I wanted to make note of this arrest, and:
I didn’t insert “Shrimp Boy”; that’s in the actual LAT article.
I’d really like to know how he got that nickname.
More from the SFChron, which describes “Shrimp Boy” as “a notorious former San Francisco gangster”.
In 1992, the Hong Kong-born Chow was indicted with two dozen others on racketeering charges for their alleged involvement in everything from underage prostitution to the international heroin trade.
Chow was subsequently convicted of gun charges and sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 2003, however, he was released after he cut a deal with the government to testify against a high-ranking associate.
So “Shrimp Boy” served time on gun charges, and is apparently a close friend of Senator Yee. By the way:
Heh. Heh. Heh.
Somebody has been looking very closely at California police departments.
The criminal indictments appear to be a result of this series of events:
Razzak and Yick are also accused of falsifying incident reports.
Other high points:
The LAT has a second-day story on the King City PD arrests, noted in this space yesterday.
There are several interesting new aspects to the story:
Miller Tow is owned by Brian Miller, who was also arrested. Brian Miller is not a King City PD officer; he is, however, acting chief Bruce Miller’s brother.
Former chief Chief Nick Baldiviez is being charged with embezzlement. Bruce Miller, who was serving as the acting chief, is charged with bribery. Bobby Carrillo, who was a sergeant with the King City PD, is charged with “conspiracy to commit a crime and bribery by a public officer”. Officer Mario Mottu Sr. is charged with “embezzlement by a public official”. Officer Jaime Andrade was also charged, but the charges against him are not stated, and it is unclear if he has been arrested. There are also claims that a sixth officer, who has not been named, is also charged. The King City PD, according to the LAT, has 17 officers.
I’m trying to find information from sources closer to King City, but neither of the San Francisco newspapers seem to have anything. (King City is a little south of Salinas, putting it closer to SF than LA.)
However, I did turn up this story that I’d previously missed: Stephen Tanabe is going to serve 15 months of federal time. Tanabe was a deputy with the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Department: he was convicted of “multiple felonies including conspiracy and extortion” in the “Dirty DUI” case, which I have written about previously.
You may recall that last year, members of the city council of the notoriously corrupt city of Bell stood trial. One member was completely acquitted of the charges against him; the other five were found guilty on some charges, and had mistrials declared on others. The prosecution had indicated it planned to retry the cases that ended in mistrials.
However, the LAT is reporting that the prosecution is playing “Let’s Make a Deal” instead:
Five former Bell council members accused of looting the small city are scheduled to be in court Friday to consider an offer of a maximum four-year prison term in exchange for their guilty pleas.
The former leaders already face possible eight-year prison terms after being convicted on related corruption charges last year, making the four-year offer attractive.
It isn’t clear from the article, but my assumption is that the four-year terms would run concurrently with the eight-year ones, so the council members wouldn’t actually serve any additional time. But first they have to agree to the plea deal, and that doesn’t sound like a sure thing.
Edited to add: Indeed. The LAT is now reporting that only one out of five former council members expressed any desire to take the deal; the prosecution says either all five take the deal, or
Anyway, the lawyers have asked for more time, and it looks like the next hearing will be April 3rd. Watch this space for updates.
Thoughts:
1. I admit I’ve written some bad Perl code. But I don’t recall writing any that ran away. SQL queries, yes, but not Perl code.
2. “Runaway Camel” sort of sounds like a stunt organized by those truth jackasses.
3. I have a “primates” tag; do I need a “mammals” tag?
Edited to add: I think I do need a “mammals” tag, and an associated “camels” tag. But even though primates are mammals, I don’t feel right moving the “primates” tag under the “mammals” tag, so I’m keeping them separate for now.
A brief followup:
More:
And: