Whipped Cream Difficulties

Former San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor acknowledged in federal court Thursday that she gambled away millions of dollars that her late husband had earmarked for charity purposes.

Ms. O’Connor is getting a “deferred prosecution” deal.

Under a bargain with prosecutors, O’Connor agreed to make $2 million in restitution; if she violates no further laws in the next two years, the charge may be dismissed.

What happened? O’Connor’s husband was Robert Peterson, founder of Jack in the Box who “made a fortune in the restaurant, hotel and banking industries”. So she had money. LOTS of money.

O’Connor is destitute after gambling away $1 billion at casinos in the San Diego area and Las Vegas and Atlantic City from 2000 to 2009, according to prosecutors. She has admitted having a gambling addiction, prosecutors said.

Yeah, you read that right. She gambled away One. Billion. Dollars. That’s $100 million a year, or $8.3 million a month.

Anyway, when she ran out of money, she took money from the charitable foundation her husband started, which is now defunct because she stole the money.

O’Connor, who underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor in 2011, used a cane and needed help walking as she entered the courtroom of federal Judge David Bartick. In her youth, she had been a star swimmer and later a physical education teacher before being elected to the City Council in 1971 as a maverick Democrat.

So other than the question of exactly how you gamble away $100 million a year, and how you do that for ten years without realizing you have a problem: how exactly is a destitute 66-year-old woman who needs help walking supposed to pay back $2 million? (The late Mr. Peterson’s Wikipedia entry says he had four kids from a previous marriage, but apparently none with O’Connor.)

I was out of pocket for much of the day Tuesday, which is why I didn’t update. Oddly, there seems to be a gap in the trial coverage on the LAT site: if anything did happen Tuesday, the paper didn’t report it.

As far as yesterday’s testimony: indicted former councilman George Mirabal was back on the stand.

“Did you specifically ask Mr. Lee, ‘Can I get this salary?’”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because he was in charge of maintaining surveillance on all these type of actions,” Mirabal said. “His firm was getting like $13,000 a month, the least he can do is look at all the resolutions and various ordinances.”

(Mr. Lee is Ed Lee, who was Bell’s city attorney.)

Also on the stand: Annette Peretz, Bell’s former director of community services. Her salary was $273,000 a year when she retired in 2010.

Attorneys have a saying: “Never ask a witness a question that you don’t know the answer to.” In that light, this exchange is…interesting.

The court received a jolt, though, when Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Miller opened his cross-examination by asking: “Were you Robert Rizzo’s girlfriend?”

The judge ruled that Peretz did not have to answer that question, and Peretz also declined comment to reporters.

I can’t find a photo of Peretz, but as a reminder, this is Robert “Ratso” Rizzo:

Peretz also testified as, basically, a character witness for indicted council member Teresa Jacobo, saying “she often saw Jacobo meeting with residents at the community center and visiting senior housing facilities.”

Peretz, who took a $95,000 city loan from a program Rizzo developed, filed a lawsuit against Bell for retirement and medical benefits. A judge ruled for the city earlier this month. Rizzo is charged with illegally loaning out city money.

Also testifying as witnesses for Jacobo: two of her daughters, and “a woman who lives in one of Bell’s mobile home parks”:

Candalaria Ramirez said Jacobo was a trusted, frequent visitor who responded to residents and was instrumental in firing the management company that residents had complained was mistreating seniors and had racist employees.

“We expect behavior like this in Castro’s Cuba or the city of Bell, not in Newport Beach,” Stop the Dock Tax Chairman Bob McCaffrey said in a prepared statement.

You know, when your city is being compared unfavorably to a fifth-world dictatorship, maybe it is time to shut everything down and start over from scratch.

Teresa Jacobo wrapped up her testimony yesterday in the Bell trial, and indicted former council member George Mirabal is testifying now.

Mirabel is pretty much echoing Jacobo: I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong, I thought it was okay because the city attorney said so, and I did a lot of work outside of meetings for the city.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward Miller questioned Mirabal about the day shortly after his 2010 arrest that he voluntarily told prosecutors that no work was done on authorities outside of meetings.
Mirabal said that if he had made such a statement, it was incorrect. He said he couldn’t remember what was said back then and “might have heed and hawed.”
“So it’s easy to remember now?” Miller asked.
“Yes, actually.”
“More than two years after charges have been filed, it’s easier for you to remember now that you did work outside of the meetings for the Public Finance Authority?”
“Yes, sir.”

Yesterday’s developments:

Former councilman and assistant to the food bank administrator, Victor Bello, wasn’t just a rat. He’s also crazy, at least according to his lawyer.

It has been mentioned previously that Bello was banned from City Hall. But the reasons haven’t been discussed until now:

…an incident at a city affair at which Bello thought city manager Robert Rizzo made a derogatory statement about him, the defense attorney said.
“He came up to Mr. Rizzo and confronted him,” Moriarity said. “He got very, very angry. There was yelling back and forth.
“Some people say Mr. Bello grabbed Mr. Rizzo by the lapels. Others say that didn’t happen,” he added.

It could also have had something to do with the condom incident. Moving along, the first witness for the defense was Teresa Jacobo, one of the indicted council members.

…Jacobo testified she made $500 a month when she came onto the council in 2001 and continued selling real estate.

And then one magic day, according to Jacobo, Robert “Ratso” Rizzo and Edward Lee, the city attorney, called her in and told her…

“…I would be able work full time and devote all my time and effort to this community of Bell and I was now getting a full-time salary.”

But Jacobo testifies that Ratso didn’t tell her how much she’d be making. I’m sorry, but if someone told me I could devote all my time and effort to the community and I’d be making a full-time salary, I’d freaking ask what that salary would be.

Much of the defense has been that the council followed Rizzo’s lead, that the city attorney never said anything was wrong with their salaries, and that their positions were really full-time jobs. Jacobo bolstered the portrayal of Rizzo as a control freak who didn’t want council members to speak to city staff or to question him.
“He said I asked too many questions,” she testified.

Here’s a surprise from the Bell trial: former council member Victor Bello, mister “$100,000 a year as assistant food bank coordinator” was a rat.

Victor Bello had written a letter to the Los Angeles County district attorney with allegations of misconduct in Bell on May 6, 2009, but was not interviewed until 10 1/2 months later, district attorney’s investigator Maria Grimaldo testified Wednesday. She was not asked the reason for the delay nor what the allegations were.

Here’s a great exchange:

“Your monthly salary as a council member is how much a month? investigator Mike Holguin asks. “You said $3,900?”
“No, no, no, no,” Bello replies, according to the transcript. “It’s about $100,000.”
“A $100,000 a year?” Grimaldo asks.
“That’s as a council member for, uh, for Bell?” Holguin adds.

$3,900 a month is what Bello expected to receive as his pension from Bell.

According to the LAT, Grimaldo is the final prosecution witness, so I guess we can expect the defense testimony to start soon. I’d recommend popping a fresh batch of popcorn for that.

There was the local resident who was given a document with false City Hall salaries. There was the food bank coordinator who had no idea one of his volunteers was being paid nearly six figures. And there was the councilman who didn’t realize he was making just pennies on the dollar compared to his colleagues.

Among the witnesses: Bell resident Roger Ramirez. In 2008, Ramirez put in a public records request for the salaries of the mayor and council members.

Ramirez testified that he told [Rebecca] Valdez [the city clerk] the figures didn’t match what he thought was true and that the city clerk appeared worried someone would overhear him.
“The only thing I can tell you is the expression on her face was concern and she looked around with her eyes and didn’t say a word,” he said.

Also, Ricardo Gonzalez:

Ricardo Gonzalez testified that Rizzo hired him in 2005 as the director of business development and relations. He said there was no job description but that Rizzo told him his duties included coordinating Bell’s food bank, which operated as a nonprofit and relied on volunteers.
Gonzalez said all of the defendants volunteered at the food bank and he was unaware at the time that anyone was paid for such work.

The significance of this is that former council member Victor Bello was being paid $100,000 a year as “assistant food bank coordinator”.

And Lorenzo Velez:

Velez testified that he didn’t even realize the council position was paid until he received his first paycheck. He said that Rizzo told him the money was a stipend for expenses he might incur. Earlier testimony has revealed that Rizzo instructed the city clerk to prepare Velez’s salary contract to be a fraction of his colleagues’ pay.

Velez is the only council member who hasn’t been charged; his salary was $310 every two weeks.