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-Lurid Crime Tales-

Former mayor "too stupid" to know $100,000 salary was illegal, sez lawyer

2013-02-24

Once again the British newspapers bring us what the Democratic-controlled media won't...

The former mayor of Bell, California, was too stupid and uneducated to know his $100,000 salary for the part-time city job was illegal, his lawyer argued today.

Oscar Hernandez

...who is a Democrat, though even the Brit papers force you to play "Name That Party!"...

is illiterate, has no high school degree and didn't even finish elementary school, defense attorney Stanley Friedmand told jurors.

One could crack jokes about him being a perfect Democratic mayor, but I shall endeavor to resist the temptation. This defense is pathetic: even an illiterate person knows money. And an illiterate person knows that 100 large is a lot of money.

Hernandez and five former members of the Bell City Council are on trial, accused of stealing $1.3million in exorbitant pay from the working-class city of 35,000. All six elected officials drew salaries of up to $100,000 for serving on boards that seldom met and accomplished little.

Defense lawyers painted the officials as ignorant pawns of city manager Robert Rizzo and city attorney Edward Lee, who both advised them that massive pay raises were legal.

The officials, of course, never bothered to get a second opinion...

The attorneys for the former officials also blamed the city's financial advisory firm, which never advised the town to pare back the salaries, they say.

Were the advisors in on the scam?

Deputy District Attorney Edward Miller, though, said the officials all had important jobs in the community before their election. Hernandez owned a grocery store.

See? You'd best believe he knew money, even if he didn't know his ABCs...

Former council member Teresa Jacobo was a real estate agent and former councilman George Mirabal had worked as a city clerk.

The officials are accused of appointing each other to boards, some of which met only once a year, in order to skirt public pay laws. In the midst of the recession, the officials were earning $100,000 from the city - three and a half times the median income of the citizens they were elected to represent. The average salary for part-time elected officials at other California cities of similar size was $4,800

Posted by:Pappy

#14 Wow.
The TOO STUPID defense.
Really??

That one makes all other legal defenses look positively brilliant by comparison :-)

Posted by: Raider 2013-02-24 20:29

#13 I know its obscene, but was it actually illegal?
They can change the law, but unless it was illegal at the time I don't see why this is even being prosecuted?
Gross injustice to the taxpayers, definitely.
Illegal???

Posted by: bigjim-CA 2013-02-24 19:50

#12 ..not to mention real supply and demand vs manufactured paper speculation.

Posted by: Procopius2k 2013-02-24 18:11

#11 I bet there are a lot of drug dealers who know money are illiterate and know money better better than most on wall street

Posted by: chris 2013-02-24 17:22

#10 Ignorance of the law is no an excuse?

Wiki; In July 2010, two Los Angeles Times reporters, Jeff Gottlieb and Ruben Vives, wrote an investigative journalism article on possible malfeasance in the neighboring city of Maywood, California. In their exposé, they revealed that the city officials of Bell (a small blue collar community) were receiving salaries that were reported as the highest in the nation. Subsequent investigations found atypically high property tax rates, allegations of voter fraud in municipal elections and other irregularities which heightened the ensuing scandal. These and other reports led to widespread criticism and a demand for city officials to resign.

There are still a few real reporters and news types instead of puppets and parrots.

Posted by: JohnQC 2013-02-24 14:48

#9 This...city council...do they:
Have access to the checkbook, and able to sign their own checks?
Able to figure in their withholding and other tax liabilities?
Many municiples have a balance system where any check over a certain amount must be reviewed by the county/city attorney, what is the balance system here?

Posted by: swksvolFF 2013-02-24 11:15

#8 Bell became a charter city in about 2005 when a referendum passed mostly on absentee ballots, some of which were pretty sketchy (because very few people voted). Hernandez became mayor in about 2007-2008 and then also in about 2010. The voters overwhelmingly backed a recall in 2011 which removed some of the nefarious folk from office (including Hernandez).

Posted by: lord garth 2013-02-24 09:47

#7 Too illiterate to know the difference between 10 cents and 10 dollars? Too illiterate to punch in the numbers on a phone? Too illiterate to read traffic signs? Too illiterate to even pass a driving test? /rhet question.

How stupid is your councilmen? So stupid that....

Posted by: Procopius2k 2013-02-24 08:45

#6 Doesn't say much for that "working-class city of 35,000" who put him in office, but then again, look what we have in the White House.

Posted by: Besoeker 2013-02-24 07:03

#5 Give the lawyer half a break. He's playing the hand he's got.

Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2013-02-24 06:58

#4 Who gets to hire these folks as 'advisors' first, Obama or Illinois?

Posted by: Griter Crart8496 2013-02-24 01:36

#3 And the lawyer's too stupid to know a losing ploy.

Bad Lawyer, no fee for you.

Posted by: Redneck Jim 2013-02-24 01:20

#2 Were the advisors in on the scam?

Probably, make ALL pay the cash back, no bankruptcy permitted.

Posted by: Redneck Jim 2013-02-24 01:18

#1 "Oscar Hernandez is illiterate, has no high school degree and didn't even finish elementary school"

So he was illiterate; was he innumerate too?

Posted by: Barbara 2013-02-24 00:26

00:00