Adelanto may mean "progress" in Spanish, but many say this scruffy high desert community -- founded in 1915 by the inventor of the Hotpoint Electric Iron -- is perpetually stuck in a quagmire of corruption and scandal.

Recent accusations of animal cruelty against Kevin Murphy, head of the city's animal control department, have once again fueled notions of a Wild West town operating on the fringes of the law.

Murphy, 36, was charged last week with drowning more than 50 kittens in cages over a four-month period last year. He faces six years in prison if convicted and has been placed on paid leave pending his May 19 arraignment. Fellow animal control officer Patrick Cornell is also on leave but hasn't been charged.

"I have a hunch they were newborn kittens, not cats picked up on the street," former Mayor Mary Scarpa said, quickly adding: "Not that it makes it OK, of course."

Scarpa, 81, is part of Adelanto's old guard. She was mayor in 1997 and knows Murphy personally.

"We haven't had as many problems as the newspapers say we do," she said, relaxing at the town's senior center recently. "We are a growing city, and that sent some people over the edge. I think it's a very unfair charge to say the town is corrupt."

Perhaps. But the town's past is, to say the least, checkered.

Jim Nehmens and his wife were arrested last year and charged with embezzling $20,000 from the local Little League fireworks sale. Nehmens, a former Little League president, denies the charges and has kept his post as Adelanto's mayor after being released on bail.

"It's still just allegations. He hasn't been through the system yet," City Manager James Hart said. "It has nothing to do with the city. Adelanto has no problem with the mayor. Not once, not once since he was charged has a member of the public asked him to step down."

Hart said the city's growth has brought in those who appreciate "good government." "I tell people we have entered a new era," he said.

Nehmens did not respond to numerous calls seeking comment.

He's not the first local official to get into trouble.

Tom Thornburg was appointed mayor in 1994 despite having served a year in prison on federal drug smuggling charges.

Former Police Chief Philip Genaway was sentenced to four years in prison in 1997 for stealing $10,000 from the department's canine unit. Two other officers were jailed for beating a handcuffed suspect and forcing another to lick his blood from the floor. Another officer was convicted of child molestation.

In 1996, the mayor and two council members were recalled after promoting a gold-mining operation in town that would have used deadly cyanide in the leaching process. Cuban-born Zoila Meyer, a City Council member, resigned last year because she wasn't an American citizen. She pleaded no contest to voter fraud.

When Tristan Pelayes became mayor in 2000, he said several council members pulled him into a room and told him that although he was the mayor, they ran the town.

"I was highly offended by that," said Pelayes, a lawyer and former San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy. "I thought at first it was a normal city, but then I realized I got a corrupt council and a corrupt Police Department. Once I began learning more about the town, I was amazed. The first thing I did was disband the Police Department."

It was an ugly fight, and Pelayes said he was targeted with death threats and recall petitions. One police officer, he said, tailed him around town.

Scarpa opposed getting rid of the police.

"I think our old police force did an adequate job," she said. "We didn't have any problems. Well, we had some problems, but not many."