Compton : College Trustee Charged With Bribery Count
Prosecutors have charged the president of the Compton Community College Board of Trustees with soliciting and accepting a $500 bribe in exchange for his favorable vote at a recent board meeting.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Ed Ferns filed a felony bribery count against Carl E. Robinson Sr. on Friday, eight days after Robinson was arrested by a district attorney’s investigator for allegedly accepting a bribe from a West Covina accountant whose new auditing contract with the college had been ratified unanimously by the trustees March 19.
The accountant, Rolland Boceta, began cooperating with the district attorney after Robinson contacted him several days before the trustees’ vote, Boceta and prosecutors have said.
Robinson, 50, has denied the charge, saying he accepted the $500 as a contribution for his November reelection campaign only after Boceta badgered him into taking it and that he was the entrapped.
Robinson, a longtime civic activist in Compton and Carson, is free on $3,000 bail. Arraignment is set for April 11.
The maximum sentence for soliciting or accepting a bribe is four years in prison, forfeiture of public office and disqualification from public office in the future, Ferns said.
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