Councilman’s Aide Held in Bribe Probe

An aide to Los Angeles City Councilman Nate Holden has been arrested by investigators from the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office on suspicion of soliciting and receiving a bribe, authorities said Thursday.

Coy Sallis, 53, identified by Holden as his assistant field deputy, was arrested Wednesday and released on $3,000 bail, said Al Albergate, a district attorney’s office spokesman.

“No charges have been filed, and we have made no filing decision,” Albergate said. “The investigation is continuing.”

Albergate would disclose no other details of the arrest aside from saying that it took place in Holden’s 10th District.

However, KCBS-TV broadcast that Sallis is suspected of taking a $1,000 bribe from a body shop owner who was working with the district attorney’s office in a “sting” operation.

Sallis told the station that he took money as a loan to help him make an income tax payment.

The station reported that he took the money from the owner of the Carnation Auto Body Shop at 5450 W. Pico Blvd., and that district attorney’s investigators arrested him moments later.

The district attorney’s office had received a complaint about a public employee soliciting a bribe, Albergate said. However, it was not clear what the public employee had allegedly promised to do in return for the money.

Holden had assigned Sallis to investigate complaints his office had received about the shop and other body shops nearby, the station reported. Residents had complained that the shop illegally parked cars and carelessly sprayed paint.

During his successful race for the City Council last year, Holden had pledged to clean up unsightly garages and body shops. The councilman told KCBS that Sallis had used “poor judgment because we’ve been fighting the enemy--the auto body shops--and I’m not going to change.”

Holden said in a press release Thursday that Sallis is on leave without pay “until this matter is resolved.”

Albergate said Holden is not under investigation.