Warrants Issued for CRA Commissioners

Five Community Redevelopment Agency commissioners who failed to appear at a trial of a man they charged with disrupting a May commission meeting were issued bench warrants Monday, but agency officials said it was all a mistake stemming from an attorney’s illness.

Los Angeles Municipal Court Commissioner Robert Sandoval issued “body attachment” orders for agency Commissioners James Wood, Frank Kuwahara, Dollie Chapman, Daniel Horwitz and the Rev. Thomas Kilgore, who were subpoenaed to testify at the trial of a man who allegedly heckled the commissioners.

Robert Alaniz, director of public affairs for the redevelopment agency, said the city attorney representing the CRA had planned to ask Monday for a continuance, but was stricken with an illness and was not represented by another city attorney, so the trial proceeded.

“The CRA attorney will be there the first thing in the morning to straighten it out,” Alaniz said.

The trial stems from a May 17 meeting when Wood, the commission’s chairman, made a citizen’s arrest of William Hayes and Howard Watts for allegedly disrupting a public meeting.

Transcripts of the meeting show that Watts openly challenged Wood on a number of disputed points concerning the CRA’s controversial plans to build a massive Los Angeles County complex on 1st Street. However, the charges against Watts were dropped, and the CRA pursued Hayes, even though transcripts show Hayes sat quietly through the meeting.

According to the transcript, the only time Hayes spoke was when Wood directed another speaker to use a microphone. “There’s one on the table,” Hayes is quoted as saying.