COSTA MESA : Jury Finds Drug Sale to Be Entrapment
A jury found a former Los Angeles Times employee not guilty Tuesday of selling cocaine during an undercover investigation two years ago in which 20 of the newspaper’s employees in Costa Mesa were arrested and later fired.
Donald Rivadeneyra, 32, of Whittier, a 12-year employee, was arrested after selling half an ounce of cocaine to an undercover police agent for $400. The jury, however, found that the sale amounted to entrapment.
Rivadeneyra was the third employee found not guilty. Five other defendants still face trial and the others have either plea-bargained or pleaded guilty.
Milton C. Grimes, Rivadeneyra’s attorney, said after the acquittal that his client “was entrapped, he was cajoled, just like the others. None of them should have ever been fired.”
Grimes represents 12 of the 20 defendants.
Rivadeneyra was arrested Jan. 18, 1989, the last of the 20 in the undercover investigation. Had he been convicted, he would have faced a minimum of six months in jail.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
